VIDEO: Weekend hailstorms ravage parts of France and Italy

Over the past few days severe weather has ravaged wine regions across France and Italy and it is expected to have devastating effects on the 2016 harvest.

ICCWS: New technological trends impacting wine marketing

Bottlebooks' Jonathan Harclerode joined a panel of e-business wine experts at the ICCWS last week to discuss how to make collecting and sharing wine data more efficient.

"Watertight paper trail" only way to ensure provenance at auction

A UK auctioneer is stressing the importance of having watertight paperwork to prevent wine fraud following speculation that top Burgundy lots offered by a Swiss auction house were counterfeit.

Kantar Worldpanel: Premiumisation with discounters own-label products drive growth

Retailers are no longer losing customers to discounters, but they are continuing to lose spend to the competition due to the increase in shoppers' consumption of the discounters premium own-label offerings.

ICCWS: Cool climate wine gaining ground

Speaking at the Cool Climate Symposium (ICCWS) in Brighton last week, Oz Clarke said cool climate wines such as English and Welsh wines, could be the perfect antidote to the big, overripe wines.

ICCWS moving to Canada after UK event

Canada has been announced as the successor to England as the next host of the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium.

Wolf Blass signs multi-year partnership with Manchester City FC in Asia

Treasury Wine Estates' Wolf Blass brand has signed a multi-year partnership deal to be the official wine partner of the Manchester City Football Club for Asia, Middle East, Africa and Mexico.

Promotion for UK indies to drive Provence rosé growth

Vins de Provence is launching a necktag promotion to support sales and drive awareness of Provence rosé wines in UK indies.

Sales of English wine up 13% at Waitrose

Sales at Waitrose show that UK consumers are continuing to invest in home-grown wines, with sales increasingly year-by-year.

Size doesn't matter, says co-founder of new multi-million pound "mega" distillery

The co-founder of Portobello Road Gin has revealed that building a 'super-distillery' was never the intention behind plans to build a four-storey gin destination in the heart of Notting Hill.

Importer profile: Red Squirrel

Since 2012, London-based importer Red Squirrel has been focusing on "squirrelling" out new and rare wines to bring to the UK market.

The Drinks Wholesaler: Intriguing Times

Welcome to our autumn issue of Drinks Wholesaler, which is packed with the usual medley of analysis, insights, viewpoints and features, plus original research into the wine market, commissioned and shared by Crown Cellars, appearing for the first time here. 

Top ten tweets from National Wine Day

International Cool Climate Wine Symposium: Cool viticulture the hot topic in Brighton

As the 9^th International Cool Climate Wine Symposium opened its doors in Brighton yesterday, a 30-country strong delegation of 600 producers, exhibitors, marketers and communicators descended on the seaside town for a three day event dedicated to examining all aspects of making and marketing fine wine from cool climates

Whiskey, rum and vodka triumph against the odds to beat gin in consumer poll

Vodka, whiskey and rum have dominated a campaign to find the nation's favourite craft spirits - despite gin making up 80% of the entries.

Wine range strategy for M&S focuses on sub £10 range

Garry Brooking, trading manager for Marks & Spencer, and his team of buyers and wine selectors were on celebratory form at the M&S Spring Press Tasting last week, having just knocked Tesco off the top spot for the most own brand medal wins in this year's International Wine Challenge.

The Week That Was: Top news, Q&As and analysis on Harpers.co.uk

In case you missed some of the headlines this week on harpers.co.uk, we have done a review of the top online news, financial news for the drinks trade, Q&As, and opinion stories.

Report: Brands need to adapt to changing behaviours of early adopters

Drinks brands are missing out on reaching early adopters to products in the on-trade, a new study has suggested.

Nyetimber at LWW: Consumers open to wine like never before

This week is London Wine Week (LWW) when punters can sample some of the best wine that the capital has to offer.

London and Glasgow leading the way for UK employment growth

The UK wine and spirits industry has seen employee numbers grow by 1.7 per cent in the last year, with Glasgow and London leading the way in terms of contributions to UK talent.