High-quality alcohol-free drinks are the ones that cannot be ignored as sales of the brand are rocketing year after year.

How the London Competition winners can act as a roll call of drinks that indie merchants can be confident will sell.

The very idea of a celebrity drinks brand will probably have those, particularly in the more conservative parts of the wine trade spluttering into their claret. However, it's a trend that’s growing and very much here to stay.

Living with Covid for nearly two years, with repeated lockdowns and self-isolation has given the at home drinking market a huge boost. 

Across the Atlantic, hard seltzers – canned drinks, made from sparkling water, neutral grain alcohol and fruit flavourings - have taken the market by storm in recent years, and while the category is still growing that initial rate of growth has slowed.

Rabbie Burns would be spinning in his grave at the news, but English whisky is fast becoming an established industry, gaining a small, but rapidly growing fan base.

As a result of the soaring demand, drinks producers are now muscling in on the act to offer a wide array of no and low-alcohol offerings, and it’s a sector that independent drinks merchants ignore at their peril.

Consumers are becoming less knowledgable about wine, but at the same time becoming more confident around the category, according to a new report from Wine Intelligence.