Good news, everyone: life is generally better for everyone today than it has been at any point in history. Break out the corkscrews. That might sound like the sort of aphorism on A-boards outside off-licences, but it also happens to be true. Globally, population growth has slowed, extreme poverty has halved in the past decade, and crime has fallen rapidly since the 1990s.

South Africa secured a resounding victory when DRN recently polled 200 independent merchants in a bid to find which countries’ wines are performing best in the sector. It finished ahead of Italy, Argentina and Spain as the country growing sales in the strongest fashion and it is easy to see why. Quality has improved drastically in recent years. Classics from well-established regions are…

Aston Manor’s sales grew by 4% to £113 million in 2016 and it now believes it offers a breadth of range that is unrivalled in the cider category. The independent cider maker has invested more than £30 million in production capacity and innovation over the past five years and said that strategy is paying off. EBITDA in 2016 stood at £8.2 million and the management…

The Wine Institute of California has spoken out to reassure the UK trade that it is not abandoning the UK market after news that the London office run by John McLaren and Venla Freeman is to shut. Linsey Gallagher, vice president for international marketing at the Wine Institute, told OLN: “I want to reiterate that our recent actions in the UK are most definitely not…

Campo Viejo, the world’s leading Rioja wine brand, is launching its first ever Viura-Tempranillo Blanco, exclusively in the UK. The brand is already the UK’s number one red wine in grocery, according to recent statistics, and the best-selling Spanish wine brand overall. The overall brand has grown by 13.6% in value and 9.9% in volume sales over the past year (Nielsen, total off-trade, year to…

Reading an Old World wine label elegantly can be a challenge for many Britons, particularly those who can’t boast a language GCSE on their CVs. But despite the fact that “Rioja” clearly has the potential to be pronounced incorrectly, it’s a word and a wine-producing region of Spain that UK consumers have confidently embraced in recent years. So is our love for these…

The UK has enjoyed one of the most glorious summers in recent memory and BWS sales have soared as sandal-clad Brits sought refreshment. But it is now winding down, eased towards oblivion by the tail end of Hurricane Bertha, and retailers must start looking to different events to drive sales. First up is Halloween. It was once something of a nonentity on these shores but…