The Vintners' Company is organising a charity walk in Champagne over the weekend of 2-4 June.
The walk will raise money for two alcohol-abuse hostels in London. A minimum of 500 sponsorship per walker buys you supper with Krug and Taittinger, breakfast with Veuve Clicquot and pit stops with Pol Roger and Louis Roederer. For more details, contact Kate Marshall on 020 7236 1863 or catherine@vintnershall.co.uk
Branimir Vitkovitch, head of Vitkovitch Brothers - the specialist importer of wines, spirits and liqueurs from the countries of former Yugoslavia - died, aged 84, on 22 January after a brief illness.
Vitkovitch, an officer in the 33rd British Field Artillery Division during World War II, took over the family business from his father in 1956. In 1970, Vitkovitch Brothers became a major supplier of own-label wines and, in particular, Laski Rizling.
In the 1980s, Vitkovitch directed his attentions towards sourcing good-quality red varietals from the areas of Yugoslavia that have since become known as Serbia and Montenegro.
Chairman of the Yugoslav Importers Committee during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Vitkovitch was a significant force behind increased quality and consistency in Yugoslav wines.
Angela Vitkovitch has inherited her father's business and will run the company.
A new compny called Platinum Wine claims to have designed
a Platinum Cartridge' that removes TCA from corked wines by bonding the TCA molecules on to a silica matrix'.
The matrix sits inside a disposable cartridge, which is designed to fit inside a special hand-blown decanter'. Price details are unavailable at present. Visit www.pt-wine.co.uk for more information.
One of Gevrey's leading vignerons, Denis Mortet, sadly cut short his brilliant life last month.
Jean-Claude Rouzaud, the head of Champagne Louis Roederer since 1979, is retiring and becoming chairman of the company. He is passing control to his son, Frdric, who becomes managing director of the group.After taking a business-management degree and then working in property, Frdric Rouzaud, 38, joined Champagne Louis Roederer in 1996, and for the past 10 years he has worked in various departments as part of his training to take over from his father.
Sainsbury's launches its biggest ever' wine promotion next week, offering 25% off all wines from Australia and North America.
The offer runs for four weeks from 15 February.
Sainsbury's wine buyer Julian Dyer said: This is the biggest drinks promotion we've ever offered - there's something
for everyone. We've also included some amazing fine wines, and with 25% off, this really is a great opportunity to stock up on old favourites, as well as experimenting with new wines.'
An extra 5% discount is available if six or more bottles are purchased.
The annual international Geoffrey Roberts Award, which commemorates the life of Britain's pioneer importer of fine New World wine, is now in its 11th year, and applications are being sought for the 2006 award. Full details of how to apply are at www.geoffreyrobertsaward.com. The award is open to anyone of any age and location who can convince the judges, luminaries of the world of gastronomy, that they will spend their travel bursary in a way that is likely to make a positive difference to the worlds of food, drink and/or travel. The closing date for applicants is 31 March 2006.
Read more...The Gaymer Cider Company is to spend 24 million on promoting its new range - its biggest investment in 10 years.
The company, formed by Constellation Europe 18 months ago, owns several brands, including Blackthorn, K and Olde English, but it will spend the money on three new premium brands: Gaymer's Original, Orchard Reserve and Addlestones. The investment will be split three ways:
10m on promotions;
8m on POS material, including branded glassware
for the on-trade; and
6m on consumer marketing.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has published a checklist' in order to aid its members in adopting the Social Responsibility Standards for the Production and Sale of Alcoholic Drinks in the UK.
The Standards were developed by the drinks industry in partnership with the Government and were launched in November 2005 by Home Office minister Paul Goggins MP and DCMS minister James Purnell MP.
The checklist sets out the main requirements. For producers, it covers issues such as labelling, marketing, staff training and websites; and for retailers, it covers a variety of ways for all types of retailers to reduce alcohol-related harm and disorder.
Copies of the Standards and the checklist can be downloaded from the WSTA website (www.wsta.co.uk).
Waitrose buyer Nick Room and leading Spanish winemaker Alvaro Palacios Muro joined the ranks of the Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino at the 22nd investiture last week, which was attended by more than 300 members of the wine trade.
Jose Maria Sevilla, director of Wines from Spain, said: Under [Nick Room's] control, Waitrose has been a leader in identifying and pioneering lesser-known wines and regions from Spain, while establishing and maintaining an award-winning list of Sherries.'
