Doug Wregg: ‘Looking Back, Forging Ahead’

By Harpers Editorial team

Published: 08 August, 2025

For the next edition of our Summer Q&A series Doug Wregg, director of sales and marketing at Les Caves de Pyrene, contemplates what has been a challenging year for the wine trade.

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

2025, so far, has been one of the hardest years I can remember since I have been working in the wine trade. Although our business is solid because of the foundations we have put in place over the last 10 years, we are conscious of the manifold pressures on our customers, particularly those in the on-trade. After several years of growth, we are now back to the level of business of 2019. To quote the Red Queen in Alice Through The Looking Glass: “it takes all the running you can do, (just) to keep in the same place.”

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

The central paradox of the wine trade is that smaller establishments want to work with more and more suppliers whereas groups want to rationalise their suppliers and auction their lists to the highest bidder. It is easy, through no fault of your own, to lose big chunks of business because everything seems to be about the bottom line and not the wine (nor the quality of service). The lack of wine knowledge in many places is a concern. Wine is being treated as a commodity rather than an artisan drink with provenance. Finally, mark-ups are increasing in restaurants (because of all the associated costs – rents, rates, wages, National Insurance). Anecdotally, I have heard from restaurateurs that customers are drinking less or drinking down the list.

To mitigate these challenges, we decided to grasp the nettle and have a lot of 'honest conversations' with wine buyers. We ask how we can help and suggest ways we can help them to improve their wine culture.

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

That all our sales reps and the back of house team (sales desk, shipping, credit control) have gone the extra mile, that we work in the collective interest of the company to ensure that our customers get the service that they deserve. In the end, there is no substitute for being good at what you do, and I think we have tried our hardest to maintain (and improve) standards of service.

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

The volatility of the economic situation and the spectre of a trade war. And actual war. Plus climate catastrophe. Rising costs. More bureaucracy…

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

Anything and everything. Reduce tax and NI on small businesses. Cap business rates. Reduce wine duty – wine has been clobbered over the years, and it is a regressive tax. Scrap the current duty bands and have one duty band for still and sparkling and one for fortified and spirits. Reduce the number of forms and pettifogging bureaucracy. Create a national investment bank to help small businesses (restaurants, shops) with interest-free grants.

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

Restaurants are asking us for lower abv wines. Appellation is becoming less relevant. Customers just want tasty wine that costs less (unless they can afford to drink at the top end). Partly because of the weather and partly to do with a more Mediterranean diet, sales of rosé and light whites are booming – with reds barely a footnote in the sales mix. Even during the winter month sales of red wines are diminishing, relatively speaking.

Any other predictions for the second half of the year?

Being a glass half-full person, I think the business wheel will turn and we will begin to see a return to confidence. Or be driven to drink! The market is in a depressed state (and has been for a year), but I think there will be a lot of pivoting in the trade to galvanise interest in wine – from promotions and training to events and tastings. If we attract the right calibre into the hospitality industry and give them reasons to stay, the wine trade will awake from its current torpor. It is, after all, in everyone’s interest to sell more wine.

Quick fire questions…

France, Italy or Spain?

France, bien sûr

Georgia, Greece or UK?

Georgia (but I am biased because I am our Georgian buyer)

‘Normal’ or ‘natural’ wine?

Natural, of course. And natural is normal

Cocktails or straight sippin’ spirits?

Spirits (unless gin and tonic is a cocktail)

Mixologist or mix it at home?

Mixologist (unless it’s a gin and tonic)

Aperitif preference?