I like to consider myself an open minded, flexible kind of guy. But when I ran businesses I could sense the shutters coming down every time we had a management discussion about how much to spend on marketing.
Read more...
Jason Millar flags the joy of the unknown in a post-varietal world.
Read more...
With a new shop opening at Vineyard Cellars, Joe Rubin-Broad is adding yet more strings to his bow.
Read more...
At first sight, it looked like a PR disaster. Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was filmed falling off a paddleboard into Lake Windermere five times. He’s a middle-aged bloke with a paunch and no sense of balance. Politicians do all sorts of silly things by mistake – members of the public can ambush them too – but Sir Ed’s aquatic pratfall was deliberate. He’s done a number of similar things campaigning for July’s general election.
Read more...
Tony Edwards decries the ‘relentless official demonisation of alcohol’, which is at odds with much medical evidence.
Read more...
Andrew Catchpole asks Pablo Vega Puyol, people & sustainability manager at Morandé Wine Group, why waste management is important and how smaller producers can best implement their own programme.
Read more...
Campania icon Feudi di San Gregorio’s old vine project has landed the 2024 Old Vine Hero Award for Research. Jason Millar catches up with the estate’s president to find out more.
Every Monday an email newsletter entitled “Ten things you didn’t know last week” drops into my inbox. It comes from leadership development consultancy TEN led by William Montgomery, a former naval officer and head of strategic change at Lloyds TSB. The newsletter reveals pertinent facts reported in the media about recent societal trends, providing bite sized topical insights into the world in which we do business.
Read more...
Jason Millar focuses on the Calabrian DOC, highlighting the recent Cirò Revolution tasting in London.
With quality canned wines firmly on the rise, Andrew Catchpole visits one of the most innovative in the business.
Read more...
It has, I admit, taken me rather a long time to take 0% alcohol wines seriously. I’ve long been sceptical about their quality. But I’ve finally got my head around their importance. Why? Because I’ve managed to navigate that key stumbling block that trips up many a middle-aged man – the fact that I am not the target market.
Read more...
Andrew Catchpole argues that the trade needs to take a firmer stance against the growing anti-alcohol lobby.
Read more...
On trend Londoners or visitors to the capital may be lucky enough to experience the culinary and vinous delights of a Noble Rot restaurant, of which there are now three. They were birthed from the eponymous Noble Rot Magazine, a pandoras box of wine and food articles that somehow manages to be smoothly accessible, irreverently funny, and slightly nerdy at the same time.
Read more...
Andrew Catchpole catches up with an ex-Wines of Argentina marketing director now launching his own mezcal to the UK, Zacal.
Read more...
This leading producer, with labels spanning Chile and Argentina, has been harnessing innovation and sustainability to drive forward its already premium positioning in South America’s wine world. Andrew Catchpole discovers more with Jaime de la Barra, winegrowing director at Santa Rita Estates.
Read more...
Jo Gilbert quizzes UK importers on the burning questions surrounding Chile and Argentina.
Read more...
When I first visited Lisbon in 2014, I was able to get an Airbnb in Bairro Alto for €20 a night and there was only one cool wine spot in town. Now there’s an official Wines of Portugal tasting room on the waterfront, a decade of tourism has transformed the country and contemporary wine bars are as easy to find as bacalhau.
Read more...
Mark Lansley, CEO at Broadland Drinks, argues that concentrates can be good for carbon, cost and consumer choice and thus, ultimately, the wine trade.
Read more...
Fells’ new MD catches up with Jo Gilbert on the company’s past, present and future, including its secret weapon.
As one of the longest-standing agent importers in the UK, Fells has a history that is almost very nearly unique. Like Mentzendorff, its biggest competitor, Fells happens to have been founded in 1858, before going on to represent the interests of a leading Port house.
Prompted by a brilliant series on The Rest Is History podcast, I’ve been reading Richard Davenport-Hines’ Titanic Lives. It’s a fascinating tale of class, wealth, emigration and, of course, hubris. “The boat is unsinkable,” declared Philip Franklin, vice-president of White Star Line, the ill-fated ship’s owner, on the very night of the tragedy.
Read more...
