A busy start to 2019 at GrapeSmith

January is a hiatus month in the wine business. After the crazy December period, January is the absolute opposite in terms of sales. This has given us the chance to take stock – literally. Our 50% off sale has helped clear the decks and we have comprehensively reviewed our whole portfolio. Some suppliers have been jettisoned as we continually seek to find better and better wines at great prices. The team have been scouring the trade tastings to hunt out some new exciting wines, and I can report we have struck gold on multiple occasion – details to follow as the wines arrive in the shop.

We have purchased a new van, as such we are now even more busy delivering wine in and within 20 miles of Hungerford.  In its first month “Van Rouge” has already covered 850 miles!

The Wine Academy is not far off! Polly has qualified as a WSET Education provider (no mean feat) and we have redesigned and decorated our upstairs space as a tasting/classroom. More details to follow.

February 1st sees another 0.07p in duty added to a bottle of still wine and 0.09p to sparkling wine. The really big issue in terms of pricing though remains the currency. Sterling has been sliding ever since the referendum, and a no deal Brexit will make matters much worse. If only for the price of your wine I am praying that if we finally leave the EU we do so in an orderly fashion with a seamless trade deal.

Elsewhere in 2019 I forecast sales of South African wines to sky rocket. All throughout our travels the wines of the Cape continue to really stand out both for quality and value. We will be starting a big South African Wine promotion from February.