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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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IRREGULAR THOUGHTS

Cold callers make David Perry hot under the collar
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SCAMMERS TARGET WINE RETAILERS

CNP payment option leaves retailers vulnerable
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PROFILE: CRUSHED & CURED, SOUTHSEA

George Bovill’s pivot from pure retail to hybrid has paid off
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Cape Winemakers Guild Auction raises record £746,000

Around 18% of rare wines on offer were bought by UK bidders
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English wine pioneer Peter Hall dies

Charismatic Breaky Bottom owner was a self-proclaimed hermit
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Independents are just too good

At least two companies want to build retail empires that tap into a wine market…
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Survey provides a glimpse of the future

Independents are taking an increasingly open-minded approach to their shops and broadening their specialism beyond…
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Independents buoyed by 7% sales increase

Independent wine shops have seen their combined turnover go up by 7% over the past…
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Stop trying to be cool

New world producers are obsessed with European elegance. But why?
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What we did on our holidays

Reporting on The Wine Merchant’s trip to the Centre-Loire
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Wine’s weird. Deal with it

Let’s celebrate the unique effect that wine has on us, and have fun expressing it
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Broaden the offer, but stay special

Independent wine shops have defied the Nielsen pessimism about their category
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Not oaky-dokey

Too many winemakers evidently prefer trees to vines, argues Doug Wregg
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The great class elevator

Independents pride themselves on having a knowledgeable clientele. But who educates these customers?
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Fizzy logic

A decline in Champagne’s fortunes has been greeted with some churlish sneering. But the Champenois…
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Living with Majestic

What happens when the UK’s biggest specialist wine chain opens on your doorstep?
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James Busby

Fear and loathing in east London

The British wine trade seems to have lost some of its taste for travel
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Issue 150 (September 2025)
Issue 149 (August 2025)
Issue 148 (July 2025)
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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.
We're delighted to confirm that your repeat prescr We're delighted to confirm that your repeat prescription for The Wine Merchant magazine is ready. If we haven't delivered it to your door, visit the website and follow the links to the digital version. 

The Wine Merchant has no known side-effects. And not only are you able to operate heavy machinery after consumption, it's something that we actively encourage.

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