2016 ‘a record-breaking year’ for Aussie premium wine
Australia’s top wines achieved their highest export value to date in 2016, climbing 19% to AUS$574m (£344m), Wine Australia’s December 2016 export report has revealed.
Power 100 brands 2016: 20-11
Counting down the 20 most powerful fine wine brands from the latest Power 100 list: Left Bank claret dominates spots 20 to 11.
The week in pictures
Jolly good Riesling fellows, Australia Day antics, an exquisite Homage Syrah vertical and a Burns Night dinner with Michel Roux Jr all featured in this busy week in drinks.
Chinese New Year is upon us, so we’ve rounded up the best places in the UK capital to ring in the Year of the Rooster with abundant feasts and fiery cocktails.
Is this farewell to the fat wine tome?
A growing tendency for restaurants to adopt short, focused wine lists in favour of traditional doorstopper wine tomes has been identified as one of the key trends for 2017 by on-trade supplier Jascots.
Tesco to buy UK’s biggest food wholesaler
Tesco has announced a surprise £3.7 billion merger deal with the UK’s biggest food wholesaler, Booker, in a bid to create “the UK’s leading food business”.
Carlsberg launches ‘Københaven’ redesign in UK
Carlsberg UK is to roll out new limited edition packaging for its flagship beer as part of a new £15 million marketing campaign.
· ‘Record’ 2016 for LVMH
· Summergate takes on Fever-Tree
· Diageo assures prices won’t rise post Brexit
· Diageo receiving ‘tremendous’ support from May
· Aussie Grenache ‘can age better than Shiraz’
Budweiser has launched its biggest responsible drinking campaign in the UK, centred around the Super Bowl’ advert featuring Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren.
Beer
Scottish drinks industry receives Burns Night boost
The Scottish drinks industry has another cause for celebration this Burns Night as new government figures reveal that beer and gin exports are catching up with those of ‘guid auld Scotch’.
British Hop Awards held in Wimbledon
The Institute of Brewing & Distilling rewarded the UK’s champion hops growers at a ceremony in London this week.
Japan’s beer imports hit record low
Japan’s beer imports dropped 2.6% in 2016 over previous year to 414.76 million cases, hitting a record low for the 12th straight year, according to data released by five major Japanese brewers.
Scientists aim to brew beer on the Moon
A team of science and engineering students in California is hoping to brew a small amount of beer on the Moon to see how yeast behaves in lunar conditions.
Simone Madden-Grey – aka The Happy Wine Woman – takes a close look at the vineyards of Chile’s Itata Valley.
What trends will shape the drinks trade in 2017?
Neil Anderson of Kingsland Drinks looks into his crystal ball to see what the big political decisions of 2016 could mean for the drinks industry, and the trends that we'll be chasing into the new year.
Tequila & mezcal… what’s happening?
Wine & Spirit International's Dale Sklar looks at the mounting crisis for the Tequila industry as a chronic shortage of Blue Agave plants – which are used to make the spirit – cause huge price increases.
WHISK(E)Y
Diageo builds momentum
Diageo has continued to build momentum it is half-year results, driven by improvements in its US spirit business and Scotch portfolio.
Japanese whisky the ‘first growth’ of spirits
Rickesh Kishnani, head of Platinum Wines and the Whisky Investment Fund has said that Japanese whisky is the “first growth” of spirits due to an overwhelming demand from Chinese collectors.
Sotheby’s first sale of ‘17 held in HK
Auction house Sotheby’s first fine wine sale of 2017 has realised HK$26 million, with strong sales results for Petrus and Japanese whiskies.
Pernod Ricard invests in Irish whiskey distillery
Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard is investing €10.5 million into its Irish Whiskey distillery in Cork enabling it to boost production by around a third.
Our Top 10's
Six of the best terroir-focused Villány wineries
db profiles six terroir-focused wineries from the Cabernet Franc-loving region of Villány in southern Hungary.
10 stellar South African Chenins
As the 2017 South African white grape harvest gets under way, we pick out 10 Chenins which display that magical combination of freshness, tension and mellifluous fruit that so many SA winemakers do so well.
Hot new restaurant openings: January 2017
Our latest round-up of openings in the capital features a Cantonese canteen, tasty Thai, Duck & Waffle’s sister site and a grilled cheese sarnie specialist.
Top 10 London Cora-venues
In recognition of one of the biggest on-trade trends of recent years, db presents its top 10 London venues making best use of Coravin.
Sponsored Content
iDealwine update: Comtes de Champagne
Brand power, consistent quality and reasonable prices combine to make Champagne Taittinger’s prestige cuvée an intelligent investment option.
Amorim: Signed, Sealed Delivered
Amorim, the world’s largest cork producer, is spearheading a variety of new approaches to ensure that cork remains the best way to seal a bottle of wine.
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Fine Wine
Fine wine investment: the road ahead
An important thing to note about investing is that over the longer term, as short term trends are unwound, many sectors tend to polarise towards the same spot.
Mas de Daumas Gassac embraces horsepower
Languedoc estate Mas de Daumas Gassac has signalled a “new phase” in its viticultural work with the introduction of horse ploughing on its best vineyard plots.
The world’s 100 most powerful fine wine brands 2016
We count down the most powerful fine wine brands from 2016’s Liv-ex Power 100 as part of our annual look at the secondary market for the most sought-after drinks on earth.
iDealwine toasts 24% growth
Online auctioneer iDealwine saw its sales grow 24% by value in 2016 with nearly 100,000 bottles of wine sold.
Champagne
The Proust Q&A: Rodolphe Peters
The winemaker and head of the historic Pierre Peters Champagne estate in the Cote Des Blancs, Rodolphe Peters on his love of golf and Indiana Jones, his greatest hero of fiction.
Champagne Bollinger looks for new leader
Bollinger is looking to recruit a new person to head up the Champagne house following the promotion of current president, Jérôme Philipon, to the position of COO at Société Jacques Bollinger (SJB).
Sparflex secures UK distribution deal
French group Sparflex, a leading manufacturer of foils, capsules and wirehoods for drinks brands, has secured a UK distribution deal through Rankin Brothers.
Champagne shipments drop 2% to 306.6m bottles
Champagne shipped a total of 306.6 million bottles in 2016, a decline of 2% on 2015’s result, the drinks business is the first to reveal.
Lanson signs five-year deal with the 02
Champagne Lanson has signed a five-year deal with London venue The O2, which will give it exclusive pouring rights at its public bars and see the opening of a new Lanson-branded Champagne bar.
