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Updated graphic shows the true cost of wine

Bibendum’s Vinonomics diagram takes duty rise into account
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Duty increase continues “doom loop”

WSTA warns Chancellor’s decision will result in falling sales
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Hallgarten boss to step down after 16 years

No successor has yet been named for Andrew Bewes
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MERCHANT PROFILE: GOLBORNE WINE & DELI

Graham Holter enjoys some time in a Notting Hill hot spot
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The Vineking crashes with £800k debts

Erik Laan’s new company means Reigate branch is still trading
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German wine harvest hits 15-year low

Rheinhessen alone is down 23% thanks partly to autumn rains
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Container is home for Essex indie

Christine Longden and husband Lee opened The Twisted Cork in Tiptree last month
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Renegade of the Rhône

John Gauntley will be missed for his humour and enthusiasm as well as his style…
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Online sales beyond lockdown

Web sales will be a fact of life for indies well beyond Covid-19
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Act natural

Do organic and natural wines need certificates and badges to impress eco-conscious consumers?
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The risks and rewards of reopening my shop

Cat Brandwood of Toscanaccio in Winchester discusses the dliemmas of June 2020
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David Williams on the Languedoc

Cheerful varietals have been joined by serious cru wines with a true sense of terroir
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Our entry-level wines aren’t cheap options

The average price of a bottle of wine is £5.93. In independent specialists, it’s £13.71
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Why Covid-19 could go ballistic at wine tastings

Trade gatherings have the potential to become superspreader events for coronavirus
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It’s feeling more like normal

Merchants need to decide how to protect staff and their customers as lockdown eases
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Rioja recognises need for change

Wines of terroir and new white styles are just part of the mix
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Indies need a 50% sales increase

Collapse of wholesale business and drink-in sales leaves a big hole
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Wine merchants are flavour of the month

Capitalise on new customers now, because time poverty will return
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Life under lockdown

There are opportunities for indies at a frightening time, including new customers
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Love in the time of Covid-19

Covid-19 has hit like a meteor strike, and some brilliant businesses are hurting
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Corks Out closes branches

A new company is running the Stockton Heath and Alderley Edge shops
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Beaujolais is back in fashion

Beaujolais Nouveau is showing signs of a comeback in the independent trade
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Engage with Vivino, like it or not

Hate Vivino? Just imagine what might come next
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Third branch for Le Vignoble

Le Vignoble is set to open its third and biggest branch in the coming weeks…
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Recent Digital Editions

Issue 151 (October 2025)
Issue 150 (September 2025)
Issue 149 (August 2025)
Issue 148 (July 2025)
Issue 147 (June 2025)
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Our final (and biggest) issue of 2025 is landing n Our final (and biggest) issue of 2025 is landing now, with an early Christmas gift of a 2026 wall planner. Never miss Xinomavro Day again!

As always there is loads going on in this edition, but that goes without saying, because the independent trade is where the fun happens. We do our best to report on it all, and throw in a few cartoons and silly captions along the way.

We next publish in January but we'll keep the website up to date in the meantime.
Issue 151 of The Wine Merchant is here. What's i Issue 151 of The Wine Merchant is here. 

What's inside? Nasty scammers, majestic hawks, repurposed wine bottles, guilt pangs, bleeding cocoa nibs, Sting (the singer), stings (from bees), 10,000 wine louts, people who lie about chocolate, hedonistic vermouth, Torres v Walkers, hairdresser puns, Lennon and McCartney in the northern Rhône, sesquiterpene rotundone, Leicester City and a small cheese sandwich. 

See if you can spot them all!
So sorry to hear of the passing of Peter Hall, pio So sorry to hear of the passing of Peter Hall, pioneer of English sparkling wine, self-proclaimed hermit and a wonderful raconteur who was generous with his time. Anyone with a bottle of Breaky Bottom in their collection will be toasting the memory this week of a lovely man.

Report on the Wine Merchant website, where you can also read the Q&A we did with Peter in 2022. It was the best article we ran that year – and perhaps in any year. RIP.
We used to be the only wine magazine in the world We used to be the only wine magazine in the world to publish album reviews. Now we're the only one with a psychotherapy column.

Plus: a horrible quiz, a stupid cartoon, in-store opera, people covered in treacle, the black hole of wine retailing, disappointing Belgian cuisine, and David Perry's plums.

Open your copy now while it's still got that strangely intoxicating aroma.
The 149th edition of The Wine Merchant is out ther The 149th edition of The Wine Merchant is out there in the wild. A huge milestone. We enjoyed putting it together for you and yesterday we celebrated its publication by tasting so much vermouth that parts of our mouths are jammed into unfamiliar positions and we’re talking in Dutch accents. Other than that, all good thanks 🤜
Loads of new openings, relocations and expansions Loads of new openings, relocations and expansions to read about in the latest edition of The Wine Merchant. But no closures. 

As Kate Goodman of Reserve Wines tells us in her interview, it's "probably as hard as it's ever been" for indies to keep going. But that's exactly what they're doing – and store numbers continue to rise.

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