By Jeff Evans, chair of The International Beer Challenge. Thornbridge The Union, 7%Dismay at the removal of the historic union fermentation sets from the Marston’s brewery has been offset a little with the installation of part of the equipment at Thornbridge – and the Derbyshire brewery has wasted no time in making the most of its new asset. The first beer to experience…

“Let’s have a look in the cellar, shall we?” I suspect most wine collectors in the world got into it for the pleasure of uttering that sentence in the company of a fellow wine lover. Buying wine is often as much about the storing-up of future pleasure and the exercise of patience as it is about having something to drink with dinner. But…

When I first started drinking, the cocktails I imbibed were sweet.   So sweet, in fact, that they were almost headache-inducing. So sweet, they left a layer of unpleasant sugar coating on your teeth.   In recent years, we’ve seen cocktail trends swing in the opposite direction and there is a definite shift towards savoury flavours. I think, in no small part, thanks to online…

The superstar-owned drinks sector is bursting with big names eager to make a splash. But as this trend matures, it’s clear not all celebrity brands are built alike. Tom Khan-Lavin, chief executive, YesMore drinks marketing agency weighs in… WHAT’S HOT PERSONALITY-DRIVEN BRANDS: Brands that thrive are those that reflect their celebrity owner’s personality and flair. Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation gin is the ultimate…

John Chapman, managing director of The Oxford Wine Company, unpicks the Labour government’s first Budget and assesses the impact on indie retailers. Wow, what a Budget, with very little to like from a UK independent wine business perspective. As a bricks and mortar SME, the Budget has come at us with several areas of increased costs. Rather than supporting the working person…

By Jeff Evans, chair of The International Beer Challenge. PILLARS LITE, 2.8% The team at Pillars, the specialist lager brewery in east London whose impressive New Zealand Lager I reviewed in the last issue, keep turning out classy new beers. This time they’ve come up with a low-strength lager that is pale golden with a slight greenish hue. After a keen,…

I’ve written before about the tedious predictability of algorithms, but in the month following the Olympics, Instagram’s advertising bot really excelled itself, with offers for all manner of sports gear crowding my feed. At one point, I saw quite a nice pair of shorts. Following in the footsteps of the Galileo of garment marketing, Calvin Klein – who reorganised the universe of underwear…