Spirits – Page 7 – Keep It Overproof!

Hennessy Cognac secures first partnership with NBA

Hennessy has secured a multiyear sponsorship which makes the Cognac brand the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) official spirit partner . The deal means that Hennessy will become the official spirit of the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and USA Basketball. It is the first time Hennessy, which is owned by LVMH, has partnered with a professional sports league in North America. The brand will take over from Jack Daniels, the NBA’s previous spirit partner, this month. Dan Rossomondo, NBA senior vice president of media and business development, said...

Brewdog rebrands, exchanges old cans for equity

Nearly 15 years after launching its first IPA and spearheading the ‘craft’ beer movement in the UK, Brewdog has completely rebranded its packaging and is asking drinkers to return old cans in exchange for shares. Brewdog’s branding will be paired back as part of a “new dawn” for the brewer’s image, according to co-founder and owner James Watt. The new cans feature a shield design and a smaller version of the brewer’s signature dog logo, bright colouring, and the words “brewed in Ellon”, with reference to the company’s brewery in Aberdeenshire. The...

Loi EGalim to be ‘softened’ after Champagne sales slide in France

Posted in Beer, Spirits, Wine.

A law restricting Champagne retail promotions in France is due to be “softened” just 12 months after its introduction, db can exclusively reveal. As reported earlier this week, shipments of Champagne worldwide have dropped to their lowest level since the global financial crisis, following an estimated decrease of 4.5 million bottles in 2019, which has taken the total figure down to 297.4m bottles. Singled out by the Champenois as the primary cause of this decline has been the introduction in France in January last year of a set of rules to restrict the nature of promotions on certain...

INAO backs down from ‘Bourgogne’ decision

The INAO has reportedly backed down from its decision to exclude 64 Burgundian communes from being able to use the AOC ‘Bourgogne’. As reported earlier this week, the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) met in Montreuil near Paris and on its agenda was making a more concrete delineation of Burgundy. To the surprise of many growers, this decision would have stripped 64 communes, all in the north of the region and including Chablis, of the right to use ‘Bourgogne’ as an AOC if they wished to. On the other hand, all of the communes in Beaujolais...

Australia’s Dinner by Heston owes workers $4.5m

The parent company of Melbourne’s Dinner by Heston, which went into voluntary liquidation in December, allegedly owes staff at least AU$4.5 million, a creditors’ report has found. The report, which was obtained by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, revealed that Dinner by Heston had been consistently underpaying its workers since it opened in the Crown Casino in 2015. Tipsy Cake, the company that owns the Australian Dinner by Heston, entered voluntary liquidation in December 2019. The company is based on the Caribbean island and tax haven of Nevis, and its ownership details...

Made in Chelsea star’s ‘clean’ gin alternative goes on shelf in Sainsbury’s

Former City broker and Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews’s low abv ‘CleanGin’ brand has gone on shelf nationwide in Sainsbury’s. Spencer Matthews attending his launch of The Clean Liquor Company, at The Trading House in London. The company is launching the world’s first 1.2% abv ‘CleanGin’, an ultra-low alcohol replacement to gin, with only 4 calories per 50ml. Matthews launched the distilled 1.2% abv ‘spirits’ in November last year, after collaborating with Justin Hicklin, a director of the Gin Guild to plug a gap in the drinks...

DTC wine shipping slows in US as market matures

The growth of direct-to-consumer (DtC) wine shipping slowed in the US last year as the market reached maturation, a new report has found – but the average price per bottle rose. Sunset over a vineyard in Napa Valley, California, USA. Rows of grapevine crops grow and grapes ripen in the cultivated agricultural farm field. Mountains on the horizon glow in the misty dawn. Scenic wine country landscapes are tourist vacation travel destinations. vertical format with sky copy space. The Direct-to-consumer shipping report, a collaboration between Sovos ShipCompliant and Wines Vine Analytics...

Booze retail sales down 20% in Dry January compared to a ‘normal’ month

Sales of booze during January dipped 20% in the UK grocery market this year compared to the ‘normal’ months of February to September, data from Kantar has revealed – but despite the noise around Dry January, alcohol sales are still “considerable”, it said. Young man with a shopping cart is in a supermarket picking up wine. Speaking to the drinks business today, Kantar’s, head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt said that while this was a sizeable dip, 15 million households had still bought booze during January. “The January [alcohol] sales...

Fine wine investment: Risk-weighting

Liv-ex recently undertook its annual flagellation of esteemed members, under the banner: ‘Fine wine prices in 2019: merchants’ predictions vs reality’. It is to be hoped anyone not in need of a giggle looked no further than the headline. Why do this to themselves, you might ask? Well they do exactly the same in mainstream markets, with exactly the same results. No matter how much an investment bank pays its global strategist there always seems to be a copious amount of egg on faces. Nor are we at Amphora about to argue that we would do any better, because it is an impossible...

Top drinks marketing campaigns and news in January

Diageo launches Seedlip’s first ad campaign Drinks giant Diageo has led the fight to keep sales buoyant during January by launching its first advertising campaigns in the UK and US for non-alcoholic ‘spirit’ brand Seedlip. It is the first time that Diageo has set up an ad campaign for Seedlip, after upping its investment in the popular non-alcoholic brand to a ‘significant’ majority stake in August 2019. Developed by Seedlip’s EU marketing director, Ben Thomson, alongside creative agency And Rising, it features the strapline: ‘Drink to the Future’,...

Category: Spirits