UK independent retailer Shop Cuvée is offering a free bottle of its best-selling Vinho Verde with every order over £20 – while stocks last – after defying the highs and lows of the pandemic over the past year to sell tens of thousands of bottles of natural wine.

The L’Observatoire restaurant owned by Saint-Emilion grand cru Angelus has been awarded it first Michelin star, a mere three months after opening during the height of last year’s pandemic.

Napa Valley Vintners has announced that it will partner with Zachys for an auction in February featuring cellar stock donated by its members. 

On Wednesday, Joe Biden is scheduled to become the 46th President of the United States. With the passing of power to a Democrat in the White House backed by a Congress controlled by that party, European wine and spirit producers are hopeful of an upturn in their fortunes.
What they want is an end to the 20-year transatlantic tariff war rooted in the dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing. 
Both Brussels and Washington proclaim their innocence, the World Trade Organisation has unhelpfully found for both sides and the resulting friction has led to tit-for-tat duty penalties, especially under Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ policies.   
Cognac producers in particular are wary of the US becoming a new albatross around their necks as China became in 2013. But even with soothing noises made by Biden’s camp about the desire to heal the rift with the EU, it seems unlikely that repealing the tariffs will be high on the new president’s initial list of priorities.

Exports of South African wine to the UK rose 23% by value and 7% in volume in 2020 according to the latest figures released by industry body SAWIS.