As the UK grapples to make sense of the ground-breaking Brexit vote, and the accompanying upheaval and uncertainty, the UK drinks trade is also having to get to grips with the changing landscape.

It must have been through some gritted teeth that wine producers took to social media recently to congratulate fellow producer, RR Wine in Chile, for having produced what is being billed as “the best wine in the world”.

The Buyer is a new business website and social media platform offering insights, opinion and tasting analysis for sommeliers, buyers and decision makers across the premium on-trade sector.

During the week you will find Joe Fattorini quite happily blending in to the background in his day job as internal communications manager at Bibendum, one of the country's biggest drinksdistributors. But come the weekend, from mid-April, he will be transforming himself in to a prime time TV presenter in his role as wine expert on The Wine Show, ITV1's attempt to bring wine to a mainstream Saturday night audience. It's not quite Ant & Dec, but it will be on your TV just before them.

If you want to get a clear picture on where the wine industry is heading then look no further than Robin Copestick of Copestick Murray, the wine brand, sourcing and distribution business, that has a sixth sense for sniffing out the best opportunities not just here in the UK but around the world with brands such as I Heart that are now in over 20 countries. 

Here is an edited version of an article I produced for Meininger's Wine Business International on the challenges wine brands and regional bodies have when promoting their wines to different cultures around the world.  But get it right and you can connect with a global audience. 

Within three years of taking over Accolade Wines in the UK it is now the number one supplier to each of the Big Four multiples. It has, no doubt, helped him now become the chief executive of the entire global business. So who better to give a ringside seat to the changes and challenges facing not just the UK wine trade, but the world's wine industry, than Paul Schaafsma

I am pleased to introduce my new fortnightly newsletter I am producing for the London Wine Fair called Grapevine which looks to give an overview and some analysis on the latest big issues, news and views in the wonderful world of wine. 

South Africa has got its fair share of pioneering winemakers. Which is saying something considering it has only been making wine on the international stage for the last 30 years. But arguably none have had the influence of Bruce Jack when it comes to bringing both mainstream and prestigious wines to the global wine consumer.

Genuine innovation is incredibly rare in the wine industry. So much so that when I first started writing about it I thought I was being lead down the proverbial garden path when I was told rosé wine was one of the exciting new innovations of the year.

Here is my latest account from my travels in South Africa. It is an edited account of an article that was published by Imbibe on September 18.

It is arguably a little early to sum up the mood of a country or a wine sector after only a little more than 48 hours from stepping off a plane from London. But this feels like a very different South Africa than the one I visited for the last Cape Wine event in 2012.