Janet Harrison, Author at The Buyer

By Natalie Wilson on May 17, 2022

Vida Wines’ Olivier Freymuth: our love for Central & East European wines

Start-up wine importer business, Vida Wines & Spirits, has a very clear mission. To showcase lesser-known wines, producers and winemakers from countries across Central and Eastern Europe. With interest in the new, unusual and different at an all time high it arguably could not have chosen a better year to launch. Here breakthrough wine writer Natalie Wilson talks to Olivier Freymuth, Vida’s wine buyer and head of UK sales, about how it has built up a portfolio of wines it believes can start to fill a big gap in the UK wine market. Vida’s Olivier Freymuth explains what it is about wines from Bulgaria and Slovenia that excite him over wines from the all too familiar Old and New Worlds.

Posted In: Bulgaria, east European wines, moldova, Natalie wilson, Olivier freymuth, Romania, slider, vida wines, wine, wine importer, wine supplier

Tasting: Wine

By Victor Smart on May 17, 2022

Tasting wines with California’s Robert Sinskey (while flower arranging)

One of Robert Sinskey’s wines, an orange wine called Orgia, has a label design based on LSD blotters given out at Grateful Dead concerts. The wine was intended as a middle finger to the department of the US Treasury Department that looks after wine labels. This hip Californian’s white field blend, Abraxas, is named after the second album by Santana. So, it was only fitting that when Sinskey invited Victor Smart to try his wines the venue chosen was the London Electric Daisy Flower Farm – so that they could taste wines… at the same time as make bouquets of flowers together.

Posted In: Napa, pol roger, Robert Sinskey, slider, Victor Smart

Insight

By Richard Siddle on May 16, 2022

Online shopping concept nackground. Mobile phone or smartphone with cart and boxes and bag. 3d

Pix Insights: How online allows us to see wine in a new illuminating light

“Online shopping has its acronyms, technologies, and innovation. But at its heart it digitises the human experience of walking into a wine shop. In a shop or restaurant you’d listen. Online you just have to use different sorts of ears.” That’s how the team at Pix, the new online wine discovery and search platform, analyses its users and consumers to work out what they are looking for from wine online. In the first of what will be a regular series of insights, Pix suggests four online tools that can help you analyse your own traffic data on your site to create more effective content and lists of wines that your consumers are wanting to buy. From Google Trends to Google Ads there are free existing tools out there that can unlock your online sales data and help you make more informed decisions about the wines you source, list, promote and sell.

Posted In: e-commerce, google, google ads, google search, google trends, online, online wine, pix, slider, wine

Tasting: Wine

By Sarah McCleery on May 15, 2022

How Jeroboams’ Festa Piemontese looked to target on-trade buyers

Although many Barolo and Barbaresco wines are true icons, they are largely still flying under the radar, argues Peter Mitchell MW, Jeroboams’ wine director, who believes they offer an opportunity to the on-trade to start replacing Burgundy on wine lists. Sarah McCleery talk to Mitchell at Festa Piemontese, the company’s Barolo and Barbaresco tasting, and discovers key wines from Castello di Verduno, Ciabot Berton, Amalia and Ceretto.

Posted In: Amalia, Barbaresco, Barolo, Castello di Verduno, Ceretto, Ciabot Berton, Festa Piemontese, Jeroboams, Sarah McCleery, slider

People: Producer

By Caroline Gilby MW on May 13, 2022

How Château Purcari is bringing Moldovan wine to the UK

As Prowein 2022 gets set to return after two years absence, Caroline Gilby profiles Château Purcari, the Moldovan estate that is exhibiting with the aim of bringing more of its wine to the UK. Purcari is at the forefront of reviving Moldova’s indigenous grape varieties, such as Rara Neagra which is a key part of the iconic Negru de Purcari cuvée, as well as producing Freedom Blend, the wine aimed at raising money for refugees that have flooded across the border since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Posted In: caroline gilby, Chateau Purcari, moldova, prowein

Tasting: Wine

By Victor Smart on May 13, 2022

Quinta da Pedra Alta feeds into the buzz for Douro table wines

Although it makes ports – both red and white – the winemaking team at Quinta da Pedra Alta in the Douro Valley is saving its greatest enthusiasm for the new table wines it’s producing. Its philosophy is to make fresh, approachable, contemporary wines using indigenous varieties like Viosinho, Rabigato, Sousão and Gouveio. Winemaker João Pires takes Victor Smart through the wines who is suitably impressed.

Posted In: João Pires, Portugal, Quinta da Pedra, Victor Smart Douro Valley

Opinion

By Richard Siddle on May 12, 2022

WineSpark’s FitzGerald: How to get 1,000 subscribers in 6 months

It was Bordeaux winemaker Gavin Quinney of Chateau Bauduc who once coined the phrase “Twitter is for show, but email is for dough,” when talking about how to build up an online wine retail business. It is very much the approach that Eamon FitzGerald has taken in setting up his own e-commerce platform, WineSpark, which has borrowed a few tips and techniques from his days at Naked Wines to build up a strong email database that is now driving his move into online wine retailing.

Posted In: e-commerce, eamon fitzgerald, online wine, wine, winespark

People

By Peter Dean on May 12, 2022

Why Bike to Care en Bourgogne is passing the baton to Bordeaux

What started as a Louis Jadot employee brainwave has now grown into a major international event. Bike to Care en Bourgogne has just successfully wrapped with €230k raised for hospitality charities with Château Haut-Bailly agreeing to stage the event next year in Bordeaux. Our drinks editor Peter Dean went along for the (long) ride.

Posted In: Bike to Care en Bourgogne, burgundy, hatch mansfield, Peter Dean

Insight

By Francesca Martin on May 11, 2022

Nimbility: why South Korea is becoming a key wine market

“As South Korea’s cultural economy firmly imprints itself across the globe, another phenomenon is building within South Korea itself – a rapidly expanding market for imported wines.” That’s the view of marketing and trade agency, Nimbility, that specialises in distributing and building drinks brands across Asia. It sees South Korea as the key market to watch as trends that have blossomed in lockdown, including a big demand for drinking wine at home, are now helping to open up the international wine market for wine producers and brand owners alike.

Posted In: francesca Martin, nimbility, Polly Aylwin-Foster, South Korean, South Korean wine market, wine

Tasting: Wine

By Sarah McCleery on May 10, 2022

Sarah McCleery on the confident sophistication of Casanova di Neri

Casanova di Neri is a Montalcino producer famed for helping pioneer single vineyard expressions in the region – including the mighty Cerretalto whose 2016 vintage is tasted alongside Tenuta Nuova 2017, ‘Etichetta Bianca’ 2017 and two Rosso di Montalcinos, as part of a lunch to celebrate the estate’s entry into Pol Roger Portfolio. Sarah McCleery reports.

Posted In: Casanova di Neri, Sarah McCleery

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