The Winery გიორბელიძეების მარანი - Giorbelidze Wine Cellar of Imereti

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking up at some terraced vineyards in St-Joseph with an Australian friend. He remarked that he’d never seen a steep vineyard like this in his home country. Who could afford to rip out the trees, build the access roads, construct the terraces, and plant the vines, without being certain beforehand that the resulting wine could be sold at prices high enough to recoup the investment? It might not be the most romantic way of looking at it. But that’s the modern reality ...

The latest survey from trade body WineGB shows that sales of English and Welsh wines have now increased by 69% between 2019 and 2021. The star performer is the direct-to-consumer sector, which is up by 265% over two years. It now represents 57% of all sales, up from just 36% in 2019. That means English and Welsh wine producers are increasingly cutting out the middlemen – supermarkets, specialist merchants, bars and restaurants – and selling directly to their devotees, either via their ecommerce ...

In spite of growing worldwide demand for bubbles, recent challenges arising from the pandemic and the cost of living crisis have put the brakes on consumers’ willingness to spend on non-essential products. In search of new and imaginative ways of rising to the challenge, Cava producers believe that while it can be tough for consumers to fork out for fizz, they can continue to enjoy ‘the little luxuries of life’ by purchasing reasonably priced Cava. This isn’t to suggest going for the cheapest op ...