Category: Coronavirus

10 DISTILLERIES AND BREWERIES MAKING HAND SANITIZER

With coronavirus infecting over 100,000 people worldwide to date, health authorities have suggested using hand sanitizer as one of the easiest ways to prevent this disease from spreading.

This has led to panic buying the anti-bacterial gel and, now, supermarkets and chemists are starting to run low on hand sanitizer.

The World Health Organization (WHO) provides a recipe for making hand sanitizer at home, but its guidelines recommend using a white spirit that contains a minimum of 60% ABV for it to be effective. Given that most spirits in the UK and Europe are sold at around 40% ABV, this kind of potency is hard to find for everyday shoppers.

As a result, dozens of spirits manufacturers have answered the call and started to make hand sanitizers or high-strength spirits of their own. Some are selling these to local supermarkets, some are asking for donations from their local communities to support charitable initiatives, and some are giving them away to those most in need.

Brewdog, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Brewdog is one of the latest drinks groups to pivot to personal hygiene. The brewer’s spirits arm, Brewdog Distilling Co., is now making hand sanitizer at its distillery in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Mock-ups of the gel bottles were posted on Twitter March 17 and resemblance the company’s new branding, which was unveiled last month.

Brewdog co-founder James Watt said the company is not selling it for profit but is instead “giving it away to those who need it.

Pernod Ricard, France

In France, spirits giant Pernod Ricard said it would donate 70,000 litres of pure alcohol to produce hand sanitizer. The company is working with Laboratoire Cooper, which supplies hand sanitizer to French pharmacies, according to an announcement from the group on Wednesday.

Pernod Ricard’s announcement came as French health officials warned the country could face a shortage of basic resources as it goes into lockdown, including hand sanitizer.

The decision could help pharmacies across the country produce the equivalent of 1.8 million individual 50ml vials of hydroalcoholic gel.

Sébastien Lucot, Managing Director of Laboratoire Cooper, added: “We are very pleased with this partnership with Ricard SAS. Since January we have been steadily increasing our production capacity. It has already increased five-fold in one month, with the demand of pharmacists and consumers being a top priority for us.”

Elsewhere, in Spain and Ireland, Pernod Ricard Spain and Irish Distillers will also put their technical, human and production facilities at the service of the authorities to produce hand sanitizer.

Absolut Vodka, Sweden

Meanwhile, Pernod Ricards subsidiaries have also turned their production to hand sanitizer.
Absolut Vodka has said it will distribute high alcohol neutral spirit in Sweden for use in hand sanitizers.

Paula Eriksson, communications manager for The Absolut Company, has said the vodka producer is “happy to help”.

“We can deliver the neutral alcohol by itself if the receiving authorities can help with the rest,” she tweeted.

She also mentioned on social media that the company had made contact with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency and the Swedish Department of Health.

Rabbit Hole, USA

And in the US, Pernod Ricard’s Arkansas manufacturing plant and distilleries, which are dedicated to producing its whiskey labels Rabbit Hole (Kentucky), Smooth Ambler (West Virginia) and TX Whiskey (Texas) are producing hand sanitizer for the American market.

Psychompomp Microdistillery & Circumstance Distillery, Bristol, UK

While it is perhaps a simpler process for large drinks companies to lend their services to governments as impromptu sanitizer factories, smaller, independent distillers and breweries around the world have also been doing their part for the local community.

In Bristol, UK, Psychompomp Microdistillery & Circumstance Distillery set about making hand sanitizers with 65% ethanol (it is recommended that hand sanitizer contain an ABV of at least 60% to be effective). The gel is also made with gin botanicals already on-hand at the distillery, and aloe vera gel.

The distiller took action earlier this month after finding their local shops had run out due to panic buying in the local area.

Liam Hirt, co-founder of Psychopomp & Circumstance Distillery, said: “The team wanted some hand sanitizer and everywhere was sold out so we decided to make some.”

