Festive fillip for on-trade

Festive celebrations saw like-for-like sales at 27 of the UK's pub and bar groups up 3.3% on last year, with experts predicting strong first quarter sales for 2014.

Australian Vintage boss predicts strong 2014

Younger consumers key to exploring French wines' diversity

Younger consumers are vital to drive sales of lesser-known French wines, said experts at the French Wine Discovery Tasting.

Australia's 2014 vintage gets underway

Alliance Wine fed up with navel-gazing wine trade

Alliance Wine is fed up with the wine trade's "self flagellation" and is intent on injecting fun back into the industry with a host of tastings themed around food.

Dirty Bones brings premium hot dog dining to London's Kensington

The premium hot dog craze that hit the streets of London in 2013 looks set to continue into 2014 with the opening today of Dirty Bones in Kensington that offers street food with a difference - a "secret" restaurant inside offering high quality cocktails and wines to accompany a traditional hot dog stand during the day.

How to open wine with a shoe video hits over 3 million viewers

Tapping into taste preferences will soon change wine buying, says Justin Howard-Sneyd

Boodles Gin hits the UK with multiple and premium on-trade listings

Wine's winners and losers in 2013 and prospects for 2014

The wine regions of the world closed out 2013 with some clear winners like South Africa, which reported record exports, and New Zealand, which just entered into a new trade agreement with Taiwan. But countries including Argentina and Australia faced big challenges. We take a look at how the world's major wine regions fared in 2013 and look at their prospects for 2014.

Wine's winners and losers in 2013 and predictions for 2014

Countdown to SITT Spring 2014

Independents looking to seek out the latest wine gems are gearing up for the spring Specialist Importers Trade Tastings, which get underway on February 24 in Manchester and February 26 in London.

Chris Porter to visit all 91 football league grounds to raise money for The Benevolent

Chris Porter, chairman of the drinks charity, The Benevolent, is to set out on a fundraising attempt to visit all 91 football league league by using a combination of train, tram and bike.

HMRC launches official protection scheme for Spirits in the UK

In order to better protect Spirits in the European Union, the Spirit Drinks Verification Scheme has been launched beginning with Scotch Whisky on January 10, 2014, in order to protect different Spirits from fraudulent and sub-standard products that are made in the UK.

Beam bought by Japan's Suntory for £9.7 billion

Bumper South African harvest sees wine exports to UK up 21%

Windsor 2014 event to launch with average wine buyer budget of £2.2 million

A growing number of prominent wine buyers and producers are set to participate in The Wine Buyers' Forum, Windsor 2014, the first of a new kind of event, organised by the publishers of Harpers.

Aperol teams up with Manchester United

Richard Siddle: how we can all play our part and Call Time on Duty

Come the end of the second week of January you have probably had your fill of end of year reviews and predictions for 2014. But if you have not already can I urge you to check out the series of 2 Good, 2 Bad memories for 2013 and 2 Hopes and Fears we ran from a number of key trade figures on Harpers.co.uk during the festive period (see related articles).

Rolling update: wine sales soar at the Co-operative over Christmas