Sainsbury's beer, wines and spirits department has a new boss, Xavier Vidal, who has been poached from Tesco.
Frenchman Vidal comes in as business unit director, replacing Lawrence Clube, and will be responsible for the 6 billion impulse sector, which includes confectionery, soft drinks, snacks, tobacco and petrol, as well as BWS.
Chef-and-wine-waiter duo Craig Sandle and James O'Donnell, from the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, won the Copa Jerez on 20 February - the live cook-off and Sherry-pairing contest.
They will now go forward to the Sherry World Cup', or International Copa Jerez, to compete against teams from other key Sherry markets, including the US, Spain and Germany, and to be judged by Spain's top chef, Ferran Adria.
Second place went to James Lui and Debbie Thornton from the British Army Culinary Arts Team, Hampshire, followed in third by Matt Simon and Darren Stanford of Avenance, London's Deutschebank restaurant.
As an objective framework to a paper that necessarily has a large degree of subjective arguments and judgements, I decided I would start with an analysis of the trophy results for the last six Sydney Royal Wine Shows (from 2000 to 2005 inclusive). I looked at the varietal mix, the regional mix and the winemaker mix - the first two simple enough; the last requiring some preliminary explanation. So I will start with the winemakers. The primary division was between large, medium and small. I could give you a winery-by-winery classification,
but - while some of you might disagree - the majority wouldn't.
The Musgrave Group, Ireland's largest grocery distributor,
is close to completing the complete integration of the
beer, wines and spirits operations of its Budgens and Londis
retail outlets.
The Langton's Classification of Australian Wine, which has recently been published in its fourth edition, has grown to be three times longer than the original 1991 version but will
be fixed at its present total of 101 wines, Langton's auctioneer Andrew Caillard MW has told Harpers.
With most of the multiple retailer's wine-buying teams shrinking if not yet completely disbanding (see Harpers,
16 September), Tesco's wine-buying team appears to have returned to full strength after a difficult period.
Consumer education, not heavy discounting, is the key to increasing Port sales in the UK, according to the brand manager for Cockburn's Port.
Read more...Emma Nichols has replaced Lynne Coyle as head of buying at Oddbins.
After years of uninterrupted growth, the on-trade wine sector has slipped into decline. The latest figures from AC Nielsen (December/January bi-months) show that the volume of wine drunk in the UK's pubs, bars, hotels and restaurants has fallen by 6% in the past year (MAT to the end of January).
Read more...When Harpers first made its own headlines, in August 1878, Benjamin Disraeli was Prime Minister, Edison had begun experimenting with the light bulb and the battle of Rorke's Drift was five months away. Joanne Simon looks back at the evolution of the magazine and the wine trade during Harpers' first 125 years.
Read more...The Fifth International Symposium of the Institute of Masters of Wine was held in Vienna between 11-13 July. Neil Beckett presents the first in a two-part report on an event which saw prominent critics and producers debate the nature and desirability of changes sweeping through the world of wine
Read more...Distributors are seeking to give rum an edge in the spirits market through innovative promotions and a greater range of flavours, but are supermarkets ready to vary their options? James Aufenast reports on the campaign to reposition rum
Read more...No-one has a post-prandial drink any more. Oh really? asks James Aufenast
Read more...
