Hal Wilson: ‘Looking Back, Forging Ahead’

By Harpers Editorial team

Published: 06 August, 2025

Cambridge Wine Merchants' Hal Wilson steps up to provide the next contribution to our Summer Q&A series.

How has business been for you in the first half of 2025 and how do things compare to where you were last year?

Business has been steady, with all channels showing a marginal improvement in terms of gross profit.

What have been the biggest challenges and headaches so far this year and how have you sought to mitigate those?

Implementing the full HMG Duty Policy following the termination of the easement. We have employed AI to sense check all purchase orders and out of bond movements to ensure our costs are correct or flag where there are discrepancies. It all adds time, cost and complexity, diverting energy away from other tasks.

What are you most proud of achieving this year in terms of driving the business forward?

Having a fantastic team committed to providing exceptional wines, service and teamwork. We have written a major report describing in detail what we find exceptional about our favourite wineries, which in turn is informing our training and events planning for the rest of the year and beyond.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, what is the biggest cause for concern?

The costs of EPR will erode margins and we see little appetite from customers to pay more for wine as inflation runs well ahead of other drinks thanks to the duty policy.

What single thing could the Government do to best improve trading conditions and the success of the drinks sector?

We need to persuade HM Treasury that the wine trade is shouldering a higher tax burden than it can afford and a duty freeze will give some respite after increases of up to 40% in the last two years.

What trends are you seeing in the drinks world at the moment, and how do you expect that to change going into the autumn?

There has been a long period of warm weather that has enabled some summer drinking trends to become well established, e.g, chillable reds. It could well be that some of them stick and become year round trends.

Any other predictions for the second half of the year?

We will have to approach the introduction of wines from the 2024 vintage quite sensitively, as their character in many cases is markedly different from other recent vintages. Wines with lower alcohol levels can offer consumers a refreshing alternative to the riper styles of hotter recent vintages which can be presented in a positive light. More careful selection will be necessary, as well as probably looking to go deeper into stocks of older vintages where possible.

Quick fire questions…

France, Italy or Spain?

What day of the week? Probably France

Georgia, Greece or UK?

‘Normal’ or ‘natural’ wine?

Low intervention but clean

Cocktails or straight sippin’ spirits?

Cocktails

Mixologist or mix it at home?

Home please

Aperitif preference?

Fino