Palacios and his family have interests in Bierzo, Priorato and Rioja. Julian Jeffs QC, president of the Orden, said: Alvaro Palacios is without a doubt one of Spain's finest winemakers.'
Christophe Ehrhart, winemaker at Alsace producer Josmeyer, has hit out at the use of genetically modified vines.
Speaking at a lunch at London's L'Oranger restaurant, Ehrhart, who is a member of Biodyvin, an association of biodynamic wine producers, told Harpers that the whole concept of GM vines was a nonsense'.
Maxxium UK has appointed Huw Pennell, 44, as MD with immediate effect. Pennell, formerly marketing director at Maxxium UK, has been acting MD since August 2005.
Pennell held previous marketing roles at Allied Domecq plc, Scottish & Newcastle and Rmy-Cointreau, one of Maxxium's four shareholders. He joined Maxxium UK as marketing director in 2002.
Stirling-based Pennell will report to Richard White, executive board director of Maxxium Worldwide in Amsterdam.
The world's first table wine to be made from the Cabernet Cygne Blanc variety - a new variety of Cabernet' that produces white grapes - will hit the UK later this autumn.
The wine, so far produced only in tiny quantities, is made by Port Robe Estate near Mount Benson, South Australia, and will be distributed by Australian Wineries. Graham Cranswick-Smith, a shareholder and director of Port Robe Estate, told Harpers: We haven't got much of the wine so far - only 67 cases of the 2005 - but we are expecting to produce around 1,000 cases of the 2006 and build up from there until we are producing up to 50,000 cases. We have planted around 100 hectares (ha) so far, but we have space to plant around three times that amount.
Jeremy Beadles, the new chief executive of the Wine and
Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), has set out his vision for a
new, more dynamic WSTA that has a higher profile with Government' and a positive effect directly on our members' bottom line'.
Sales of Absolut Vodka reached nine million cases in 2005, making the brand, owned by Swedish state monopoly Vin & Sprit, the third-largest global spirit brand. This represents a 9% volume increase over 2004.
Much of the growth was attributable to a sales drive outside the United States, which remains Absolut's major market. Non-US volumes grew by 18%, with Mexico, the fastest-growing market, showing a 67% increase.
There were also double-digit volume increases in a number of European, Latin American and Asian markets. Sales in the key American market grew by 2.4% despite intense competition.
The V&S Absolut Spirits arm, which includes Plymouth Gin and Cruzan rum, enjoyed a 13% rise in operating profit. Overall, operating profit at V&S Group grew by 27% to 131m.
The dismemberment of Allied Domecq by Pernod Ricard
and Fortune Brands, the US consumer goods giant, was completed at the end of January. Under the terms of
the deal, the French group acquired Allied Domecq in its entirety for 7.4bn last August but had agreed in advance to sell on four major brands to Fortune for 2.8bn.
The four brands - Canadian Club whiskey, Courvoisier Cognac, Sauza Tequila and Maker's Mark bourbon - have now been transferred to Fortune and join Jim Beam in its transformed portfolio, which catapults the group into fifth position in the world spirits league.
The former Allied brands were initially valued at 2.8bn, but following more detailed calculation of their financial contributions, an additional payment of just under 200m will be made from Fortune to Pernod Ricard in March.
How did you get into the wine business?
I trained as a croupier and travelled the world doing that for six years. When I came back, Glasgow was European City of Culture, and it was such a fabulously buzzy place to be. I asked my friend Gordon Yuill [former matre d' at Rogano] if he had any work for me, and he gave me a job working in the caf.
Generally speaking, you should be wary of anyone who begins a sentence with In the old days'. Usually, they'll be talking about bygone eras when the bobby on the beat would give unruly youngsters a swift clip around the ear, or when footballers were real men, kicking a laced leather ball around a mudbath, cheered on by flat-cap-wearing hordes of working-class folk.
Victor Bowie is leaving his position as chief executive of Fells after 22 years with the company. Colin McKenzie, hitherto director of finance of the company, is appointed to the position of chief executive of Fells with immediate effect. The company would like to thank Victor Bowie for his many years of dedicated service, in particular to the development of the Port market in the UK,' the company said in a statement.
Read more...Many wine writers and people in the trade will remember Decanter magazine's successful 2003 tribunal appeal against Customs duties levied on bona fide samples for tasting analysis. These same observers may have assumed that the case - which made a splash in The Times - had rectified a previously confusing situation regarding the right to free receipt of tasting samples.
