To most of them, Merlot is the devil, Cabernet Sauvignon even worse. “I’d rather have a case of the clap than a case of Cabernet,” read the T-shirt of a Pinotphile sitting in front of me at Pinot Noir 2007, the third edition of New Zealand’s increasingly popular celebration of this most fickle of varieties. To the delegates who came to Wellington on the blustery…

All around the country, drinks retailers are facing the crunch. After years of sabre-rattling from police and Trading Standards, the moment has come when large numbers of shops are having their licences revoked or suspended. Let’s be absolutely clear: it’s about time some retailers were expelled from the drinks community. A few, for reasons they will struggle to explain to the authorities, haven’t got a licence…

I work for a large off-licence retailer and, while my employment with the company is only temporary, I am very happy in my job. Except for one thing. We have a customer who regularly comes in and buys a large amount of cider . This customer obviously has a problem and it is distinctly uncomfortable to see this customer deteriorate on an almost daily basis.

Last time I wrote, I referred to the heavy price paid by drinks companies or retailers who failed to respond to the reality that between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of most drinks categories’ sales are in the final few weeks of each year. Failure to recognise this fact and respond positively leaves annual budgets shot and the losses never get made up…

May I remind everyone in and around the wine trade that we are fast approaching Wine Relief time, and ask as many individuals as possible to think about how they can contribute? This biennial wine trade fundraising programme has raised a total of £2 million since 1999 for the seriously disadvantaged in the UK and Africa and has established itself as one of Comic Relief’s most…

There has been a lot of discussion about the contribution being made by independent wine merchants: everyone agrees they add to the gaiety of the nation but nobody was sure exactly how much, er, gayer they made us. Now we can measure it: according to our study, there are 512 retailers turning over a little less than £250 million. Those are just the committed wine…

The Christmas sales figures for the off-trade are so grisly that they ought to have an R18 certificate slapped all over them. But look beneath the gloom and there are signs that perhaps things weren’t – and aren’t – quite as bad as they might at first appear. Take spirits. A 3 per cent sales decline in the four weeks to Dec 23 is depressing,…