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Did I read that right? Is that a serious question? You did and it is. Speaking at the recent Arena Savoy Lecture, Alex Demetriou, chief executive of Foodbuy, said people will happily pay £2.75 for a fifth of a pineapple that has been chopped up, rather than £1.25 for a full one. Because it is convenient and easy to eat. It is not just simply a chopped up pineapple. It is giving busy people an easy snack solution even though it makes no financial sense to buy it. As Demetriou added: “It’s our job to make the world convenient for our customers and make it easy for us to work.”

We’re delighted to announce that Impact Focus is the official Sustainability Partner of the London Wine Fair.

Meet the UK’s leading drinks authors at this year’s London Wine Fair. The following writers will be signing copies of their latest books in the Signature Serve Lounge between 16h00 and 18h00 on Monday.

The Burnt Chef Project, the not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to supporting mental health in hospitality, is partnering with Canned Wine Group to host the first-ever ‘Burnt Brunch’ at this year’s London Wine Fair, shining a spotlight on mental health awareness across the food, drink and hospitality sectors.

Keeping on top of regulations and running an efficient drinks business in the UK? It can feel like a juggling act. That's where Bottlebooks steps in. This online platform is a clever way for everyone in the wine and spirits world to manage and share crucial information without the usual fuss.

I hope that by now it’s easier to recognise just how broadly AI can be applied - and if you think its role in wine stops at the vineyard, I encourage you to read on and think again. Once the grapes are harvested, technology continues its journey - reshaping how wine is fermented, aged, monitored, and even how it finally reaches your glass.

It’s no parlour trick. Wine professionals can identify subtle details in the glass: the grape variety used, fermentation vessel, temperature of fermentation, levels of extraction. Time spent in oak – and the type, origin, and size of the barrel – also leaves its mark, as does lees contact and bottle ageing. These signs are detectable by a practiced palate.

Sounds like you have been eating too much cheese - what do you mean by that? Look carefully at the wine ranges now being offered by the major supermarkets, specialist wine merchants, pub groups and restaurants and they are starting to resemble a slice of Swiss cheese. There are more holes in them. Whilst over the last few years importers and on and off-trade operators could not wait to tell you how many wines they had on their list, with bigger, bolder, wider wine ranges the order of the day. Now operators are a lot quieter about how many actual wines they have to sell. With far more attention given to how “focused” and “targeted” they are to their customers’ needs.

Drinks United is a cross-industry collaboration founded by WSTA, WSET, and The Drinks Trust. By driving coordinated action, they aim to foster workplaces that reflect and empower the people within the drinks industry. 

In an industry so deeply rooted in heritage, the idea of AI and robotics in the vineyard might once have seemed like science fiction. Today, it’s quickly becoming reality. As producers face increasing pressure from climate change, labour shortages, and rising input costs, technology offers a compelling path forward—one that doesn't replace tradition but enhances it.

I’ve always thought that wine and people have more in common than we realise - both are rooted in story and diversity. Wine speaks to the climate, the history of the vineyard, and the language of where the grapes are grown. It reflects the passion and legacy of the winemaker, shaped by soil, weather, tradition, and choices made along the way.

Really? What do you mean by that? Well, at the risk of sounding like Ben Elton and starting this column with a “little bit of politics,” it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by how far the drinks, hospitality and retail sectors are being battered left, right and centre by the political decisions taken by successive governments that are ultimately out of their hands. It leaves businesses and individuals feeling a bit like the steel ball in a pinball machine being sent in all directions by the latest government policy announcement.

Following the tremendous success of last year's 'Judgement of London,' we are thrilled to announce our next prestigious icon tasting event: The Battle of the Bubbles 2025.

As someone who has worked in wine for most of their adult life, it’s often surprised people how as close to a rule as there can be, I won’t order wine in a pub. However, this is probably not a surprise to people who actually work in the trade… Whites too cold, reds too warm, filled up to the brim of a heavy 250ml goblet. Not to say this is all pubs, there are plenty that take incredible care over their wine service, but many don’t get it quite right.

The wine world is changing, and AI, data, and technology are playing a bigger role than ever. From vineyards using predictive analytics to fine-tune their harvests to wineries harnessing machine learning for quality control, the industry is on the brink of a tech & AI-driven transformation.

Experience a fusion of Japanese culture and craftsmanship as you explore the Japan pavilion at London Wine Fair. The pavilion will feature twenty exhibitors showcasing an exquisite array of unique Japanese alcoholic craft drinks.

Well that’s very nice of you…what skills are you talking about? Shiny new skills to help all wine and spirits companies better equip themselves for the future, that’s what. Skills that are currently not commonplace even in the most developed of drinks, retail and hospitality businesses. The opportunity to tap into a new pool of talent that will set the agenda for employment in the coming years

With less than two months to go, this year's London Wine Fair and co-located spirits event Signature Serve is shaping up to be the best yet! With hundreds of new exhibitors and many more returning to the show after a break, LWF 2025 promises an unparalleled opportunity to discover innovative producers, sample exceptional wines and forge valuable industry connections.

