• Browsing Category

    People

    What on-trade buyers, producers and suppliers have to say

    People
    real wine fair tasting

    Doug Wregg celebrates the best in artisan wines at Real Wine Fair

    The Real Wine Fair in a nutshell. A two-day artisan wine and drinks grower event that celebrates the wines of small producers who farm organically, biodynamically and regeneratively and make low intervention and natural wines. This year around 185 producers from 20 countries will be coming to London’s Tobacco Dock to take part on April 28-29 with over 900 wines to taste and explore. Here founder and chief organiser, Doug Wregg of Les Cave de Pyrene, sets out what to expect from this year’s fair and where he sees the world of “Real Wine” going. 

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Supplier
    a

    What makes North South Wines one of UK’s top wine suppliers

    “Seen by many as a veritable human dynamo, exuding boundless energy and drive, Kim Wilson is the founder and power behind North South Wines, having created the company 10 years ago, nurtured it, and weaved her magic to bring it to its current position – namely a top 10 wine agency and distributor, with a turnover of just under £30million.” As it celebrates its 10 year anniversary Angela Mount analyses the impact that North South Wines has had on all channels of the UK wine market and talks to its founder, Kim Wilson, about the highs and lows along the way and where she hopes the business can go in the next 10 years.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: On-Trade
    giles james

    Giles James: choosing the wines stars drink at Groucho Club  

    There will be many individuals in the drinks industry who might have lost an afternoon or two in the Groucho Club – or other similar private institutions in the heart of London. But Giles James has a very good reason for hanging out amongst the great and good of the film, media and acting worlds as he is responsible for deciding which wines they enjoy whilst they do their mixing and mingling. A role he has now able to make even more his own under the recent new ownership of the Artfarm group that is quickly making its name as one of the most influential custodians of premium drinking and dining institutions across the country. He talks to Richard Siddle about what really goes on behind the scenes at the Groucho – at least when it comes to drinking wine. 

    CONTINUE READING
    People
    The Furmint February tasting on January 29 is the start of a month of events celebrating Furmint

    Caroline Gilby on celebrating all of Hungary at Furmint February

    Join Wines of Hungary UK on February 27 for the sixth edition of the Furmint February trade tasting in the UK and a chance to take a deep dive into what Hungary’s most exciting white grape has to offer in all its forms: whether as a sparkling wine, a fresh, fruit-driven, or complex, age-worthy dry wine, or, of course, as one of the world’s greatest sweet wines. The event includes a sold out masterclass with Caroline Gilby MW who shares her thoughts on this ubiquitous grape variety. 

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Elderton Wines

    Meet the Ashmeads: Barossa royalty & rise of Elderton Wines

    Although its original vineyard was planted 130 years ago it wasn’t until 1980 that Elderton Wines really started – when a real estate agent offered Neal and Lorraine Ashmead 72 acres of vineyard for free if they bought the farmhouse. Having brought the vines back from the brink, the couple won Australia’s top wine trophy 10 years later and have never looked back. Now under the ownership of sons Cameron and Allister, Elderton is on an ambitious growth programme, changing the style of the wines, and looking to invest in its future. The good news is that the wines are back in the UK. Peter Dean caught up with Cameron and tasted through the new vintages.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Amarone

    Justin Keay on Amarone’s future in the face of changing tastes

    Valpolicella is another wine region that has started listening to the changes in consumer taste – from making big, bold extracted wines with immense concentration and alcohol, to wines with greater elegance and finesse. So how are producers changing style and what does this mean not only for Valpolicella but also the future of one of Italy’s greatest red wines, Amarone? Justin Keay talks to Stefano Cesari owner of Brigaldara and also discovers the part that expanded production in the region and how it is having a detrimental effect.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Producer
    sardinia wow

    Why Sardinia’s winemaking scene deserves more attention

    Sardinia, best known for blue seas, white sandy beaches and unlike the UK right now, warm sunshine. Located 150 miles off the west coast of Italy, Sardinia is the second biggest island in the Mediterranean. At around 9,300 square miles ‘Sardegna’ as the locals say is just fractionally smaller than Italy’s famous southern island, Sicily. Here Abbie Bennington reports on the exciting new wine and food scene on the island and a growing winemaking community. 

