The chief executive of Vinexposium has said many players in the wine industry “need to change from being farmers to marketers” in order to attract the next generation of drinkers. Speaking ahead of next February’s Wine Paris/Vinexpo Paris, Rodolphe Lameyse said spirits companies are still attracting younger legal age drinkers, with “high prices, high margins, fancy marketing and advertising”. “In the wine industry, we all…

Alcohol duty will be frozen until August 1 2024 as announced by chancellor Jeremy Hunt in today’s Autumn Statement.  Speaking from the House of Commons, Hunt announced that, in line with the trade’s request, an alcohol duty freeze has been put in place until next summer. “I’ve listened closely to the persuasive arguments on alcohol duty,” Hunt said, before confirming the duty freeze.  “I have…

As we head into a festive period, we are all ready for a tipple, and a Q4 uplift. Ready to cheers the future, make some New Year’s resolutions, wipe off the blackboard, start afresh and chalk up exciting strategies for 2024. Now, this will all happen, and we will continue as an industry to create, innovate and curate. But – and this is a big…

The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) is launching a new series of educational talk sessions exploring key issues in the drinks industry. Launching on Monday November 27 at 3pm, the first discussion in the series will focus on how climate change is impacting viticulture practices, and how producers are adapting to extreme weather conditions.   The ‘Sipping sustainably: navigating climate change in the drinks industry’…

Wine and spirit businesses have again called on the chancellor to freeze alcohol duty at the Autumn Statement, citing data that shows a “worrying decline in sales”. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) today said it has been shown unpublished off trade sales figures which show a drop of around 20% in spirit sales in the last 28 days, and a double-digit drop for…

Drinks Retailing has teamed up with the Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) to call on the government to retain the temporary tax bracket for wine An arrangement that sees all wines between 11.5% and 14.5% abv taxed at an assumed strength of 12.5% abv, is due to expire at the end of January 2025. The temporary measure came into force alongside wider duty changes…

The final issue of 2023 is here, and Drinks Retailing is launching our new ‘Crush the Red Tape’ campaign in collaboration with the Wine & Spirit Trade Association to call on the government to retain the temporary tax bracket for wine (pages 12 – 15).  ALSO IN THIS ISSUE With just over a month to go until Christmas, Rachel Badham rounds up the latest industry…