Having recently judged the Sustainable Wine Buyer category in the Wine Buyer Awards, I’ve been reflecting on the increasing importance of sustainability for buyers, and the challenge of navigating the complex balance of commercial KPIs against personal or corporate sustainability goals. After two decades in the Waitrose drinks buying team, I’m also mindful of the shifting priorities between traditional buying and other objectives for both retail and hospitality.

Well, that’s a leading question. Have you been watching a bit too much Monty Python recently (nudge nudge)? I thought that might grab your attention. I mean how low have you dared take your alcohol ABV levels following the complete change to the UK alcohol duty system since February 1.

In each issue of the London Wine Fair Times we will announce a finding from London Wine Fair media partner The Wine Merchant 2025 readers survey.

This year’s London Wine Fair will see spirits placed at the heart of the event, with a dedicated space featuring high end exhibitors and content.

We have partnered with Decanter to bring you an exclusive offer! For a limited time, you can explore the full benefits of Decanter Premium for only £1 for four weeks.

The deal will see the Group exhibiting both its Canned Wine Co. flagship brand and The Copper Crew organic wines.

The shortlist for the 2025 Wine Buyers Awards was announced last night at the LWF Preview Party.

London Wine Fair are excited to announce Alya Lilani as our DE&I Consultant.

Despite the wine industry’s most challenging trading conditions in decades, the organisers of London Wine Fair remain optimistic for the UK market with 91% of space either confirmed or reserved; a 9% Year on Year increase

Meet the team behind the UK's biggest drinks trade event

Are you someone who would like to enter the 2025 Wine Buyers Awards? This is the information you need to give your entry a turbo boost.

The World Alcohol-Free Awards will be back at the London Wine Fair for the third time in May, showing off the Gold Medal winners from our 2025 competition.

The London Wine Fair organisers have reported on the 2024 show, which took place at Olympia from 20th to 22nd May this week. The goal for 2024 was to build on the success of last year’s show, investing heavily in improving visitor quality as a key objective. Total (net) visitors for 2024 were 9,243, which is 8% down on 2023. The breakdown of the visitor audience was almost identical to 2023, with 31% from the on-trade (31% in 2023) and 22% from off-trade (21% in 2023).

London Wine Fair’s Judgement of London took place yesterday, and the results are now in. 32 wines were tasted over a period of four hours by 21 judges, a selection of the UK’s best palates, two-thirds of which were either Masters of Wine or Master Sommeliers. The wines – all of which were decanted and served in Jancis Robinson X Richard Brendon glasses – were tasted in pairs under exam conditions: eight pairs of white wines, followed by eight pairs of red wines; each pairing comprised a European wine with their Rest of World counterpart, matched in terms of style. The judges scored each wine out of ten, which resulted in a grand total for each wine, and a final overall score for European vs. Rest of World.

The judges have been revealed for London Wine Fair’s Judgement of London, which takes place on the first day of the show next week. Judgement of London pays homage to the late Steven Spurrier’s landmark Judgement of Paris, but with an updated format; judges will taste pairs of European icon wines with their non-European equivalents; eight pairs of white wines, followed by eight pairs of red wines.

In the aftermath of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, our hearts go out to all those affected by this devastating event, the worst our region has ever seen. Despite the challenges we face, our community is coming together with determination to rebuild. Every act of kindness, no matter how small, brings hope in these tough times. We're still struggling, but every donation counts, even if it's just the price of a glass of wine at the pub. We look forward to seeing our region beautiful and thriving again. Together, we'll overcome this, standing strong and supporting each other every step of the way.

As Fairtrade turns 30, what better way to celebrate than with a glass of Fairtrade wine.

Do you remember your first time? Mine – pre-dating that brief sojourn to Excel – was in 1996, in very different times. Many stands, no masterclasses, and clouds of cigarette smoke pushing on Olympia’s vaulted glass. Trade Fairs are like people, and following a small mid-life crisis, and having met a fabulous woman (event director Hannah Tovey), London is having a come-back, reinvented as a rich and unique space for wine learning, business inspiration, and cultural innovation. Masterclasses are one of the most exciting aspects of the fair, as leading experts and producers come to Olympia to present the latest wines and trends from classic and emerging regions.

Our winemaking philosophy is to produce the highest quality wines with the least intervention possible. We are zealous about growing without irrigation, commercial herbicides, or fertilizers and we select only the best grapes from our Estate, Certified Organic vineyard. We hand-harvest in the cool of the night, ferment using native yeasts, and age the wine in French oak barrels longer than typical, for more complexity. The wines are not fined or filtered.