    CONTINUE READING
    People
    Kylie Minogue and TV wine criti Helen McGinn at the recent Annabel's anniversary party

    Wine’s Helen McGinn on what it takes to be a best-selling novelist

    “It’s like doing a massive jigsaw puzzle, it’s frustrating at times but once completed it feels amazing.” That’s how Helen McGinn, wine buyer turned novelist, describes the experience of starting with a blank piece of paper and turning it into, hopefully, a best-selling novel. With her fourth book about to be published she explains the process she goes through of bringing an idea for a story to life and then committing it to page.  She also gives a behind the scenes insight into her other career as a television wine pundit on BBC’s Saturday Morning Kitchen. 

    CONTINUE READING
    People
    Frescobaldi

    Lamberto Frescobaldi on the strategy of Italy’s wine dynasty

    In order to get to the crux of the Frescobaldi family’s winemaking strategy, Justin Keay compares this great Italian dynasty’s philosophy with that of the Antinori family. He looks at how the two families’ approaches to winemaking have changed over the years and talks to Lamberto Frescobaldi about recent estate acquisitions, choice of grape varieties and the importance of Tuscany to Frescobaldi’s output. Keay also picks out five Frescobaldi wines that need to be on your wine list.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Gérard Bertrand

    Gérard Bertrand, a winter pruning celebration and Vanina the mule

    Pruning 4 million vines across 2,420 acres is the task set for the vignerons at Gérard Bertrand’s Languedoc empire. We travel to the city of Narbonne to see how they do it with the aid of seven mules, get the lowdown behind the world’s most expensive rosé and hear from the man himself, both his philosophy of winemaking and also why he had to tell rugby legend Tendai Mtawarira of South Africa, aka ‘The Beast’ to stop calling him on the phone.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Supplier
    vin tasting

    Top importers: what to expect at London’s VIN French wine tasting

    With the Six Nations rugby kicking off this weekend it is good timing to welcome the French wine community to London on February 1 with the return of Business France’s VIN tasting and the chance for UK wine buyers, merchants, importers and sommeliers to meet and taste wines from across 10 regions of France, featuring over 40 producers and covering 45 plus AOCs. To help set the scene we talk to the four UK importers who are also taking part in the event about what they hope VIN can achieve and why they are taking part.  

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Sicily

    Best of new Sicily: Montecarrubo, Planeta, Feudo Maccari & Giasira

    Most wine buyers know that Sicily is one of the most exciting wine regions in Italy right now. If they don’t they should, argues Geoffrey Dean who visits Montecarrubo, Planeta, Feudo Maccari, Giasira and Zisola to discover a range of exciting wines, 10 of which he highlights for your list. Whilst in Sicily Dean meets up with wine aristocracy in the form of Peter Vinding-Diers and Alessio Planeta who was named winemaker of 2023 by Wine Enthusiast.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Sugrue South Downs

    The rebirth of Dermot Sugrue – Britain’s finest winemaker

    With the purchase of Bee Tree Vineyard in East Sussex, new financial backers and a whole range of new projects afoot, 2024 will be the year that Sugrue South Downs will finally and indelibly be put on the map. Run and co-owned by Ana and Dermot Sugrue – the most famous and finest winemaker in the history of English winemaking – the team are turning their backs on contract winemaking and concentrating on their own portfolio which will include Dermot’s first still wine, a Pinot Noir from Essex fruit, a first Blancs de Noirs, a gin and a perpetual reserve with an undisclosed gameplan called Bonkers. But first, there’s the no-small matter of expanding a very muddy building site into a fully-functioning winery.

