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Jerry Lockspeiser: Are we getting the most from our marketing spend?

Published:  24 June, 2024

I like to consider myself an open minded, flexible kind of guy. But when I ran businesses I could sense the shutters coming down every time we had a management discussion about how much to spend on marketing.

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H&K Wine Agencies to land Palestine wine

Published:  17 June, 2024

New UK-based wine agency business H&K Wine Agencies is set to represent Cremisan Winery as its broker in the UK in what is believed to currently be the only Palestine producer to be offered here from the Middle-Eastern territories.

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Tim Akin MW: Playing for laughs

Published:  13 June, 2024

At first sight, it looked like a PR disaster. Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was filmed falling off a paddleboard into Lake Windermere five times. He’s a middle-aged bloke with a paunch and no sense of balance. Politicians do all sorts of silly things by mistake – members of the public can ambush them too – but Sir Ed’s aquatic pratfall was deliberate. He’s done a number of similar things campaigning for July’s general election.

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‘Moderate recovery’ predicted for global alcohol market in 2025

Published:  06 June, 2024

Following a decline in global beverage alcohol sales in 2023 and tough trading conditions so far in 2024, IWSR has predicted a gradual recovery from 2025.

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Yapp hops county for new home

Published:  31 May, 2024

Yapp Brothers is to leave it’s Wiltshire HQ this month for new premises in Somerset, marking a milestone in the company’s 55-year history,

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Roussillon ‘Coup de Coeur’ dozen unveiled

Published:  02 May, 2024

Roussillon may be a tenth the size of its sprawling Languedoc neighbour, but this diverse corner of France has increasingly been pushing its own credentials as a vibrant and innovative source of wines.

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Jerry Lockspeiser: Could this be the next big trend in wine?

Published:  30 April, 2024

On trend Londoners or visitors to the capital may be lucky enough to experience the culinary and vinous delights of a Noble Rot restaurant, of which there are now three. They were birthed from the eponymous Noble Rot Magazine, a pandoras box of wine and food articles that somehow manages to be smoothly accessible, irreverently funny, and slightly nerdy at the same time.

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Bierzo producer launches campaign to save old vines

Published:  29 April, 2024

For star Spanish producer Raul Perez, who’s done much to put Bierzo on the map of wine, the key to production has always been the use of field blends of old vines, bringing depth and consistency to wines.

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Collaborative female dozen launch The CollectEve

Published:  15 April, 2024

A group of 12 female-led wine importers have come together to form a collaborative group dedicated to ‘excellence and inclusivity and innovation’ in the wine industry.

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Soapbox: The case for concentrate

Published:  11 April, 2024

Mark Lansley, CEO at Broadland Drinks, argues that concentrates can be good for carbon, cost and consumer choice and thus, ultimately, the wine trade.

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Jerry Lockspeiser: Why the government doesn’t understand entrepreneurs

Published:  26 March, 2024

Someone once told me that you know what your ideal job is when you enjoy it so much, are so motivated to get up and crack on every morning, that you’d do it even if you weren’t paid. That’s perhaps a bit unrealistic for most people whose primary motivation is to earn money to live, but the point is clear. It helps a lot if you love what you do.

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WSTA takes aim at Gareth Davies on duty

Published:  26 March, 2024

The government is using public health arguments as a “thin veneer to maintain market distortions” Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, has said in a rebuttal of the claims made by Gareth Davies at the Westminster Hall debate earlier this month.

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Julian Momen on ‘re-focusing’ Enotria

Published:  28 February, 2024

Enotria & Coe’s new CEO has spent the months since his inauguration working on honing a back-to-basics approach while refocusing parts of the business which “felt a bit unstructured”.

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Friday read: Furmint February in the spotlight

Published:  23 February, 2024

With its endless grey skies and pervading gloom, February doesn’t offer much to raise the spirits, but wine lovers can now at least associate the month with Hungary’s best-known grape. Furmint February was launched here six years ago by Wines of Hungary UK to promote awareness and consumption of the variety once best known for sweet Tokaji (Aszu), but now appearing in elegant dry wines from the variety’s native Tokaj region, with its rich volcanic soil, but increasingly across Hungary, including in Somlo and Eger.

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Jerry Lockspeiser: Should business get involved in politics? Like it or not, we already are

Published:  22 February, 2024

Back in the good old days when my life involved selling millions of bottles of Hungarian wine to the UK’s major retailers, I made an appointment with the buyer at Sainsbury’s. They bought from one of our competitors and were proving a hard nut for me to crack. Buyers often kept suppliers waiting beyond the appointed time, so I settled down with my copy of The Guardian in anticipation.

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Soapbox: Importer labelling by stealth

Published:  20 February, 2024

Miles Corish MW, MD of Milestone Wines, takes issue with ‘a classic case of smoke and mirrors’.

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Buyer’s Spotlight with Jason Millar: Burgundy 2022

Published:  15 February, 2024

Dipping into the Burgundy tasting season, Jason Millar says there is value to be found.

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White hot: Demand for fizz pushes white production to its highest ever level

Published:  14 February, 2024

Global red wine supply and demand have significantly decreased in the last twenty years, while white wine has picked up the slack (along with rosé), largely due to the boom in sparkling wine in markets like the UK.

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Profile: Hallgarten's new future with Coterie Holdings

Published:  13 February, 2024

From five years of “looking into the abyss”, Hallgarten’s future has been assured by a serious, if somewhat mysterious, new player in the form of Coterie Holdings. Jo Gilbert caught up with Andrew Bewes, MD of the former, and Michael Saunders, CEO of the latter, to peer beneath the surface of this major new deal.

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Tim Atkin MW: The problem with misplaced reverence and hallowed wines

Published:  09 February, 2024

It was a scary moment, at least in wine terms. There I was in the cellar at Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée, tasting some of the most expensive reds on the planet. Meetings with Madame Bize are never relaxing. She combines hauteur with the ability to freeze a glass of Pinot Noir at 10 paces. People who have earned her displeasure are never granted access to her presence again.

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