Get ready to visit stand L40, where the National Tax Agency of Japan presents the Japan Pavilion. Experience a fusion of Japanese culture and craftsmanship as you explore their Pavilion, featuring 15 co-exhibitors showcasing an exquisite array of unique Japanese alcoholic beverages. And there's more! Don't miss out on the opportunity to indulge in Japanese cocktails crafted by their professional bartender at their exclusive bar.

Is that a statement of fact or a question? A bit of both. There can be no doubt the increase in the quality of English sparkling wine over the last 20 years has helped transform an industry that had long been making wine, but little of it was renown, or even known, around the world. Now English sparkling wines sit side by side with some of the most famous and glamorous Champagne brands on wine lists in some of the most prestigious restaurants around the globe. Their success has helped not only give the English wine sector a new found confidence it has also brought huge levels of investment with vineyards being planted in every grape growing region of the British Isles. Even famous Champagne houses are buying up chunks of the English countryside to cash in on the English wine revolution.

Really? I did not know they were. How do you mean? Well, try this for a game. Type luxury wine brand into Google and what do you see? A number of what you might define as major global wine producers each having their own luxury brands division or separate luxury wines portfolios. It seems having a premium or even super premium category for your high-end wines is no longer good enough. To really stand out and be seen as aspirational you now need to push yourself into the luxury class.

Hermione Ireland takes a look back at what drove Steven Spurrier ahead of the monumental Judgement of Paris in 1976 and considers how the impact of his life’s work has guided the current, broader Judgment of London at LWF24

What is circularity, and what is its potential to generate positive impact? This burning question lies at the heart of the upcoming masterclass, "Tech-Infused Vineyards: Tasting Circularity for Winery Prosperity," set to take place at the Education Zone of the London Wine Fair on May 21st at noon. In a world increasingly driven by the imperative of environmental, social and economic stewardship, understanding and implementing circularity in the wine industry is not just about sustainability; it's about securing a prosperous future for wineries worldwide.

The wine fair wouldn’t be the wine fair without a buzzword weaving its way through Olympia’s ruby-carpeted corridors. Last year, it very quickly transpired that ‘regenerative’ was the chosen one, firmly blowing 2022’s ‘sustainability’ out of the buzzword water, and rightly so.

Hold on before you start answering that what do you mean by a producer-owned UK wine importer? Exactly what it says on the tin. A UK wine importer, distributor or supplier that is owned - or part owned - by a separate wine producer business. It is fast becoming the go to trading model for many of our most well known, established and respected wine suppliers - and also a way into the UK market for new suppliers to set themselves up.

Exhibitors - Do make sure your team co-ordinate their meeting planners, to ensure that there’s never a time when everyone is booked up. After all, you will still need people manning the stand!

Big and buzzy they might be, but trade fairs aren’t always efficient. As Justin Liddle, MD of Mentzendorff puts it, ‘‘How often have you spent the day waiting for a particular buyer to come along and then the minute you step away for fifteen minutes you discover they’ve lingered and gone?’

Really that sounds very grown up? Who did you steal that line from? Ah, you can see right through me. OK, that actually comes from advertising legend turned wine producer, Sir John Hegarty - he of Vorsprung Durch Technik and Levi jeans advertising fame - who fears the wine industry is being left behind, as it is too often driven by industry and not consumer-driven innovation?

London Wine Fair will host an homage to the late Steven Spurrier’s landmark “Judgment of Paris”, a tasting which created shockwaves around the wine world in 1976, when the Californians trumped the French in a blind tasting. “Judgement of London” will be a significantly updated version to reflect the breadth and maturity of today’s fine wine market. Whilst the original tasting saw current vintages of Bordeaux and Burgundy pitched against their Californian counterparts, the 2024 version will see a broader inclusion of European icon wines and The Rest of the World equivalents, a more realistic benchmarking nearly half a century on.

Several of the UK’s leading agents, importers and logistics companies will make a return to the London Wine Fair in 2024. They include: Mentzendorff, which will take a stand for the first time in 12 years; Buckingham Schenk, celebrating their 50th anniversary; Freixenet Copestick; Hillebrand Gori UK; Lanchester Wines; and Origin Wine.

In a little over three months, Olympia will open its doors to the 2024 edition of the London Wine Fair – the most important event in the drinks industry’s calendar – and visitor registration is now open.

The organisers of the London Wine Fair are delighted to announce the dates and venue for next year’s show, as well as a brand-new fine wine feature. The 2024 edition will take place at Olympia from 20th to 22nd May.

We caught up with Eric Aracil, co-director in charge of exports for the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Roussillon (CIVR), ahead of his venue to the 2023 London Wine Fair (LWF). We ask him to explain what sets Roussillon apart and what we can expect from the Wines of Roussillon stand (B40) at LWF.

