Are you feeling a bit sore behind the eyes after a good time last night? David Bird MW explains what is probably causing that wine headache, otherwise known as a hangover.

The annual festival – named ‘La Batalla del Vino’ in Spanish – is held on 29 June for St Peter’s Day.

The Perrin family, who produces Provence rose Miraval in tandem with the Jolie-Pitts, has changed the bottle design in a bid to combat fraudsters in China.

French winemakers have reasserted their authority on the wine world by scooping some of the most coveted trophies at the annual Decanter World Wine Awards ceremony, with South Africa, Canada, the US and British supermarket chains also scoring notable successes.

UK cabinet minister Vince Cable MP has hailed the creativity and ambition in England’s wine industry at the launch of Rathfinny Estate, one of the newest and biggest producers.

Cable, who is secretary of state for business and one of the most senior members of the Coalition government, spoke at Friday’s opening of the 64ha Sussex vineyard’s winery.

‘The groundwork was done in the depths of recession and it required courage and imagination to stick with such a project,’ he said.

Cable also praised owners Mark and Sarah Driver for bringing jobs to the local area. ‘This is a real creative, imaginative industry, and it’s also a successful export industry,’ he said of English wine, which enjoyed a bumper harvest in 2013.

The vines, comprising Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and a small amount of Riesling, were all planted in the last two years on south-facing chalk slopes some six miles from the sea. Driver said the microclimate created by the southern hills made it ‘the perfect spot’ for growing the classic Champagne  grape varieties.

The first vintage of Rathfinny Sparkling is due in 2017. Driver, a former hedge fund manager, expects a return on his £10m investment by 2018, and said he would not make a profit before 2020.

The winery has capacity for 800,000 litres when working at capacity. By 2020, Driver will have planted a further 100ha (250acres) of vines.

A £2m laboratory that is intended to put southern England on the world map for wine research has been opened by the Duchess of Cornwall.

Another two companies offering wine investment options have gone into liquidation in the UK, including The London Vines Ltd with an estimated deficit of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Christmas price offers on Champagne in UK supermarkets have started early, and could be even fiercer than usual in 2013, as Tesco’s wine category manager says the group has a ‘strong plan’ in place.

Almost one in five of those surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers have bought counterfeit alcohol, despite 90% saying that counterfeiting is ‘morally wrong’.

Minimum alcohol pricing looks set to stay off the UK Government’s policy agenda until at least the next General Election, the chief executive of the country’s Wine & Spirit Trade Association has said.