Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

New NZ boss: We can be the premium New World region

Published: 23 July, 2008

The new head of New Zealand Winegrowers (NZWG) believes that New Zealand can be the premium New World wine region for the UK'.

Harpers Alcohol Survey

Published: 23 July, 2008

To do this we need your help. Harpers is offering two free subscriptions, worth 145 each, to UK readers, selected at random, who answer the following questionnaire. Pull out these centre pages, fill in the blanks and return them to:
Trade Questionnaire, Harpers, Media House,
Azalea Drive, Swanley, Kent BR8 8HU.
If you wish to be entered into the prize draw, please print out these pages and fill in your name and details in the space provided at the bottom of the page. To guarantee your confidentiality, the name will be removed and placed into the draw by a member of staff not connected to the wine trade BEFORE the questionnaire is passed on to the Harpers editorial team.

Deadline: 1 September 2005

Balnaves wins wine award

Published: 23 July, 2008

The winemaker at top Coonawarra estate Balnaves, Pete Bissel, has won the Qantas/Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year Award.

Read takes over at Villa Maria UK

Published: 23 July, 2008

Villa Maria has announced that Charlotte Read is to be its new European wine manager.

When takeovers raise value

Published: 23 July, 2008

Many studies have revealed that takeovers destroy value for the shareholders of the purchasing company. The mooted savings through rationalisation and size rarely deliver the benefits promised by the acquiring directors and their highly rewarded City advisers.

From Douro drought to glut

Published: 23 July, 2008

The Port trade is suffering at both ends of the river Douro.

Tim JohnstonJuveniles Wine Bar, Paris, France

Published: 23 July, 2008

Tim Johnston was educated
at a very second-rate public school, from which I escaped aged 17'. He worked for Findlaters for a few months, before eight months in slavery' at Chteau Cantenac-Brown.
He apprenticed with Hedges & Butler, and in 1969 he moved to France, where he has been involved with several wine bars, including Willi's and Juveniles with Mark Williamson, The Blue Fox with Steven Spurrier, and Tournon in Bordeaux with Alex Herbage. He has written for Wine International, Wine Spectator and Saveur. He has vinified in France (Bordeaux, Hermitage and Provence), America (Chateau Montelena, Jordan Winery and Bill Wheeler's winery on Dry Creek Road) and Australia (Cullen). Juveniles sells wine for off- as well as on-premise consumption, and Johnston is available to source French wines.

Dunn manages Chile's Via Valdivieso

Published: 23 July, 2008

Connect Wine, the new business venture set up by former International Wine Services commercial director Paul Dunn, has signed up the Chilean winery Via Valdivieso as a client.

M-erlot C-abernet C-armenre

Published: 23 July, 2008

Wines of Chile
Annual Trade Tasting

Lord's Cricket Ground
London NW8

Tuesday 13 September

10.30am-5pm

Majestic Burgundy parcel

Published: 23 July, 2008

Majestic wine has secured a stunning' 36,000-bottle parcel of red and white Burgundies from the 1997 to 2000 vintages.

Liberty Wines takes Grosset

Published: 23 July, 2008

Liberty Wines has taken over the distribution of famed Clare Valley producer Jeffrey Grosset.

Message of a bottle

Published: 23 July, 2008

Do you know how glass is made? Sorry? Yes, it's got sand in it. Anything else? No? A straw poll among the Harpers team certainly showed up our manufacturing ignorance, but many people seem to take for granted the vessel that protects and contains the precious liquid that we spend most of our time writing about. If you'd like a full breakdown of what goes into glass, rather than what goes inside it, then see below. In a nutshell, it's a mixture of sand, limestone and soda ash.

New Alliance for branded Burgundy

Published: 23 July, 2008

A new Beaune-based ngociant, La Nouvelle Alliance/The New Alliance (LNA), has been founded by partners on opposite sides of The Channel with the aim of bridging the gap between small Burgundy growers and traditional ngociants'.

The Interview: Paul Henderson, Director, Gidleigh Park Hotel, Chagford, Devon

Published: 23 July, 2008

How did you end up running a hotel in the middle of Devon?

Pernod deal for Allied completed

Published: 23 July, 2008

Three months after the Allied Domecq's board decided to recommend Pernod Ricard's bid for the company, the UK's second-largest drinks company now belongs to its French rival.

Sales of single malts soar

Published: 23 July, 2008

The amount of malt whisky drunk in the UK in 2004 is 10% up on 2003 levels - and the consumer is trading up, too.

South African auction wines come to the UK

Published: 23 July, 2008

Leading South African winemakers Gary Jordan (Jordan Winery) and Niels Verburg (Luddite) will be visiting London in September to present the wines on offer at this year's Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction.