Moët Hennessy and Campari team up for joint venture ecomms business

Moët Hennessy has teamed up with Italian company Campari to launch a joint venture ecommerce business to sell premium wines and spirits across Europe.

The new business venture will see both companies invest in the pure-play digital retailer, which will be based on Campari’s existing ecommerce channel Tannico, which was launched by the Italian drinks producer. Tannico also owns a majority stake in the e-commerce platform Ventealapropriete.com, which sells premium wines and spirits in France. Together, the two platforms generated pro-forma aggregated sales of over €70 million in 2020.

Under the terms of the agreement, Campari is to transfer its stake in Tannico into the newly set up joint venture.  Under the terms of the agreement, Campari  is to sell half of the joint-venture’s equity capital to Moët Hennessy for 25.6 million euros ($30 million) in cash,  the company said.

The combined business will be headed up by Marco Magnocavallo, CEO of Tannico, who remains a key minority shareholder in the business, along with his management team.

Philippe Schaus, President & CEO, Moët Hennessy says “The partnership represented a significant step forward in the company’s global ecommerce development strategy.”

“While e-commerce was already a growing channel for wines and spirits, the global pandemic has triggered a significant acceleration,” he noted.

Bob Kunze-Concewitz, CEO of Campari Group says “It would allow Tannico to grow and further strengthen its footprint and expertise in the online retailing of spirits & wines.”

Magnocavallo agreed, saying that with the backing of the two companies, the new business would have the “firepower” to consolidate the fragmented European e-commerce sector and “offer a qualitative, sizeable and integrated route to market option catering to the needs of all its wines and spirits suppliers”.

 

The Results are in from the 2021 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles

The results of the 28th Concours Mondial have now been released. Although the pandemic continues and organizing large-scale events remains challenging, the competition has chosen to reinvent itself in the interests of the wine industry, whilst at the same time maintaining its impeccable standards. Over nine days, over 300 international judges took turns to taste and score the wines.

This year’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles was held in Luxembourg June 17 to 27; there was 10,000 wines entered by 46 producer countries.

The organizers hosted the nine-day tastings with irreproachable professionalism, and fully complying with safety measures. Medals were awarded to wines from 40 different countries. France leads the way for the number of accolades (672), followed by Spain (507), Italy (389) and Portugal (335).

The full list of results is available here:  https://resultats.concoursmondial.com/en/results

In addition to the silver, gold and grand gold medals, the competition also awarded ‘Revelation’ trophies to wines that achieved the highest score in each category.

Revelation White Wine 2021

Welschriesling Reserva

BV vinarstvi a.s. , République tchèque

 

Revelation Red Wine 2021

Cassiopeia Merlot

Wunderlich Borászati Kft., Hongrie

 

Revelation Organic Wine 2021

Ghiaie della Furba

Tenuta di Capezzana, Italy Tuscany

 

Revelation Sweet Wine 2021

Cai Long Lin Icewine Jinding

Liao ning SanHe Wine Co. Ltd, China

 

Revelation Sparkling Wine 2021

Champagne Collard-Picard Archives

Champagne Collard-Picard, France Champagne

#Concours #Mondial #CMB2021 #wine #winetasting #winejudging #winenews #instawine #redwine #whitewine #sparklingwine #wineevent #winewinewine #rosewine #winelover

House Bill 1409 Makes Indiana Rye Whiskey Official

A new bill passed today declared Indiana Rye to be a legally-binding, regional designation whiskey from today.

“July 1, 2021, is a moment of history in the world of whiskey and the world of Indiana Whiskey,” says Hard Truth Distilling Co Master Distiller Bryan Smith.

Craft distillers in Indiana scored a big win this week when a new bill was passed allowing distillers to label their product with the term “Indiana Rye” whiskey.

With more than 30 distilleries currently producing rye whiskey in the state, Indiana provides the lion’s share of the rye whiskey consumed on today’s market, with its famous MGP distillery alone knocking out ryes for Bulleit, WhistlePig, Angel’s Envy, High West, Redemption, and more.

From the start of July, almost 174 years since MGP first opened its doors, Indiana distillers have finally won the right to own and regulate their unique style of whiskey. The aim is to establish Indiana Rye in a similar way to how the state of Kentucky has promoted Bourbon.

According to the new bill, in order for a whiskey to be called an “Indiana Rye,” it must be either a sour or sweet mash with at least 51% rye as the base ingredient. The juice has to come off the stills at 80% ABV or less, go into the barrel at no more than 62.5% ABV, and be bottled at 40% ABV and above. The whiskey must be aged for a minimum of two years in new white American oak barrels.

Crucially, the bill allows local distillers to label their product with the term “Indiana Rye” whiskey and have it be a legally binding regional designation.

The move is also a play to transform Indiana into a whiskey tourist destination, with state rep Chris May, who spearheaded the legislation, saying: “We want Indiana to become as popular for its rye whiskey as it is for its basketball and racing. Establishing that market, both in sales and tourism, might one day put the success of our state’s distilleries on par with that of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.”

