Unpredictability in the weather is an ever-growing concern for many producers. In Drinks International’s Most Admired Champagne Brands 2024, Giles Fallowfield wrote in the harvest report, based on an interview with Charles Philipponnat: “As for how to deal with harvests like 2023 in future: ‘Reacting early and reducing the yield by thinning the number of bunches on each plant would have been a good…

In a report on the amaretto category last year by Clinton Cawood, Jose Luis Hermoso, research director at IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, said: “Amaretto has benefited from the on-premise boom post-pandemic and grew close to 5% again in 2022.” According to IWSR data for the same period, the global increase in volumes for total liqueurs was 3%, making amaretto one of the best performers within…

When an overproof rum is needed, bartenders generally reach for Wray & Nephew. The Jamaican spirit has been the popular choice for overproof for years, and rightly so. At 63% abv the white rum is aggressive (in a good way) in both alcohol content and flavour, offering itself perfectly for mixing in cocktails. However, recently there have been reports of a shortage of Wray &…

The travel retail business has always been prone to being knocked off course by external factors. In my two decades-plus of reporting on this niche retail sector, everything from wars, to volcanic ash clouds, pandemics and security restrictions have impacted passenger traffic levels at one time or another. It turns out that only a small percentage of air travel is essential. People are only too…

Gone are the days of premium mixer brands with the same core variants. A variety of factors, from changing spirits trends to broader movements towards moderation, are resulting in more experimentation and unusual flavours in the category than ever before. “The traditional view of mixers was that it was largely made up of Indian tonics for gin, however times are definitely changing,” says Steve Cooper,…

There was a time when rye whiskey was the king of American distilling. The grain was introduced to the continent by Dutch and German settlers around the turn of the 17th century and by 1648 an Englishman, Emmanuel Downing, was the first to commercially distil rye whiskey in his stills in Salem, Massachusetts. Downing’s attempts weren’t successful – rye mashes have a tendency to become…

In July, Pernod Ricard announced it had agreed the sale of its international wine brands to the Australian-based owner of Accolade Wines. The transaction included seven wineries that produce more than 10 million cases each year, including global titans such as Jacob’s Creek, Campo Viejo and Brancott Estate. The news of the sale came in the same week that the France-based multinational established a new…