Published: 02 November, 2012
Last month Tesco's chief executive, Philip Clarke, declared to the IGD's main convention of the year that it was vital the grocery industry "create a new spirit of partnership ... going much deeper and becoming much stronger than anything that has existed before". The reason? Well the pace of change is now so fast that retailers and suppliers have to be virtually sleeping with each other to make sure they get the best out of each other.
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Published: 25 October, 2012
Bedecked in stripes, from suit to socks, Sandro Boscaini, president of Masi Agricola, was in town earlier this month to celebrate the launch of a hardback book about arguably the best-known wine from Valpolicella, from where he was born. 'Amarone - The Making of an Italian Wine Phenomenon' is written by British expat, Kate Singleton (who also collaborated on Wines of Sicily and The Golden Book of Chocolate). Six corks, one embossed, grace its cover.
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Published: 24 October, 2012
"My favourite wine is Rioja". It's a line I hear a lot. Despite the UK's frequent absence on Rioja's top five list of most important export markets, the British have had a long standing love affair with wines from this notoriously wealthy Spanish region.
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Published: 19 October, 2012
We've been told often enough over the years that we're nothing but a nation of shopkeepers. Well that adage needs updating to a nation of shoppers. When it comes to pushing the weekly trolley around the supermarket of going online, the Brits truly rule the waves.
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Published: 19 October, 2012
The speed in the collapse of WaverleyTBS should rightly send shockwaves around the industry. It is worrying enough that one of our biggest on-trade suppliers has gone bust, that no-one in the trade saw it coming until hours before it happened only goes to demonstrate the dangerous financial times we all live in.
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Published: 19 October, 2012
In contrast to the wettest British summer for a century, Piedmont enjoyed such a dry, sunny growing season that the harvest was completed much earlier than normal.
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Published: 09 October, 2012
While the biennial Cape Wine trade fair in South Africa last month was another big success, a new exhibition that ran alongside it in the Cape Town Convention Centre enjoyed a sparkling debut. Vindaba, part of a long-term strategy to boost wine tourism, derives from the South African government's aim to gain promotion by 2020 to the travellers' Premier League - the top 20 global destinations.
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Published: 24 September, 2012
It's not often that regional merchants come to London to show their wares, but a rather popular north-western player, Booths, showcased 100 wines from its wine range at the Saatchi Gallery's Mess Room on Friday afternoon.
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Published: 17 September, 2012
If you thought Aldi's wines were all cheap and cheerful, you might be surprised to find grand cru Champagne, a grand cru classé Margaux, 30 year old Tawny Port and a multi, medal-winning Tokaji in its Christmas Special range.
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Published: 14 September, 2012
So why exactly is the Dirty Dozen Tasting the most exciting, least predictable and most hotly anticipated event within the crazy wine circus that London is in September?
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The beginning of August is supposed to herald the start of what our newspaper colleagues would call the Silly Season. A time when there is very little hard news around and our daily news feed is full of stories of escaped pigs, or retired policemen travelling around the country in a bath of baked beans. But the world of wine and spirits does not look ready for a summer holiday just yet.
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Being an independent retailer can, by definition, be a lonely place to be. Whilst being 100% responsible for your own business can bring great advantages it can also leave you exposed to making executive decisions you might not always be qualified or experienced enough to make.
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It may have been some time since the UK wine trade was dominated by the clipped tones of our cover star in this week's Harpers Wine & Spirit, the one and only Terry Thomas, but the level of trust and reassurance that comes with a certain accent and upbringing is still an important, unquantifiable, part of the sector.
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So another London International Wine Fair has been and gone and as ever there are many in the trade who have been keen to perform their own post mortem on the show. Well here's mine.
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Don't forget to check our live blog for rolling updates of what's been going on each day at LIWF. You can also follow us on Twitter @harperswine #LIWF.
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Vino Ignobile?
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There has been a lot of nostalgia in recent weeks as the nation's media prepares us all for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It is as if a look back to the 1970s, the three-day weeks, power cuts and Carry On films, will make us feel a whole lot better about life in Britain in 2012.
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Here's a topical anecdote to mark the seemingly never-ending London mayoral elections that took place on Thursday.
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Published: 05 April, 2012
The debate around the proposed minimum price of alcohol appears to have split the trade in two.
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Published: 23 March, 2012
When Steve Hilton, David Cameron's so called policy advisor, packed his man bag to head to California many thought he had taken all of the Prime Minister's big policy ideas with him.
Well think again.
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