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Articles by Andrew Neather
News / English sparkling
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The Black Chalk dilemma
As English sparkling producer Black Chalk launches its first single-vineyard wine, Andrew Neather looks into how the winery navigates its “vintage only” approach, and asks whether it can remain “boutique” in light of its considerable expansion. The launch of Hide, the first single-vineyard wine from Hampshire estate Black Chalk, reflects the producer’s confidence in its vintage-led strategy. It is an approach that has powered impressive growth, despite the challenges involved.
Wildfires: UK wine producers consider risk of smoke taint
The danger that wildfires pose to vineyards is more nuanced than a matter of vines being burned to the ground. Smoke taint is a complicated scientific problem: put simply, it occurs when chemical compounds found in smoke get into grapes - specifically their skins.
Friday read: Hero of a thousand wine shelves
Home News By Andrew Neather Published: 31 July, 2026 Philippe Guigal (pictured) is tying things up before escaping for his summer holiday. “Somebody said yesterday that I looked tired,” he says, “but I had tasted maybe 180 wines.” Among those, the Rhône producer assessed 35-40 samples – as every day of the year – for inclusion in his company E. Guigal’s basic red Côtes du Rhône blend.
Sustainable vineyard tech: Drones, robotics, satellites, AI and more
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 10 July, 2026 The drone buzzes across the vineyard, two metres above the vines, dispensing a fine cloud of spray. At the end of the row it moves to the next and flies back, robotically, on a computer-predetermined route. The operator can alter droplet size while it’s flying, down to 70 microns.
The Wine Society & Alfred Gratien - a 120 year working partnership
Any drinks buyer knows the importance of a good relationship with their suppliers. It not only means they like working together, it means a guaranteed, consistent level of a quality product they can supply their customers. The Wine Society’s partnership with Champagne’s Alfred Gratien has a hard commercial logic to it. Gratien make The Society’s Brut NV label – the same cuvée as its own brut NV. The Wine Society buys around 80,000 bottles of it a year, about a third of the total production.
Phoenix rising: how Yarra Valley found its feet amidst phylloxera
It has been 20 years since phylloxera was first discovered in the Yarra Valley. But how have winemakers in the Australian region turned disaster into opportunity? Andrew Neather investigates. Given phylloxera’s apocalyptic reputation in Europe, the scene on a late summer’s day at TarraWarra Estate, in Australia’s Yarra Valley, seems strangely calm.
Dishing the Dirt - Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 24 April, 2026 From vine wellbeing to carbon capture, Andrew Neather charts the benefits of healthy soils. Access to this article is restricted. You need to have a valid subscription to access this content. If you already have a subscription please log in. Subscribe Subscribe today for unrestricted access to ALL content and receive all email newsletters.
How Vinitaly came at right time to protect & grow Italy’s global sales
This year’s Vinitaly wine fair, which closed on Wednesday, was hit by the current international turmoil relating to the Middle East in more ways than one. While the 58th edition of the fair was busy and all those producers The Buyer spoke to pronounced themselves happy with the level of activity, attendance was down this year, at 90,000 visitors compared to last year’s 97,000. Of those, around a quarter were international.
Rift grows in regenerative viticulture movement
Leading viticulture authority Jamie Goode has slammed the insistence of some regenerative bodies on growers also being organic. Speaking this week in Roussillon at a forum hosted by regenerative winemaker Domaine Lafage, Goode said, “If we tie regenerative viticulture to organics, it’s finished… It will be a small, fancy club for people to feel good about themselves. It’s bullshit.
Rift grows in regenerative viticulture movement
Regenerative viticulture risks becoming “a small, fancy club” if it is tied too closely to organic certification, according to wine writer Jamie Goode, as producers push for a more flexible approach. Andrew Neather reports from Domaine Lafage in France. Dr. Jamie Goode speaking at the Domaine Lafage Regenerative Viticulture Day last month Leading viticulture authority Jamie Goode has slammed the insistence of some regenerative bodies on growers also being organic.
Galicia on path to recovery from 'Australia-like' wildfires
Galician producers are recovering from some of the worst fires in the region’s history, with flames licking areas of up to 1,700 hectares. Andrew Neather reports. Jesús Varela is standing in a vineyard to break any winemaker’s heart. The first few rows in this plot in Galicia are charred stumps. Behind him, a blackened stand of zarza undergrowth shows where the wildfire last August jumped from. This summer saw the worst wildfires in this wine-producing region for many years.
Galicia on path to recovery from 'Australia-like' wildfires
Galician producers are recovering from some of the worst fires in the region’s history, with flames licking areas of up to 1,700 hectares. Andrew Neather reports. Jesús Varela is standing in a vineyard to break any winemaker’s heart. The first few rows in this plot in Galicia are charred stumps. Behind him, a blackened stand of zarza undergrowth shows where the wildfire last August jumped from. This summer saw the worst wildfires in this wine-producing region for many years.
Wine importers hit by payment chaos in new EPR scheme
Drinks businesses say confidence in the UK Government’s packaging levy has been badly shaken after hundreds of companies were charged multiple times. Industry leaders warn the system is “fundamentally flawed” and already causing financial strain. Wine businesses have reacted angrily to major glitches in the first payments under the new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules.
Social sustainability: The need to spotlight working conditions globally
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 28 November, 2025 Marcos Carol looks proud as he describes the changes in the village of Tilimuqui, north west Argentina, since his La Riojana wine co-operative became Fairtrade certified in 2006. The Fairtrade premium has helped fund a new running water system, a health centre, a new secondary school and 50 scholarships for the children of growers.
