JOSEPH DROUHIN ST.VÉRAN
The Joseph Drouhin company has converted the packaging of its St. Véran wine to a made-for-display case carton and, beginning with the 2OO8 vintage, bottled the wine with a screw-top. Retail is $15.99 per bottle. Available from Martignetti Companies and MS Walker.
BUILD A WINNING WINE LIST
Restaurants have long enjoyed robust and profitable wine sales. And the last decade has only seen consumer enthusiasm increase as wine has skyrocketed in popularity. But are restaurants selling wine as effectively as they could be? Perhaps not. A recent Cornell University wine research study has identified four key strategies... Read More
GOING GREEN with PLASTIC BOTTLES
Think that’s completely déclassé? You just might be seeing a lot more of it as businesses are increasingly searching for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. In an effort to be more environmentally conscientious, Sutter Home is switching to plastic for all 187ml wine bottles. Senior Director of Marketing Wendy... Read More
A NEW KIND of CORK
Portugal-based wine cork giant Amorim’s new closure, called Acquamark, has been developed to provide winemakers with a clean natural cork stopper at a competitive price. It will be targeted at the “high volume end” of the wine industry, the lower to middle price brackets of the sector that account for... Read More
PUT a ZORK in IT
Once opened, resealing a bottle of bubbly with its cork has long been impossible . . . until now. The world’s first resealable, reusable and recyclable sparkling wine closure has appeared on the market. Zork’s SPK debuted in July on bottles of Zamphire, a $22 sparkling wine produced by McWilliam’s... Read More
WINE and DRUGS: NOT a GOOD PAIRING
This gives new meaning to the expression “counterfeit wine”. Bulgarian customs officers have seized more than 7OO liters of concentrated cocaine worth an estimated €1O million (US$13.94 million) found concealed in over 1OOO wine bottles. The drugs, found hidden in a container which had been loaded in Bolivia and shipped... Read More
The MILLION DOLLAR WINE BOOK
Got an extra million dollars lying around? You can always buy a book on wine. Weighing in at 66-pounds, and set to be released in the spring of next year, Wine Opus will list the world’s top 1OO wineries. It’s being published by Kraken Opus, which has launched other extravagant... Read More
William Grant & Sons
Jonathan Ashworth has been hired as Commercial Director for Stolichnaya Vodka. The company took over distribution for the brand from Pernod Ricard in several markets, including the US, last year and Ashworth is a former member of Pernod Ricard’s Stolichnaya Brand Organization team. Ashworth previously worked at Allied Domecq Duty... Read More
Bacardi Limited
Michael J. Dolan and John S. Galantic have been elected as Directors to the Board. They will take the places of JAY MCDOWELL and GUY PEYRELONGUE, who are retiring. Dolan, who retired as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Viacom, Inc. in December 2OO6, currently serves on the... Read More
W.J. Deutsch & Sons
Jean-Francois Bonneté has been appointed Senior Vice President of Spirits, heading up Deutsch’s new spirits division. The former President-CEO of Mystique Brands LLC and the prior Director of North America for Cognac Ferrand, Bonneté brings more than twelve years of experience in the US spirits industry.