As a cross between a sipping space and a wines and spirits retail outlet, The Tasting Room in Smith’s has been growing in popularity since it first opened in 2021.

New locations are now part of its five-year plan.

Sommelier and manager Ryliegh McGhee said part of its secret is constant evolution.

“The store is different every day,” she said.

She is herself part of the changing landscape.

Ms McGhee came over from Goslings a few months ago, only to take the shop to victory in the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs “battle of the wine merchants” pairing competition last month.

Up against two other merchants, she won it for the second year in a row.

The Royal Gazette spoke with her about this year’s wines and spirits trends, shortly after she returned from ProWein in Düsseldorf, Germany, a wine industry trade fair hosting more than 2,500 exhibitors from around the world.

Ms McGhee thought this would be tequila’s year to shine, despite some serious challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

“Our customers are now looking for flavourful spirits that are meant to be sipped and not mixed,” she said. “They are looking to get away from entry level spirits. They are going into more extreme styles of whiskey. They want something different.”

She revealed that climate change is turning the global wine industry upside down.

Sparkling wines from England are becoming increasingly popular at The Tasting Room, particularly Balfour, from the Hush Heath Estate in Kent.

The Romans brought grape vines to Britain 2,000 years ago. The Normans established viticulture 1,000 years later, but it declined in the Middle Ages, and while there was some interest in the 18th-Century, the English winemaking renaissance truly began in more recent decades.

“England has been planting grapes and vines for the last 25 years,” Ms McGhee said, “but in the last eight years it has really taken off. England is now making some of the best sparkling wine you'll ever see.”

The global warming trend is making it possible for British vintners to successfully grow grapes they never could before, but making things harder for French grape cultivation. French scientists are now researching grape varieties that will do better in warmer weather.

Italian vintners, also struggling, are now experimenting with cultivating grapes at higher altitudes in the mountains, where it is cooler.

Climate change is also widely blamed for the California wildfires in January.

“We won’t see the impact of that on California wine for at least another year,” Ms McGhee predicted.

However, the prognosis is not good. It is expected that many wineries in Napa Valley and Sonoma will have to destroy 100 per cent of their crops because of smoke damage.

“It was a similar story after California wildfires in 2019,” Ms McGhee said. “There were some areas that avoided damage because the smoke did not blow in their direction, but back then many vineyards had to either sell their grapes to other vineyards for 50 to 70 per cent off, or destroy them altogether.”

Ms McGhee said 2020 and 2021 were particularly bad years for California wine, and she is anticipating it will be again next year.

She said California winemakers will just have to wait out the bad period.