Rather than selling the rare commodity on for profit, the distillery offered to add a small bottle of sanitizer to every gin order and placed a donation box at the still house.
Customers are being encouraged to bring their own refillable bottles to top up on hand sanitizer, and the donation box at the facility allows health-conscious locals to pay what they like.

Donations will be handed to Bristol children’s hospital charity, The Grand Appeal.

Annex Ale Project, Alberta, Canada

In Canada, local brewer Annex Ale Project has said it will make around 7,000 cans of hand sanitizer each week for the foreseeable future to supply a grocery store in Calgary, Alberta.
“There are these shortages of hand sanitizer all over the city and the World Health Organisation (WHO) put together basically a recipe for anyone that needs to make it, so I figured if I make alcohol most of the time anyway, why not just pivot a little bit,” owner Andrew Bullied told the Calgary Herald.

Annex will produce hand sanitizer based on the WHO recipe, which uses hydrogen peroxide, glycerol and 80 percent ethanol. It will be made from the wash (the final stage of brewing before distillation), with the ethanol being removed and used in the end product.
In a post on Instagram yesterday (18 March), Annex said it hopes to roll out the product by the end of the week.

“We are in a unique position to do this as a brewery because we have a license to acquire and warehouse distilled spirits and a packaging line to be able to put these products into cans,” Annex said.

The product will be sold as sanitizer refills, so those who buy it will need to pour it into a sealable container after opening, such as a soap dispenser or shampoo bottle.

The brewer is working with Raft Beer Labs, a Calgary-based company that does quality assurance for breweries, to create a production package that “we hope to share with other Canadian distillers and brewers that are legally able to blend spirit.”

Corby Spirit and Wine Limited and Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery, Windsor, Ontario

Elsewhere in Canada, Corby Spirit and Wine Limited and its Walkerville Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in Windsor, Ont. are proud to announce today that they are producing hand sanitizer.

J.P.Wiser’s Canadian whisky, the historic distillery, has been in operation for over 160 years on the banks of the Detroit River, distilling 180,000 litres of alcohol daily, and today will be adding hand sanitizer to its production line.

“Corby is proud to support the efforts of the Canadian and Ontario governments and communities across the country in fighting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Patrick O’Driscoll, Chief Executive Officer of Corby. “In coordination with local and senior levels of government, we are utilizing our production capacity and Windsor distillery to help provide hand sanitizer to areas where it is in need.”

The sanitizer will be donated where needed in Windsor, and to the TTC in Toronto.

New York Distilling Company, New York, USA

A number of distillers are also making their own contribution in the USA. Williamsburg-based New York Distilling Company is using its undiluted Perry’s Tot Navy Strength Gin to create bulk hand sanitizer.

The recipe is based on CDC recommendations, using two parts uncut gin (about 85% ABV) and aloe vera gel.

As it is based on their Perry’s Tot Gin, it also contains botanicals, providing a scent of juniper berries, citrus peels, and spices, according to the company.

The hand sanitizer isn’t available for sale, but will be offered to people from selected businesses that have existing relationships with New York Distilling, “as a way of offering solidarity, support, and friendship for the local hospitality industry.”

Yahara Bay Distillers, Madison, Wisconsin

Elsewhere in the states, Yahara Bay Distillers is making its own contribution to the hand sanitizer crisis.

Though it is not specifically making hand sanitizer, the distillery, based in Madison, Wisconsin, is working to bottle a super-strength version of its “Just Vodka,” which comes in at 70% ABV, in the hopes it could be used to kill bacteria.

Nels Forde, the general manager, said in a statement that the distillery doesn’t yet have an approved formula and label to make hand sanitizer, something that could take months to gain approval from the American Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Instead, it is selling the high-strength vodka without added aloe or another moisturizing element, and the first 75 customers who purchase it will get a free spray bottle or a roll of toilet paper.

The company hopes to start selling the new vodka today March 19.

LVMH / Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy

Luxury goods group LVMH has instructed its perfume and cosmetics division to prepare its facilities to produce “substantial quantities” of hydroalcoholic gel for the French authorities.

