The Brexit Effect on Wine & Spirits
Thankfully the Brexit talks finally seem to be getting somewhere as for the wine and spirits trade, no deal will be a bad deal. The representative body of the EU drinks industry has called upon the EU and UK to agree to a ‘gold standard agreement’ and so minimise the Brexit Effect. This will preserve tariff-free trade for wines and spirits to ensure fair competition and consumers’ confidence. A good outcome if agreed, but it is unlikely to be secured by March 2019.
In contrast, a positive forecast comes from the Travel Retail sector. This term emerged when duty-free shopping within the EU was abolished 18 years ago. Suddenly, the well-known British practice of hopping across the Channel to stock up on duty-free goods had gone. And as a consequence, a substantial amount of business was lost. So, when the UK exits the EU on 29 March 2019, this market should be reinstated. The UK will become a ‘third country’. Under current EU law, European travellers can take advantage of duty-free sales if travelling to a third country. However, for UK travellers to also benefit, a change in UK law will be required. The UK Travel Retail Forum are lobbying hard for this and very strong support has been received from the spirits industry. That said, we would still prefer to see a free trade agreement in place.
The Mail on Sunday’s drinks writer and well known TV personality, Olly Smith, has featured a few products from the Brandyclassics website in his column over recent months. He began with recommending our 
magnac range. Firstly he advocated the ever popular 
Our latest release, 
Our finest release to date, Hermitage Cognac Marie Louise made it into the Saturday Telegraph two months in a row. Initially, on 4 November, Victoria Moore wrote a fascinating piece about our MD, David Baker, Hermitage Cognacs and of course Cognac Marie Louise. On 2 December she included details of the wonderful 60 plus year old cognac in the Luxury supplement.
Our range of Hermitage Cognacs is ever increasing so we have designed some new cognac presentations to suit.
The 2017 International Wine & Spirits Competition held in London this summer revealed how our drinking tastes are evolving, reports The Telegraph. Expert spirits writer Neil Ridley says that our understanding of what we are drinking is constantly improving and he named the top 5 trends to look out for. One of those is the slow but steady rise in demand for French spirits. The increase in 
This summer, the Pineau des Charentes Committee launched its first marketing campaign in the US. Americans, already enjoy the truly craft, French 
Today, less than 1% of the 
“I am delighted to see that more and more businesses are recognising that education and well-trained staff are the foundations to better customer service and stronger profits,” says the CEO, Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). The WSTA concur stating that “consumers are increasingly favouring more premium brands”. We have always maintained that spirits education is key to the sale of our luxury brandies. There is a specific 
Last year we sold out of the very popular 
Harvest this year in the Charente region was particularly early. It started on 10th September when historically, the average date is 23rd September. According to the BNIC it is expected to be the smallest harvest since 1945 due to various weather conditions, in particular the late frost in May. They say that the vineyards not damaged by frost can expect 110 to 120 hectolitres per hectare of wine, whereas the frozen vineyard areas will only make 40 to 50 hl/ha – normally, the average is over 100 hl/ha. Â Our friends in the region tell us that even though they escaped the frost, the skins are tough and the grapes have not filled out much due to lack of sunshine.