    CONTINUE READING
    People
    tim wildman with glass

    Tim Wildman on being the world’s most disruptive MW 

    “All of my businesses have that underdog hunger, that big start-up energy. They all have challenger status, and a healthy dose of punk rock resolve.” That’s how Tim Wildman MW describes his self-made career as what he calls – with his tongue firmly in his cheek – the “world’s most disruptive MW”. Over the last 10 or so years he has set up his own wine producing business that now sells his eclectic Australian pét nat wines in 16 countries, run a series of wine education field trips to Australia and started an English wine initiative, Lost in a Field, bringing back to life old native grape varieties. Here he talks to Richard Siddle about the passion he has felt as an underdog to shake up and disrupt the traditional wine industry.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Supplier
    lesley cook lanchester 2

    Opportunities and challenges in 2024 by Lanchester’s Lesley Cook

    From shortages of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, to the impact of a global pandemic and the war in Ukraine on dry goods, recent years have been nothing if not challenging for wine buyers. In 2023, the problems have been closer to home, with the first instalment of a duty shake up adding to prices and the bureaucratic burden, while the cost of living crisis potentially threatens disposable income. Thankfully, for Lesley Cook, buying director at Lanchester Wines, there has also been cause for celebration, with Lanchester Group’s perpetual focus on sustainability being recognised with a trio of coveted awards, as she explains to David Kermode, in this end of year report.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Duca di Salaparuta

    Duca di Salaparuta and the renaissance of Sicily’s viticulture

    Celebrating its 200th anniversary next year Duca di Salaparuta is a major wine producer on Sicily which embodies this island’s variety of terroir, indigenous grape varieties and styles of wine, and is a key part of Sicily’s viticultural renaissance. Duca di Salaparuta is owned by the Reina family, the largest private wine group on the island, and comprises two wineries and three unique estates across the island, with a range of exciting wines as Justin Keay discovered when he visited wine fair Assovini Sicilia and had a tasting with the domaine’s winemaker Barbara Tamburini.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Supplier
    mark gaskett good

    How Corney & Barrow’s logistics have to be as good as its wines  

    A premium wine importer can have the best wine list in the land, with quality and value from all major wine producing countries, but that all fades into insignificance if its supply chain and logistics service is not equally as good – if not better. Now it’s pretty fair to say Corney & Barrow is widely respected for getting its wine range right, here associate director, Mark Baskett, explains how the business gets the delivery side of the company right in his role as supply chain manager – in charge of London and the South East, supported by Allison Few, commercial manager and associate director, based in East Kilbride, who manages the supply chain operations for the North and Scotland.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: On-Trade
    sweet Tokaji

    Caroline Gilby MW on how sweet Tokaji is thinking outside the box

    Gastronomic versatility is the name of the game when it comes to sweet Tokaji. As part of Wines of Hungary UK’s campaign to drive trade and consumer awareness about this fact, Caroline Gilby MW looks at the many diverse ways that restaurants in the UK are finding new and innovative ways to show off this sweet Hungarian wine to its best effect.

    CONTINUE READING
    People: Producer
    Maurizio Lunetta, Director of Etna DOC and his partner Margriet own Casale 120

    The best way of selling Nerello Mascalese from Etna DOC

    In an era where the fervour for terroir-driven wines shows no signs of waning, the site-sensitive Nerello Mascalese, cultivated on the ever-changing terroir surrounding Europe’s largest active volcano, Mount Etna, continues to captivate wine enthusiasts. With its somewhat challenging pronunciation and intricate terroirs, selling Nerello Mascalese to average consumers doesn’t appear to be a straightforward task. During a recent visit to Sicily for the ‘Etna Day 2023’ event, Leona De Pasquale spoke with Maurizio Lunetta, the director of the Consorzio Tutela Vini Etna DOC, to find out how it’s done.

    CONTINUE READING
    People People: Supplier
    kathrine larsen

    Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS on heading up fine wine at Enotria

    Such is the competition in the premium on-trade wine market that even distributors of the scale and reputation as Enotria&Coe need to be changing, adapting and moving not just with the times, but ahead of it. Which is why it is keen to push the credentials of its fine wine portfolio and the fact it has promoted Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS from her premium wine ambassador role to the head of its new fine wine division. Here she sits down with Richard Siddle to explain what her new position entails and how Enotria&Coe wants to work closely with its producers and restaurant buyers to develop a fine wine offer that allows them to sell the finest wines to as many customers around the country as possible.    

    CONTINUE READING