Its brands including Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy will start producing the product from today (16 March) in order to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
The gel will then be delivered free of charge to health authorities. LVMH said it will continue to honor this arrangement for “as long as it is necessary”.

Sources:
Drinks Business and Corby Spirit

Zorzettig Releases a Limited-Edition Bottle to Sustain Local Hospital Amid Covid-19 Emergency in Italy

Zorzettig a winery in Friuli, is not new to challenges, having survived World War II before becoming an ambassador of regional viticulture, in Italy and abroad. Now, the winery has taken another important step in sustaining the local community and its well-being. The Zorzettig family has organized a fund-raising project aimed at economically supporting the intensive care unit of Ospedale Universitario Santa Maria della Misericordia in Udine which is fighting at the forefront of Covid-19 emergency.

The winery will be selling a limited edition of Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, a native red variety, on Tannico.it. The proceeds will be used for buying necessary equipment. The limited-edition will display on the label the sentence Andrà tutto bene (everything will be alright) in eight different languages. Eight is a lucky number in China, where the emergency has started, and which is now experiencing the first positive signals. The disposition of the sentences aims at representing a hug, a familiar gesture we cannot share right now. The bottles will be on sale, on their website at info@zorzettigvini.it and on Tannico in the next few days for €35 per bottle.

Zorzettig has produced 720 bottles of red wine made with the grape variety Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, grown predominantly in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy, which has been one of the regions of Italy most affected by the outbreak.

“Andrà tutto bene is a good wish for the future that needed to be translated in a practical action right now” explains Annalisa Zorzettig, who runs the family business. “We love our land and our community and we asked ourselves how we could help. This is how we came up with the idea of a limited edition with a good wish aimed at going beyond space and time. We love the idea that families will buy this bottle to share it with beloved ones seated around the same table. In the future, this will be a reminder of a challenging time we were able to overcome and of a moment which has taught us, once more, how precious are little joys and beloved ones”.

info@zorzettigvini.it
https://www.tannico.com/

Global Wine Experts Describe Impact of Turbulence Ahead

Wine Intelligence’s global expert network on the impact of Coronavirus: ‘Christmas trading’ in Italian supermarkets amid a gloomy outlook, calm in Brazil and South Africa, fewer Chinese tourists in Australia, silver linings in South Korea, growing concern in the UK and US

How are consumers behaving in your market?

AUSTRALIA: The most noticeable element is that we have seen declining cellar door sales as the normal influx of Chinese tourists during Spring Festival failed to appear. So far the on-premise sales in Australia seem to be holding up.

BRAZIL: Compared to Europe, Brazilians seem to be less scared. Carnival was 2 weeks ago and there hasn’t been much of an impact. Regular people don’t seem to be changing habits, apart from a few people wearing masks on the streets. Some companies are taking measures to isolate employees – McKinsey, for instance, have shut down their offices in São Paulo, because their neighboring office had one suspected case.

ITALY: The first and most striking event was the assault on supermarkets by people filling their trolleys with pasta, sauces, mineral water, and other goods for fear of being out of stock. The director of an important Italian wine & spirits group, who had recently spoken to the manager of a retail chain, confirmed to me how in recent weeks the points of sale of large retailers have made a turnover close to that of Christmas. For the tourism industry, the crisis period started two weeks ago, with an average of 80% of cancellations (especially of foreign tourists), which has led many hotels to close temporarily. More generally, the on-trade channel is now beginning to suffer, both due to the reduction of customers and as a result of government measures to discourage too close socialization opportunities (in quarantined areas the on-trade premises must close the shutters at 6 pm).

SOUTH AFRICA: Probably too early to tell, but so far it doesn’t seem as if there is a major change. I am hearing that wine tourism is suffering a bit, which will obviously impact on cellar door wine sales. We are a bit behind the curve and possibly the fact that it’s summer has also helped.

