Brand Akvinta Critique by Angela Pirrie, director Charteredbrands Product There seems to be an endless stream of new products when it comes to vodka, each one claiming its own uniqueness with increasingly contrived propositions. Akvinta’s claim is that it was the first Mediterranean Luxury vodka. Made from Italian wheat and Croatian water, this super -premium vodka is the brainchild of Croatian company, Adriatic Distillers.
News that a wine created specifically to go with Asian food is to be launched in India brings the old British adage of “taking coals to Newcastle” to mind. Pink Elephant, a Portuguese rosé wine, has been picked up by United Vintners, which is part of the Indian group United Breweries, the third largest spirits producer in the world. That may not be a…
Treading a path between caution and optimism, Dr Peter Cressy, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) forecast modest growth for the industry this coming year. The trade association expects sales for the US spirits industry to rise 4.6 per cent to US$19 billion in 2008, slower than last year’s growth of 5.6 per cent. Volumes are expected…
Carlsberg could not hide its delight in announcing an agreement to buy BBH – sorry, make that Scottish & Newcastle – recently. Spurred on by success in 2007, the Danish brewer is now looking to expand BBH in both its eastern Europe homeland and further afield. The importance of BBH to Carlsberg – and to S&N shareholders – is evidenced by the small…
== The Australia expert == James Halliday journalist, writer, judge The winemakers of Australia’s most recently declared geographic indication (GI), New England Australia, were unwilling partners in the adoption of the name New England Australia . The region has been called New England f or 200 years or so (much of the rolling countryside has an English feel to it), and the original proposition…
We’ve come a long way since the days when a few bow-tied anoraks prattled on about the wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Germany, and the new recruits to the elitist world of wine cut their teeth on Hirondelle and Liebfraumilch. Our shelves are now groaning with wines from around the world as their tags improve our geography no end, by listing vineyards from New…
Italy’s top wine guide publication, Gambero Rosso, has embarked on a world tour with 49 of its award -winning producers, displaying their wares in 11 cities around the world in the Top Italian Wine Roadshow. Beginning in Stockholm and Zurich last November, the tour continued to London and Copenhagen in January, Amsterdam and Brussels in February, Los Angeles and Las Vegas early in March, with…
The annual Salon des Vins de Loire is always a great opportunity to take the pulse of France’s third largest wine region and the only one to hold an annual regional fair. It is a chance to talk and taste in one place with producers from all of the Loire appellations without having to travel the 450 miles or so from Muscadet in the west…
== Central Vineyards == Domaine Henri Bourgeois – one of the leading producers in Sancerre who also makes Pouilly-Fumé, Quincy, Menetou-Salon and VDP . Annual production: 1 million bottles. ??? (?) Le MD de Bourgeois Attractive grapefruit aromas and flavours with marked mineral notes, concentration and length. (€10.65) Jacolin – Menetou-Salon producer and member of Vignobles & Domaines – group of Central Vineyard producers. ?? Menetou-Salon…
The third no-no was once available on Eurostar but, surprisingly, is no longer. "It was too popular; people wanted too much of it . It cost too much, quite frankly," he says, before quickly moving on to the next subject. "I’m much happier talking about Champagne, which is a crucial part of the Eurostar experience. "It’s the ultimate Leisure Select drink . They’re the people…