#Rye #RyeWhiskey #distillerytrail #indiana #indianaryewhiskey #whiskey#craftspirits

Wine-Based Cocktails Drive Interest, As Wine Looks To Expand Its Audience

As the summer-selling season began in earnest and the demand for pre-packaged drinks continues to trend up, leading wine marketers have been busy maneuvering amidst a tricky economic landscape—trying to bridge the gap between the general market and craft cocktail enthusiasts. Buoyed by last year’s off-premise surge, a slew of wine-based ready-to-drink cocktails have thrived, even though they’re still dwarfed by much bigger malt-based counterparts—especially in the hard seltzer and iced tea arenas. Spirits-based RTDs have also had a big headstart and offer stiff competition for shelf space. Most wine industry players haven’t yet fully participated in the wine-based cocktail category, but that could soon change.

The biggest label in the category is Patco Brands’ Rancho La Gloria, a line of wine-based RTD Margaritas at 13.9% abv. Launched in 2011, it skyrocketed to 1.3 million 9-liter cases last year—up more than 200% from 2019—according to Impact Databank. Gluten-free and made with 100% Blue Weber agave wine, Rancho La Gloria is also sold in canned and popsicle packaging formats, aside from the traditional 750-ml. bottle. Southern Champion’s Buzzballz Chillers is a wine-based offshoot from its larger spirits-based cousin, BuzzBallz. Featuring a lineup of flavors such as Horchata, Lotta Colada, and Hazelnut Latte, Buzzballz Chillers debuted in 2019 and depleted 375,000 cases last year.

The biggest industry player investing in the wine-based cocktail arena is E.&J. Gallo, with its launch of Barefoot Hard Seltzer—which depleted over half-a-million cases in 2020, according to Impact Databank. The line includes Pineapple & Passion Fruit, Cherry & Cranberry, Peach & Nectarine, and Strawberry & Guava flavors that are at 4% abv and retail at $8 a 4-pack and $20 for a variety 12-pack. Aside from seltzer, Gallo also previously introduced Barefoot Spritzer in the canned RTD category—retailing at $3 a 250-ml. can or $9 a four-pack, the spritzer range has an abv of 5.5% and comes in Moscato, Rosé, Summer Red, Crisp White, Red Sangria and Pinot Grigio expressions.

Wine-based cocktails more than doubled in size last year to over 5 million cases overall—according to Impact Databank—and in a space of less than 10 years have already begun to outsell the entire dessert/fortified wine and vermouth/aperitif segments combined. Wine RTDs continue to do well in 2021 as off-premise volumes surged 72% in the half-year ending May 22 in Nielsen channels.

Retail dollars grew even faster, soaring 86% to $161.3 million the past 26 weeks, as higher-priced cocktails profited from drinkers trading up from flavored malt beverages. And although wine-based RTDs have undoubtedly benefited from the off-premise boom during the pandemic, further investment from other major players is expected to keep the category on the rise even after the economy fully recovers.

Leading Wine-Based RTDs In The U.S.
(thousands of 9-liter case depletions)
BrandCompany20192020Percent
Change
1
Rancho La GloriaPatco Brands4271,300204.5%
Barefoot SeltzerE.&J. Gallo Winery525+
BuzzBallz ChillersSouthern Champion23341477.3%
BeatboxFuture Proof Brands10019898.5%
UptownSouthern Champion8142+
FlybirdDon Sebastiani & Sons1107+
Total Top Five27692,685249.2%
1 Based on unrounded data.
Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2021

Sources:
Shanken News
Impact DataBank

#wine #winenews #wineeconomics #instawine #winebasedcocktails #winebased #winecocktail #cocktails #summer #summervibes #summer2021 #summercocktails#winetrends #rtd #cocktailgram #winegram

Valpolicella Soars in 2021

The Valpolicella Wine Consortium has recently announced the numbers for the first five months of 2021.  The numbers show around 30 million state seals were issued for the Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone and Recioto origins, which is 18% over 2020.

Compared to 2019, the increase is 14%.  Amarone, which after a disastrous January 2021 (-24.5 %), accelerated to a sensational 38 % increase by May 31. According to the consortium’s analysis, these are the best figures of the last decade. “A total of 7.4 million bottles were brought to market in this period, two million more than last year. Not only is the quantity excellent, but the performance also gives us hope. According to the latest price list of the Chamber of Commerce of Verona, the open goods have increased by 4.5 percent,” Christian Marchesini, president of the consortium, states. The figures are due to a combination of the restrictive measures of the consortium as well as the high flexibility of many small businesses, which immediately knew how to move on unfamiliar terrain like e-commerce and food retail.

Valpolicella achieved an overall growth of 14 % after a strong pick-up in the month of May (+48 percent). Ripasso closed with an increase of twelve %. Stocks are down for all typologies of Valpolicella, especially Amarone and Recioto. In May 2021, five million bottles less were registered than in May 2020 (-8 percent).

Source:  Valpolicella Wine Consortium