SOUTH KOREA: We know the damage to consumer confidence is big. But it is not easy to say how much right now. People are avoiding seeing each other face to face, so socializing is not really happening. Similarly, face to face business meetings are not happening – salespeople are not so welcome at their clients’ bars, restaurants or shops. There are not many people on the streets – not many cars either.

SPAIN: So far, everything seems the same. Masks were bought long ago but people haven´t gone in for the “toilet paper craze” as in other places.

USA: Restaurants and bars are already feeling the impact as people are going out less. On the whole, the on-premise will take a much bigger hit. People are already eating out and going out to bars less. On the other hand, I could see this helping online ordering services like Drizly and Minibar and in food, Grubhub and Delivery.com, as people stay in more and order in more. I saw a post on Facebook recently that someone had shared about Postmates advertising a “no-touch” service or something to that degree to further allay any concerns.

We’re yet to see event cancellations, but that could be just a matter of time. The big issue in a market like Las Vegas is that in addition to both domestic and international tourists, we rely heavily on delegates who attend the many large-scale conferences here – Linda Crisman, Regional Manager Western USA, Jackson Family Wines

UK: On the surface, it feels like there isn’t much dramatic change. London’s Tube is still packed at rush hour, and hardly anyone seems to be wearing masks. We’re hearing from on-premise that bookings are down on normal for the time of year, and events businesses are getting particularly nervous as clients are deferring decisions until the last minute. The news seems to move so fast; it feels a lot easier to defer rather than decide.

What are your predictions for the wine category for the remainder of 2020?

AUSTRALIA: The effects will last long after the virus has peaked – consumers will be spending more cautiously both domestically and in key export markets. The tourism business is still dealing with the after-effects of the fires, so it will be a while before we see a return to normal. From the export point of view we are hoping that some of the excess supply in China will be sold through towards the Mid-Autumn Festival period. Vintage forecasts from ABARES (national commodity forecaster) is predicting a below-average vintage size which will help offset the fall in demand.

ITALY: It will be the most difficult period since the methanol scandal in 1985. Our inbound tourism industry has done so well in the past few years that it has reversed the long term trend of consumption decline in the domestic market – we will have to wait a while for international tourist numbers to recover. I am sure that once the emergency is resolved, perhaps with the summer season, the domestic Italian consumer will resume their love story with the aperitifs and the various socialization occasions. Until then, I foresee some difficulties for wine businesses, especially small ones, which have focused on an important part of their sales on the cellar door and have grown reliant on international tourists.

SPAIN: We´ve still to see the worst effects but the summer will approach fast and here it will help reduce conditions that favor contagion. The big question will be whether the tourists show up in their normal numbers.

SOUTH AFRICA: I think the major global grocery retail businesses will be extremely cautious in their ordering pattern against the current scenario. In the local market, we may see some sales lost from people not attending large gatherings/restaurants etc as much, and we expect the conference industry to take a hit. Wine tourism will take a while to recover because leisure trips to South Africa are often planned a long way in advance, and we may not see the full extent of the effect for a year or more.

SOUTH KOREA: Companies in the sector are planning on 20-30% declines in their sales vs their original plan for the year. People are not going to the shops – they prefer on-line shopping. In Korea, we cannot sell wine online yet, but we understand that the government will allow online sales of wine temporarily, maybe as soon as April – it will only be click-and-collect, not full delivery, at least not yet. But it is a good start. I expect that, sooner or later, maybe within the next couple of years, the online wine market will be opened up.

UK: So far the government is resisting imposing restrictions on the public, but this will change soon. We understand the medical experts are expecting the peak of infections in the UK in about 6-8 weeks’ time, at which point restrictions may start to be lifted. Supermarkets will do just fine, but it’s the on-premise, hotels and events companies which will have a hole in their revenues – somewhere around 15% of their annual sales – which won’t be made up in this calendar year.