Rooted in Change: setting the big sustainability steps forward for wine
From a warm field in Essex to frost in Chablis, we started this book by surveying some of the extreme weather events that wine producers are now having to contend with. Wine is the canary in the coal mine of climate change: proof that the climate emergency is already changing our world and some of the most fundamental assumptions about one of humanity’s longest-established agricultural products.
Simpson's to dedicate 60% of its grapes towards English still wines
Kent producer Simpson’s says the warmer weather this year has led to “riper and fuller flavours” that lend themselves especially well to producing still wines, writes Andrew Neather. The harvest was in full swing on a glorious autumn day at Simpson’s Wine Estate last week. “It’s hard to believe it’s going to be 19 degrees today”, says co-owner Charles Simpson.
Andrew Neather & Jane Masters on wine’s sustainability “obligation”
What is the new book you have been working on? It’s Rooted in Change: The Stories behind Sustainable Wine. It’s intended as an accessible introduction to the subject – basically the first to date. It's also unusual because while wine writers normally just write about wines and where and how they’re made, this book tackles the environmental impact of the whole industry, from grape to glass.
Facing up to wine’s biggest challenge
Looking out over Graham Martin’s rows of Pinot Noir grapes marching down a hillside near Chelmsford, Essex in early summer sunshine, it’s hard to imagine any planetary threat. But in fact this is the front line of climate change – and Martin, like other English growers, is a beneficiary. The last late frost in this sheltered spot in the Crouch Valley was 13 years ago. Average temperatures in southern England have risen two degrees since the 1970s: this has indisputably boosted the wine industry.
Friday read: Champagne’s slow but steady march to organic
Home News By Andrew Neather Published: 26 September, 2025 As Champagne celebrates an exceptional vintage, recent news has been less positive for the region’s organic producers: the rate of conversions has been fairly static over the past two years. But Ludovic du Plessis, CEO of organic producer Champagne Telmont, remains optimistic about organics’ future in the region. “One hundred per cent organic is possible, it’s doable,” says Du Plessis.
Guest column: Air travel and the politics of sustainable wine
As the world’s wine trade converges on CapeWine 2025 this week, there will be plenty of talk of the environment – as one panel on regenerative viticulture has it, “as sustainability shifts from buzzword to baseline”. Renewable energy in wineries, water-saving measures and action to preserve biodiversity are all hot topics, even amid the economic pressures of Trump’s tariff assault.
Headline Heroes: Prosecco’s commitment to sustainability
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 25 July, 2025 The vineyards around the town of Conegliano, in Italy’s Veneto, are among Europe’s most picturesque. In summer, the steep hills are carpeted with vines producing Glera grapes for Prosecco: this is the home of Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG. It looks idyllic, yet the challenges of sustainability here are real – prompting the authorities of both the DOCG and the bigger Prosecco DOC to act.
The frustrating spectre of greenwashing
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 06 May, 2025 Ever been greenwashed? It’s not always as obvious as you might think. Some companies’ use of “greenwashing” – hyping their record to make it sound greener than it is – is blatant. In 2022 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled against fruit drinks company Innocent over an ad that strongly linked its products to protecting the environment. The message ran: “Innocent.
Home Analysis & Insights By Andrew Neather Published: 30 April, 2025 When Véronique Cochran first converted Château Falfas to biodynamic agriculture in 1989, it looked unconventional. Fast-forward to today and many of the methods she uses at her vineyard in Bordeaux’s Côtes de Bourg – not using chemical pesticides, growing cover crops between vines – seem mainstream. Such is the march of organics and biodynamics in Europe in recent decades.
Bulking Up - Tim Atkin - Master of Wine
In the vast factory I’m surrounded by the clink of bottling lines. Despite the huge space, there aren’t many workers, and most of them are either adjusting robots or zipping around on forklift trucks. Complex machines sit loaded with wheels of labels for some of the largest UK wine brands from Australia, California, Chile. This is Encirc’s plant in Eltham, Cheshire, where the firm bottles 337 million litres of bulk-shipped wine each year.
España in the works: The revolution in Spain’s red wine styles
How lower-intervention winemaking is making freshness, fine tannins and minerality the new taste of Spain At about 700 metres up in the Moncayo massif in Aragón, in chilly February mist, Eduardo Ibañez is teaching me how to prune 100-year-old Garnacha vines. ‘Here, like this,’ he says, showing me where to make the cut.
Brandy from Jerez, the Elegant and Silky Spirit
Solera Reserva and Gran Reserva To qualify as a Solera Reserva, brandy must spend a minimum average of at least a year in barrel. Solera Gran Reserva must be matured for an average of at least three years – though in fact most Gran Reservas are far older. Production of the more modest straight Brandy de Jerez Solera has declined substantially in recent years.
Crete wine comes full circle for its tourists
‘Crete started making wine 15 years ago.’ So says Vassilis Spiridakis, the savvy sommelier at St Nicolas Bay Hotel. His private wine tastings, which can be booked in advance, are hosted in the hotel’s bijou art gallery. Together, we try some of his favourite bottles from one of Crete’s trailblazing winemakers, Domaine Lyrarakis. Its 2020 Psarades Dafni hums with the rosemary, thyme and lavender found around its vines.
Rolland and the deafening silence of the press
He told journalist Laura Bernaulte of French website Terre de Vins last week: “For me, 2015 is a truly great year.” But, he said, “There are too many tossers [trop de cons] to see it… We live with people without balls [sans couilles].” In case anyone was in any doubt as to the particular sans-couilles who had sparked his ire, he added: “There’s not one journalist who’s seen it.
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