Harpers Wine and Spirit Trades Review
87 out of 100

Published Friday, May 14, 2010

Overview

Harpers Wine and Spirit Trades Review is a subscription service, fortnightly magazine (from approx £161.20/year) designed for the wine and spirits trade. Editorially it features news, events, analysis, interviews and opinion all with a trade focus. Articles are detailed and give an overview of the industry from an industry perspective.

The magazine has had numerous problems in the past but appears to be on a more even footing since joining the William Reed publishing empire. As a fortnightly it is an excellent read but the subscription does give some additional benefits, including Harpers Directory, a full contact list of businesses in the UK wine trade, as well as listing the major brands and key people. This is a very good resource and can identify the key importers for any wine very quickly. In addition Harpers publish regular supplements; usually these are a detailed look at each country and come out just before the generic trade tasting for that country. They help focus the mind on the key issues for each country before tasting the wines. The print addition also has an electronic PDF copy that is available to all subscribers. Just the thing for reading on an tablet or e-book on the way home from work. Their website http://www.harpers.co.uk has short up-to-date news articles for the trade and is free to all readers.

Harpers Wine and Spirit Trades Review in its current form appeared on 20 January 2009 as a merger between Wine & Spirit magazine and Harpers which was first published in 1878. Harpers was sold by Nexus Media to William Reed in November 2008. The re-launch brought many of the positive parts of both magazines into one with a greater emphasis on spirits than the old Harpers which was really focussed on wine.