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The week that was

Top stories: Plenty of company news, moves and agency action this week, with Copestick Murray’s acquisition of Free Run Wines topping the bill, while Off-Piste Wines announced a management reshuffle.

Meanwhile, Berry Bros & Rudd upped its stake in Anchor Distilling Company, Berkmann strengthened its North American portfolio and Boutinot embraced Hungarian wines for the first time.

Staying with a global theme, the WSET appointed its first dedicated team in the US, in line with its growing reach across The Pond, and the Kingsland buying team spoke exclusively with Harpers about the game changing impact of the 2017 vintage shortfall.

Closer to home, The Benevolent raised a fantastic £25,500 via its recent online silent auction, and news that the new M Wine Bar has unveiled a 120 wine by-the-glass offer – a record for a publicly accessible London restaurant – became our surprise best read story of the week.

    • New M Wine Bar ups stakes in London's wine by the glass offer

    • The Benevolent raises £25,500 via online silent auction

    • Copestick Murray acquires Free Run Wines

    • Berry Bros & Rudd ups stake in Anchor Distilling Company

    • WSET appoints first dedicated on-territory US team

    • Berkmann Wine Cellars boosts North American portfolio

    • Southern Comfort seasonal campaign goes back to its roots

    • Boutinot makes first foray into Hungarian wine

    • Off-Piste Wines reshuffles management team

    • Global shortfall to deliver “unprecedented” impact, says Kingsland

Analysis and Insights: In our analysis pages we ran an insights piece examining how best to mitigate or reduce the impact of currency in the face of the ongoing slump in Sterling, while a feature on the pros and cons of importing direct as smaller business continued to feature highly among our most read articles.

Elsewhere, following up on the London launch of the new high quality Cava de Paraje designation, we looked at its potential impact and place in raising the bar for Spain’s popular but undervalued sparkling wine.

    • Crunching currency

    • Finding the place of Cava de Paraje

    • The pros and cons of importing direct

People and Opinion: Our popular Meet the Buyer series continued, with The Vineyard Cellars’ buyer James Hocking in the spotlight, while regular Harpers columnist Tim Atkin mused on wine’s integrity as a true luxury product following a serendipitous £2000 find in his cellar.

    • Tim Atkin MW: Wine's luxury lustre

    • Meet the buyers: James Hocking, The Vineyard Cellars

• week that was
• 2017
• 8 December