Romania will be present with a national Pavilion from May 15-17, 2023 at one of the world’s leading trade fairs for wines and spirits and the most intelligent event of its kind, namely the London Wine Fair.

The London Wine Fair has announced the 2023 Wine Writers Edit: a top 30 of “must taste” drinks which 10 of the U.K.’s foremost wine writers and influencers have selected from the thousands of products taking part this year. Greece and South Africa are the leading countries, with four wines apiece featured. But 10% of the wines selected are from one county: Devon. Three wines, all from Sandbridge Barton – The Home of Sharpham Wines, have made it into the top 30: 2020 Blanc de Noir; 2021 Pinot Gris “Wild Ferment”; and 2022 Dart Valley Reserve.

The competition, now in its eighth year, represents the pinnacle of Champagne and gastronomy pairing. This year’s competition will, once again, attract the very best contestants, in a continued partnership with Le Cordon Bleu London with new 2023 partners The Sommelier Edit and London Wine Fair. The competition recognises and awards up-and-coming sommelier and chef partnerships who create perfect food and wine pairings in restaurants and other eateries all over the country.

OK you might not want to turn up at a dinner party with a bottle of Tesco Finest, but if you did you can be pretty much guaranteed no one would complain about what it tastes like. Private label, own label, or exclusive wines are the benchmark setters for the industry. Wines that have probably had more scrutiny and attention paid to how they are made than the average branded wine on shelf. These are the wines that a retailer, a restaurant group, a pub, or hotel chain is putting their prized name to. These are the wines they are most proud of and take very seriously indeed...

20 Portuguese producers, from North to South, will be waiting for your visit, from May 15th to 17th, inside the Wines Unearthed area at the London Wine Fair (Olympia London) to show you what they have to offer.

We are in the age of transparency and authenticity, with consumers becoming increasingly aware of the climate and biodiversity crisis we are living in. According to NIQ, 69% of consumers would like to know more information about the products they purchase to understand how they contribute to a better planet.

Ten years after launching Coravin, Greg Lambrecht, inventor and founder, will be attending London Wine Fair on May 15 & 16th.

How many different types of wine bottle are actually in use? What prevents a bottle from being reused? This is the million-dollar question that a three-way partnership between The Porto Protocol, London Wine Fair and Sustainable Wine Solutions (SWS) hopes to answer.

The rapid growth in sales and profile of Georgian wine to the UK may seem surprising to some. But for Georgians it is the reward of more than a decade of collective effort. Exports of Georgian wine to the UK increased 10-fold in the 5 years from 2016 to 2021 (2022 figures are pending). The great work has been to “diversify markets”; to cut the twisted chord to Russia, which has been for a century or so Georgia’s principal wine customer. The relationship reminds me of a bad ex.

Is it really? What makes you say that. The fact you have even asked that question reveals the problem the industry has. For large parts of the wine sector the independent grocery, and convenience channels are after thoughts, if they are even a thought at all. When the wine industry talks about independents it means the few hundred specialist independent wine merchants and not the tens of thousands of grocery stores embedded in every local community in the country. Retailers that are too often dismissed as the local corner shop that you would only go to when you have run out of milk, or want to buy a National Lottery ticket. The fact they also sell millions of bottles of wine a year seems, for many, to be completely ignored.

Stop talking about themselves - who are they going to talk about? Their customer. Their target audience. The people, or businesses, they hope are going to buy their wine. But how many companies, brands, or individuals for that matter, ever do? We are all too busy telling the world about ourselves to ever stop to think what we look and sound like to the very people we are trying to talk to.

The rise of English sparkling wine over the last 20 years is, to my mind, our industry’s most notable – and successful – story this century. I don't think it’s patriotic hyperbole to say that, in the last 20 years, the wine world has witnessed the emergence, for the first time in four decades, of a wholly new region, recognised globally for a specific style and innate identity.

Sounds interesting - why are you asking this now? Well, if you eavesdrop on any conversation between a producer, supplier or retailer, the issue of glass and what a massive headache it has become for everyone in the supply chain, will come up within a few moments.

For well over a decade, it has been clear that across industries, businesses would live and die by their approach to sustainability, and how they communicate on it. Today, a coherent ESG strategy is, almost universally, considered essential for companies, not only because it’s ‘the right thing to do,’ but also because it is vital for staff retention, building relationships with suppliers and customers and engaging with the end consumer.

What makes you so worried about the future of online - I thought it was the gift that keeps on giving?

Just over four thousand people voted for their Old Vine Hero last week: proof of the power of old vines to move us.

The London Wine Fair is set to welcome a host of first-time exhibitors for the 2023 event, with a significantly increased presence from key European countries.