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Slideshow
db’s bit on the side
the drinks business presents this week’s round up of wine, beer, spirits and other related news items.
Click through our highlights from news sites and social media across the world.
Wine news
- According to HM Revenue and Customs, a record number of English and Welsh wine companies were launched in 2016.
- The average bottle of wine in the UK now costs £5.61 according to the WSTA.
- Wine critic James Suckling received a knighthood from the Italian Republic in Hong Kong yesterday (1 June).
- Many ex-City workers in search of the ‘good life’ are becoming winemakers and are driving the English wine boom.
- Theresa Marteau, director of the behaviour and health research unit at Cambridge University, has concluded that today’s larger wine glasses are making us drink too much.
- Family-owned Spanish winery Casa Mariol has developed ‘wine pens’ which it sends out to potential customers.
- English wine estate Denbies in Dorking, Surrey has continued to uncover more information about a WWII tank found buried in a vineyard.
And finally, English Wine Week ends on Sunday 4 June. Follow @englishwineweek and the hashtag #EnglishWineWeek on Twitter for more information.
Beer news
- Heineken has completed its acquisition of Kirin in a deal worth €665 million.
- San Miguel has announced that it will build a new brewery in Los Angeles, California.
- The finalists in this year’s Scottish Beer Awards are due to be unveiled next week.
- Mark Ritson asks whether AB InBev can avoid killing its craft beer brands.
- Lidl has launched its first Scottish craft beer ‘festival’ in collaboration with 13 brewers.
- Aldi has recalled a range of gluten-free beer due to allergy fears.
Spirits news
- United Spirits has started to sell 13 properties owned by its former chairman, Vijay Mallya.
- A Russian man has died after downing three litres of vodka in a competition organised by a supermarket in south west Russia.
- Whisky drives a record first quarter of 2017 for UK food and drink exports.
- A major development could see an historic Dundee whisky site transformed into £10 million homes plan.
- London’s Capital Hotel holds whisky and cheese masterclasses.
Other news
- The Ivy is to open its first Scottish restaurant in Edinburgh.
- Dan Cox, former executive chef at Simon Rogan’s Fera at Claridge’s, is set to open a new restaurant in Cornwall.
- Wine and whisky sommelier Doug Wood has been appointed as UK dairy industry’s first expert milk taster.
- Steak has overtaken the pie as the favoured British pub grub.