The London International Wine Fair (LIWF) is almost upon us and, as usual, just-drinks will be at the three-day event in force.

As well as having our regular stand at the fair – come on over to G10 to see LIVE news reporting – I shall be presenting the results of our annual survey of the 'State of the (UK wine) Nation in 2011'. We've a few seats left at the briefing, so register here, quickly.

The headline from our survey is that, for the first time, the UK appears to no longer be considered the world's most important wine market. Promotions and duty tax have eaten into returns to such an extent that the UK is now losing favour to the likes of Scandinavia, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Yet, there is still clearly a strong amount of interest in the UK. While two of the world's largest winemakers, Constellation Brands and E&J Gallo Winery, will not be attending LIWF this week, organisers are keen to highlight that other companies have bought larger stands - Pernod Ricard, for example, has upped its stand size by 50% on last year – while there will also be a host of new arrivals – welcome, Wines of Brazil!

I'm that sure that we'll have a much better idea of the mood around the UK wine market in three days' time.

Our survey will be presented at the show on the Wednesday at 1615, and we'd love to see you there. Alternatively, if you're also going to be in east London, do drop by and say hello at the just-drinks stand.

Until next time...

Olly Wehring
Managing Editor
Web: http://www.just-drinks.com
Email: editor@just-drinks.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/just_drinks