Welsh wine is no April Fools joke – and it’s delicious April 1, 2025 Firstly, I promise this isn’t an April Fool. Welsh wine is a real thing. Historically of course, they have always liked a drink. Welsh bards, poets and wordsmiths have dedicated their talent to the power and beauty of wine. As far back at the 6th century there are references to mead being drunk by warriors [...]
Echo Falls and Lambrini owner loses over £100m as alcohol duty hikes bite March 27, 2025 The owner of Echo Falls and Lambrini has slumped to a loss of more than £100m as the cost-of-living crisis and alcohol duty hike significantly impacted its finances. The UK arm of Accolade Wines, whose brands also include Hardys and Kumala, has reported a pre-tax loss of £103.8m for the 12 months to 30 June, [...]
Naked Wines promises to ‘recalibrate’ business with new growth plan March 27, 2025 Naked Wines has released details of its new strategic growth plan as it promises to “recalibrate” the businesses to drive growth. The wine seller also announced that its trading performance “continues to track in line with expectations” ahead of full-year results later this year. Its share price rose more than 11 per cent in early [...]
Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: London’s best dog-friendly restaurants March 26, 2025 Last week Franco Manca announced that they have become ‘dog friendly’. This a welcome turnaround for the restaurant group that turned away a guide dog from one of their venues in 2018. Fortunately, this shameful incident led to my meeting with Dave Kent, the blind gentleman who required his trusty friend Chad to lead him [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines diary: I visit Oxford’s trendy new rooftop March 26, 2025 This week in Libby’s Naked Wines diary, our wine columnist visits Oxford Simon Drake glides up to me in a jacket that looks and feels like he has skinned the Velveteen Rabbit. Indeed, it is so soft I pause for just longer than is potentially acceptable to stroke his velvety arm – before he gently [...]
Hannes Myburgh’s Meerlust Estate is wine tasting paradise March 18, 2025 Meerlust Rubicon was the first wine I bought en primeur. This is the process of buying wine while it is still aging, ahead of it coming to market. It means securing sought-after bottles at potentially lower prices while the winemakers receive an early cash flow. I felt very grown up and sophisticated and rather lucky [...]
Alcohol-shy Gen Z and erratic weather hits global vineyards March 5, 2025 Changing tastes and a hotter climate have made the future of global vineyards uncertain and unpredictable, according to a new report. With global wine consumption down 12 per cent from its 2007 peak and erratic weather making many sites untenable, few vineyards remain unscathed, according to Knight Frank’s annual wealth report. In France, “only about [...]
International Women’s Day: The future of women in wine March 3, 2025 This International Women’s Day, I caught up with Queena Wong, a wine enthusiast who is helping to reshape the industry for the better Queena Wong has become a controversial character in wine after spearheading the first UK Women in Wine Survey. According to marketing research agency PROOF Insight, 78 per cent of the women who [...]
Why Tasmania is Australia’s overlooked wine destination February 26, 2025 It was only four years ago I was served a glass of House of Arras, an exceptional sparkling wine, full of crystalline precision and refined fizz. I was surprised to hear it was from Tasmania. Before then, I knew very little about wines from this region. London is the most exciting marketplace for wine in [...]
Billionaire ex-Tory treasurer ups Chapel Down stake after shares collapse February 24, 2025 The billionaire founder of city brokerage ICAP, Lord Michael Spencer, has upped his stake in English wine maker Chapel Down. The former treasurer of the Conservative party serves as a non-executive director of the Kent-headquartered company and now holds a 27.3 per cent stake. The increase comes after Lord Spencer bought 50,000 ordinary shares at [...]