Are flavoured wines the solution at the bottom end of the market? Victoria Moore’s wine column focused this week on the phenomenon of flavoured wines. Apparently, they are on the…
Time for some statistics
I like statistics. I found some on the OIV website today, so I popped them into a spreadsheet and produced some graphs. First of all, the top 10 wine producing…
Competition, price and why cheap wine will never be profitable
Have you ever tried to buy a mobile phone on contract? Or choose an energy supplier? The pricing structure is deliberately complicated, making direct comparisons incredibly difficult. And the…
Bordeaux prices, then and now
Was Bordeaux more affordable in times gone by? With the help of a 1909 price list from Berry Bros & Rudd and the website www.measuringworth.com, I thought I’d find out….
The wine trade bubble
I love the wine trade. It’s fun, full of interesting people, and it’s incredibly open and friendly. But it is a bit of a bubble. We talk to each other…
How much can we drink without risking our health?
Lots of chat on the internet today about a study that has just been published in the 0pen-access version of the British Medical Journal. (Article is here.) It made front-page headlines…
How to manage a Champagne brand, some thoughts
I’ve been thinking a bit about wine branding recently, and specifically about Champagne brands. The large Champagne houses are skilled brand managers. It has taken a lot of hard work…
Bordeaux pricing is actually all about sex
Let’s talk about the pricing of top Bordeaux wines. It’s the subject of intense current discussion, but I think there’s some misunderstanding here. We’re not just talking about the price…
Bordeaux: scoring and pricing
It’s primeurs at the moment. A time in the year when the wine world’s attention is focused on Bordeaux. After all, it’s the world’s most important fine wine region, even…