Q&A: Charlie Gilkes, Inception Group

Charlie Gilkes is founder and director of Inception Group, the experiential hospitality group behind My Foggs, Barts, Cahoots, Bunga Bunga & Maggie’s. Hugh Jones speaks to Gilkes about recovery, Covid enforced innovation, and the importance of customer experience as the trade re-opens.

Q&A: Lenz Moser, Château Changyu-Moser XV

The Year of the Ox, denoting hard work, positivity and honesty, seems an apt time for the fruits of Lenz Moser’s work in China to shine. Andrew Catchpole tunes in

Q&A: William Lowe MW, Cambridge Distillery

Harpers spoke to William Lowe MW, owner and master distiller, Cambridge Distillery.

Guy Woodward: Challenging the wine nerd herd

It’s when the first question about clone types crops up that I begin to despair; or a query as to the length of time the juice spent macerating on its own skins. Or – kill me now – the wine’s exact pH level.

International Women’s Day​ Q&A: Plumpton College’s Ana Ðogić

In celebration of International Women’s Day​ today (8 March), Harpers is celebrating the contributions of Croatian born Ana Ðogić, interim winemaker Plumpton Estate Wines and Winery Instructor at Plumpton College.

Wine: a discombobulating ride?

Will we ever understand wine drinkers?

Five minutes with Nicolas Clerc MS, Armit Wines

After a tumultuous 12 months, Nicolas Clerc, brand manager at Armit Wines reflects on buying and the impact of Brexit on running a ‘virtual’ Burgundy EP campaign

Q&A: Lettie Teague, wine columnist, The Wall Street Journal

One of the world’s most influential wine writers is also one of the least visible. Felicity Carter catches up with the multi-talented critic behind the WSJ paywall

Bancroft Wines: The glass half full

With a raft of new producers folded into its portfolio, Bancroft’s Jon Worsley explains to Andrew Catchpole why he’s cautiously optimistic about the year ahead

Q&A: Xavier Rousset MS, co-founder Blandford Comptoir, Cabotte, Trade Hospitality App

A year on from the start of the start of the Covid pandemic, which brought the restaurant industry to its knees, Hugh Jones talks to master sommelier and restauranteur Xavier Rousset about where to from here.

Soapbox: Seeing red on Brexit

Cambridge Wine Merchants’ Hal Wilson calls for a united voice in the face of challenges posed to UK-EU trade by the Trade & Cooperation Agreement and the pointlessness of the dreaded VI-1 form

Tim Atkin MW: China’s risky moves

“Don’t trust them,” says Leon Panetta, a rueful former US defense secretary interviewed in BBC documentary China: A New World Order, “that’s the bottom line.” It’s advice the Australian wine industry and now, apparently, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), would have done well to heed.

Jerry Lockspeiser: The wine and book markets are eerily similar

What can wine learn from other sectors of the economy? How do they add value to their products, communicate with consumers, achieve profitability?

Five minutes with Matthew Jukes

When wine critic Matthew Jukes turned to producing non-alcoholic alternatives to pair with Michelin-level food, his Cordialities hit a chord. By Andrew Catchpole

Q&A: Karim Johnny Saadé, Bargylus and Château Marsyas

Soapbox: Talking of funny foreigners

Have you ever used the ‘F word’ during a meeting with your biggest client? I have. Several times and, to make it worse, several times during the same meeting. The client was Jon Woodriffe, now of Origin Wines, but then Sainsbury’s buyer for French wines.

Guy Woodward: Reasons to be cheerful(ish)

Four things I’m excited about in 2021…

Five minutes with Owen Morgan, Bar 44

Bar 44 Group’s co-owner and self-confessed sherry nut Owen Morgan talks Andrew Catchpole through launching Manzanilla 44 with Bodegas Barón and generally advancing the cause.

Lockdown heroes: Top Cuvée

Top Cuvée’s story is like many others in 2020. A restaurant forced to close, hard decisions to be made, while leaning into other parts of the business in order to bump through furlough and intermittent lockdowns. However, like so many, there’s another story beneath. For Top Cuvée, 2020 has been an exercise in pure agility, with its co-founders having to pedal – quite literally, in some instances – from one new venture to the next in a bid to keep the lights on.

Q&A: Professor Gordy Pleyers, Université Catholique de Louvain

Taking drinks design into the realm of neuro-marketing and science, Professor Gordy Pleyers of Mind Insights at Université Catholique de Louvain introduces Andrew Catchpole to the non-conscious cues at play in our taste for wines and spirits