People & Opinion - Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Joe Fattorini: Zoom Rhetorica

Published: 29 June, 2020

Aristotle would have been great on a Zoom call. And he’d have spent the last few months bickering his wine merchant for old wooden cases too.

Waking up to the whiteness of the trade

Published: 25 June, 2020

I was invited to write this blog following an email I sent Harper’s editor Andrew Catchpole expressing my disappointment over the magazine’s silence on race and diversity in the UK wine industry in light of the global Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd.

Q&A: Des Gunewardena chairman and chief executive, D&D London

Published: 23 June, 2020

After bumping up its US expansion via a new 11,000 sq ft bar, restaurant and cafe concept in New York’s new Hudson Yards shopping mall, hospitality group D&D has had much to keep it on its toes over the past 18 months. Jo Gilbert catches up with its chairman and chief executive about fighting Covid-19 on either side of the Atlantic.

Joe Fattorini: Sell the sizzle

Published: 16 June, 2020

“Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle” is one of the great maxims of copywriting, but it leaves a bitter taste today for those of us involved in the on-trade. We’re not selling steaks, or sizzle.

Soapbox: Stephen Finch on the 2 metre barrier to trade

Published: 08 June, 2020

Asking for rational trade-offs, Vagabond’s Stephen Finch voices the on-trade’s concern over the economic impact of shut-down and the 2 metre distancing rule.

Guy Woodward: Hawking luxury during a pandemic

Published: 05 June, 2020

Around the world, many governments have excelled in recent months, quickly imposing rigorous, e ective measures, and pu ing to one side economic and ideological concerns for the greater good. Others, by contrast, have focused on massaging the facts to suit their narrative and clinging to a preconceived agenda in the face of a gathering storm.

Sturges steps down from Jeroboams

Published: 02 June, 2020

London wine merchant Jeroboams is to have a new chief executive, with encumbent Hugh Sturges leaving the role at the end of June.

Q&A: Eduardo Alemparte, Viña Santa Rita

Published: 02 June, 2020

Just ahead of handing over the reins as director of viniviticulture to Jaime de la Barra at the historical Maipo estate Viña Santa Rita, Eduardo Alemparte explained the allure of a benchmark Chilean region.

New senior appointments at Santa Rita

Published: 01 June, 2020

Leading Chilean and Argentinian wine producer Santa Rita Estates has reshuffled its senior management team.

Jerry Lockspeiser: When the only certainty is uncertainty

Published: 28 May, 2020

As I sat down to write this piece my phone rang. It was Nick, a winemaker and one of my oldest friends. We have been close since the early 1990s when he gambled his career on joining my incipient wine business. Its subsequent success was in no small part down to him.

Joe Fattorini: Branching out with bright ideas

Published: 26 May, 2020

Have you been on more video-conferencing calls than usual? Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, even venerable Skype – all seem to have found their moment. We can understand why now, but why not before? The marketer Rory Sutherland once suggested video conferencing never took off because it was “the poor man’s business travel”, not “the rich man’s phone call”. But lockdown life forces us to reframe our view of video conferencing. Today it’s everyone’s business travel. Today everyone sees its value.

Q&A: Rowena Curlewis, CEO & co-founder, Denomination

Published: 21 May, 2020

Designer Rowena Curlewis talks trends and packaging design in a post-pandemic world. Andrew Catchpole tunes in.

Soapbox: Doug Wregg talks natural beauty

Published: 19 May, 2020

Doug Wregg considers prejudice, provenance and ideology in a spoofy wine world.

Q&A: Bruce Jack, The Drift Estate, Bruce Jack Wines, La Bascula

Published: 12 May, 2020

Andrew Catchpole catches up with the irrepressible Bruce Jack for the lowdown on life during the Covid crisis and publishing his own magazine.

Tim Atkin MW: A taste of things to come?

Published: 07 May, 2020

Everyone seems to have advice about how to get through lockdown. Even if we’re all still sitting here in December, our diaries emptier than your local Wetherspoons, I can’t imagine the well-meaning guidance changing much. Eat healthily, exercise, take up a new hobby, read a book, tidy your cupboards, call your friends and family, order food online.

McKeon parts with Accolade

Published: 04 May, 2020

Accolade Wines has confirmed that Ade McKeon, the company’s regional MD for Europe, will be leaving the company.

Joe Fattorini: Together we can change the world

Published: 27 April, 2020

“By May 1966, the plan to dam the Grand Canyon was all but enshrined in law. The bulldozers were already shattering the primordial peace, the scaffolding was up and the drilling had begun.” As one campaigner said: “The fight was lost. The dams had been approved. They were being supported by the Kennedy administration … and both houses of Congress.” His voice tinged with a despondency many of us have come to know in the past few weeks.

Jerry Lockspeiser: The Covid experience - does diversification deliver business resilience?

Published: 22 April, 2020

One of the pleasures of writing an opinion piece for Harpers is keeping abreast of business issues. This comes partly through experience and discussion, partly through reading what others are writing.

Q&A: Etienne Debanné, president, & Gabriel Rivero, winemaker, IXSIR

Published: 16 April, 2020

Swapping lunch in London for a live link to Lebanon, Andrew Catchpole catches up with a rising Middle Eastern star.

Q&A: Christopher Lecoufle, general manager and head sommelier, Les 110 de Taillevent

Published: 14 April, 2020

Jo Gilbert speaks to the UK face of French restaurant group Taillevent about taking the decision to close its doors prior to the official lockdown, and what that means for the future