Sixth-generation winemaker Bec Hardy talks to Andrew Catchpole about inheriting responsibility for Pertaringa and Tipsy Hill, her new Bec Hardy label and the demands of upkeeping a family’s winemaking dynasty.
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Here’s a quiz question for the work Christmas party: what have Amazon, the cost of bottling wine and Ofgem got in common?
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Jo Gilbert catches up with some of the UK’s top agents, distributors and producers taking the lead on sustainability issues.
Jo Gilbert caught up with some of the UK’s leading French wine importers to ask the burning question: what is France doing well currently – and why?
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Having traded for almost 150 years, The Wine Society made short shrift of Covid’s trickier challenges, using them as a springboard to greater growth. Jo Gilbert reports
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Nick Gillett, MD of Mangrove UK, on the uphill battle smaller brands face with ever more powerful players dominating the industry.
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I was corresponding recently with the human dynamo that is Laura Catena. Turns out the Argentinian winemaker is a big fan of this column.
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Andrew Catchpole catches up with Hamilton Lowe, co-founder of Carmosina Holdings, which launched the globe’s number one cachaça, to discover more about his new Brazilian range of gins.
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With Spain’s colours still flying high, Andrew Catchpole invited its UK director to outline his vision for its future
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Jo Gilbert catches up with top Spanish specialists to identify the leading current and future trends.
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Following on from the Her Wine Collection range from all-female South African company Adama Wines, Praisy Dlamini, winemaker and general manager, Adama Wines, talks to Andrew Catchpole about her new Amandla brand, inspiring the next generation and the importance of mentors.
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"How is the electorate feeling? Anxious, in a word. Our August optimism score was the lowest we’ve ever recorded.
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Hallgarten & Novum Wines’ Andrew Bewes and Steve Daniel talk Andrew Catchpole through the challenges posed by today’s extraordinary market conditions.
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A good friend turned 80 recently. To celebrate, he invited a few of us round for dinner and opened a bottle of 1942 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Grands Échézeaux. I don’t often get the chance to try bottles like that. Thoughts of the German occupation goose-stepped through my head as we pulled the surprisingly small cork. The wine was glorious: fragile, sweet, gamey and appropriately autumnal.
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As her latest book, Rosés of Southern France, hits the shelves, Elizabeth Gabay explains to Andrew Catchpole why we should all take the pink category more seriously.
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Viking in the Vineyard author Peter Vinding-Diers has had a one-of-a-kind winemaking life. Jo Gilbert catches up with the Danish-born vigneron on his latest venture – a selection of standout Sicilian Syrahs at his Montecarrubo winery.
I hesitate to reproduce what follows for fear of dishing an event that I love, but it is such a superb example of terrible communication that I can’t resist. This is not from the world of wine, but I have had equally awful comms from wineries in non-English speaking countries.
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With his relaxed style and ample enthusiasm, Jay Wright certainly doesn’t fit the old stereotype of a wine trade CEO. As the boss of one of the more successful online retailers, though, he is clear about the vision and values that underpin the popularity of Virgin Wines. And much of that comes down to what he believes the company – and, by extension, the wider drinks trade – actually sells.
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As an experienced wine consultant specialising in the on-trade, Neil Bruce – aka wine margin optimiser at Studio Alto – turns his sights to the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to the keg-versus-bottle ‘green’ debate.
Earlier this year, Penfolds announced its ambition to essay “a strategic shift from fine wine brand to global luxury icon”. The brand’s new marketing campaign, it said, encapsulated Penfolds’ “innovative spirit and desire to push the boundaries through self-belief”.
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