We haven’t seen anything change yet from a retail sales perspective as yet, but we have already seen a drop off in Travel Retail (ferries, airports). Supply has been rather lumpy as shipping lines have had to adapt their schedules to China and Singapore port closures. Looking ahead I’d say that the [UK] On Trade is in for a tough time, clearly festival volumes are up in the air and in retail, I’d expect local small stores to do well – Simon Lawson, General Manager, Casella Family Brands (Europe) Ltd, UK.

USA: The big unanswered question for Americans is how bit the outbreak will get. We are losing faith in the government response – it seems very slow and complacent, and who knows how many confirmed cases we will have when the virus testing gets to a sensible number [estimated at <3,000 tests completed as of 9 March]. When events like Indian Wells [major tennis tournament in California] are canceled, it feels like we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Source:  Wine Intelligence

Coronavirus Disrupts the Wine and Spirits Industry

Tastings and trade shows worldwide have been canceled or pushed back to mitigate the spread of coronavirus – we are keeping you up-to-date with the latest news from the drinks industry.

In northern Italy, roughly 16 million people are in a state of lockdown until 3 April after the government imposed strict quarantine that includes the closure of museums, cultural institutions and the suspension of all public gatherings and social events, including pubs, nightclubs and games halls. Budget airline Easyjet announced on Sunday evening it would cancel flights to Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate, Venice and Verona airports in the period up to April 3 and will provide further updates in due course.

The UK’s Foreign Office has advised members of the public to cancel all-but essential travel to key Italian wine-growing regions such as Lombardy region, including the cities of Milan, Bergamo and Como, and the provinces of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini in Emilia Romagna region. A spokesperson for the UK government has said anyone returning to the UK from these parts of Italy should self-quarantine regardless of whether they are displaying symptoms.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson held an emergency meeting with the UK’s cabinet on Monday morning (9 March) to decide whether the country will undergo a similar lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. However, a spokesperson confirmed that the UK will not pursue any stricter measures for the time being.

The Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) has said its annual trade show, BeerX, will be going ahead as normal on 11 and 12 March, but with extra precautions in place.

James Calder, SIBA’s chief executive said: “We’re taking extra steps to ensure the risk of passing on infection remains low. We are working with our event partners, the Liverpool ACC and closely following Government guidance on a day by day basis. We would encourage all brewers, suppliers, judges and delegates to stick to their plans and take sensible measures.”

The measures include:

  • A ban on handshakes
  • A ban on sharing beer glasses with anyone else
  • Hand sanitizer stations placed throughout BeerX and on every bar
  • Exhibitors to use hand sanitizer on all stands
  • Encouraging everyone to stick to the NHS latest guidance on hand washing and sneezing into tissues

On Thursday, March 5th, Messe Düsseldorf, the organizer of ProWein, has revealed that the show will not take place this year. The group plan to host ProWein as scheduled in 2021.

On Tuesday, March 3, London’s wine trade had its first casualty. The RAW Wine Show, which was due to take place this weekend, has been postponed. Founder Isabelle Legeron MW said: “With so many producers flying in from all over the world this seems like the right decision for such a large gathering of people and such an international event.”

At the same time, the bi-annual Grands Jours de Bourgogne tasting, due to take place between 9 and 13 March, has likewise been called off.

And the organizers of the leading Italian wine show, Vinitaly, have announced the 2020 edition will be postponed until June.

On March 2nd we learned that the London Wine Fair will still go ahead, but attendees have been told to proceed with caution. The organizers have pledged to supply extra hand sanitizers and face masks to curb infection at the mammoth wine tasting in Kensington Olympia in May.

Also set to go ahead as normal is the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux’s annual primeurs week, which takes place at the end of March.

Arguably the biggest event in the drinks trade calendar, ProWein, has also been pushed back. Messe Düsseldorf states on February 29th that it was postponing a series of trade fairs set to take place in the exhibition center, including ProWein, Wire, Tube, Beauty, Top Hair and Energy Storage Europe.

A number of shows have also been canceled altogether in China, while the dates for Vinexpo Hong Kong and ProWine Asia in Singapore have also moved to later this year.

Source:  Drinks Business