Well that’s been quite a year hasn’t it! But, despite all the trials and tribulations in the outside world, here at The Buyer we have quietly looked to get on with the job of providing hopefully interesting (even ‘must read’) original content to help keep you better informed about the drinks industry we all work […]
Unlucky for some but not Anne Krebiehl MW who managed to pick 13 wines from 2017 out of the many thousand that she’s tried this year. When we ask our ‘Tasting Team’ to write about their Best wines of 2017 we leave the criteria to them: in this case Anne has picked wines that worked as an entire bottle and not just tasted at a tasting event. We also ask for writers’ Top 10 wines of the year, but rarely get just 10…. Expect to see many odd numbers over the next week when we post up more Best Of lists.
It’s a very rare occasion when a positive story about wine hits the airwaves, the broadcast, print and online media not only in the UK but around the world. But although Champagne Taittinger’s decision to become the first Grande Marque Champagne house to invest in an English vineyard did exactly that it was only through a carefully masterminded PR campaign. Here R&R Teamwork’s co-founder Rosamund Barton explains how it all came together and also praises Hazel Murphy for her groundbreaking Australian UK trade trip as the campaign she wished she’d done.
The road to becoming a winemaker is not always logical or smooth, particularly in the case of Andrew Quady, CEO of California’s Quady Winery, who used to make high grade fireworks before he started making award-winning dessert wines and Vermouth. The man behind the popular Orange Muscat Essensia and others was in town to talk about his range of Vermouths called Vya and how Vermouth production differs from making stickies.
It’s that time of the year when our minds start drifting off to (hopefully) the festive break, so the perfect opportunity for a new – more lighthearted – idea. Leading up to the new year, The Buyer is asking leading figures from across the trade to share the campaign or business idea they have been most proud of and what impact it had on themselves or their business. We are also asking them to pick out an initiative or a campaign they wish they had done. First up is winemaker Justin Howard Sneyd MW and his ingenious idea to make his Christmas promotional campaign for his Domaine of the Bee wine stand out.
Last week we cast the net out wide to ask wine buyers, importers and distributors about the opportunities for Rioja as an alternative wine for the festive dinner table, particularly as the price of other classic Old World wines, noticeably from France, are being priced out of some people’s budgets. Today Bibendum offers its own insight in to Rioja as a category, and how well suited it is for wine lists across the on-trade
It’s nice talking about and throwing the spotlight on new wine regions and emerging styles of wine and little known grape varieties, but at these times of the year restaurant and bar customers are looking for the classics and the tried and tested. Which is why for our latest major debate we teamed up with Jackson Family Wines to look at what leading wine buyers, sommeliers, distributors and merchants think about Californian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Chablis, Chablis, Chablis… low supply, high demand, price increases, difficulty sourcing, everybody is talking about Chablis and the problems with it going into the New Year. But is the situation as tricky as some are making out, and what alternatives are on offer to satisfying customers hungry for this famous mineral-and-steel driven white? Chris Wilson quizzed a handful of importers and on-trade specialists – large and small – to get to the bottom of it.
Fäviken Magasinet has been in the World’s Top 50 restaurant list for five years running and yet it is just a converted barn with only 24 covers literally in the middle of nowhere. Peter Dean made the trek, loved the food, got mad with the wine pairing and was just as intrigued by the clientele as the setting for one of the food experiences of a lifetime.
As southern California grapples with the latest fires to hit the state in this most difficult of years, Patsy McGaughy, head of communications at Napa Valley Vintners, explains the full impact of the autumn fires that swept down the valley and into Sonoma and Mendocino and how support from both within the US and the rest of the world is helping the region put the fires behind it.
