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A US district judge in Eastern Tennessee on October 23 rejected founder Fawn Weaver's request for an injunction to stop a sale of Uncle Nearest's assets while her appeal against the receivership is pending, finding she had not shown a likelihood of success or irreparable harm, and that blocking a sale could harm receiver Phillip G Young Jr, lender Farm Credit Mid-America and other creditors. The whiskey business has been in court-ordered receivership since August 2025 after defaulting on more than $100 million owed to Farm Credit, three potential buyers are in the running, and Weaver's receivership appeal is set to be heard December 11 in the Sixth Circuit.
The Spirits Business |
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Mark Anthony Brands, the maker of White Claw, is pushing into the hard sports drink (vodka plus ade) category, per BevNET. The outlet reports the segment is growing fast as the company looks to repeat the success it had in hard seltzer.
BevNET |
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Boston Beer CEO Jim Koch says the emerging spirits "ade" segment will be "where a lot of the action is" over the next year. The company launched its vodka-ade brand Rally Dog into selected US markets last month.
Just Drinks |
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Boston Beer's 2027 outlook prioritizes a full slate of new products, but those innovations stay relatively small in next year's volume plan next to the company's core fourth-category brands: Twisted Tea, Sun Cruiser and Truly Hard Seltzer. The company's stated priorities include committing to Truly, neutralizing Twisted Tea losses and continuing Sun Cruiser's growth.
Brewbound |
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Treasury Wine Estates' key U.S. brands priced above $10 a bottle posted a combined 5.4% year-over-year drop in retail volume, per Circana data published by Shanken News Daily on Oct. 23.
Vinetur |
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Diageo's global category director for whisk(e)y and luxury, Julie Bramham, told Global Drinks Intel the company has identified four growth areas for its whisk(e)y portfolio: Johnnie Walker, malts, "social whisk(e)y" (Buchanan's, Old Parr and Crown Royal in the Americas) and "value" whisk(e)y, where brands such as Black & White, White Horse, J&B and Bell's run as low-investment, market-specific plays. Bramham said premiumisation remains central and that Buchanan's Pineapple has drawn 80% of its consumers new to the brand.
Drinks Intel |
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Treasury Wine Estates told shareholders at its annual meeting that trading across regions in the opening months of the new financial year was in line with expectations, with no fresh numerical guidance, after a year of falling net sales revenue and a statutory net loss driven by a non-cash impairment of its US assets. Management said leverage eased during the opening quarter on strong operating cash flow, Penfolds, Matua and DAOU depletions grew while non-priority brands declined, and a new regional operating model (Americas; Australia, New Zealand and Europe; Greater China; Emerging Markets) took effect at the start of October.
Kalkine Media |
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Impact handed its annual Blue Chip Brands awards to 27 spirits, 15 wine, and nine beer and FMB brands that showed at least 10 consecutive years of volume growth, or compound annual growth of 2% for spirits, 1.5% for wine, and 0.5% for beer and FMBs from 2016 through 2025, while clearing $25 million in gross margins last year. Of the spirits winners, 10 are Tequilas and nine are whiskies, with Tito's, Crown Royal, and Fireball among those above 2 million cases; Constellation Brands led the beer and FMB group with four Mexican imports.
Shanken News Daily |
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Brown-Forman is expanding its single malt portfolio in India, aiming to make the country a top-10 Scotch market within five years as lower import duties improve the outlook for premium Scotch there.
Vinetur |
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Hourly workers at Molson Coors' Shenandoah Brewery in Elkton, Virginia voted in late September to join Teamsters Local 29, with 57% of the 359 participating employees in favor; union membership is now open to 411 workers across the plant's production, maintenance, storeroom, and wastewater departments. A Molson Coors spokesperson said the company respects the decision and will "proceed appropriately," and the Teamsters said they will next develop healthcare and pension proposals and select in-plant representatives.
WMRA |
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India's ISWAI has written to the commerce minister arguing that excluding bulk Scotch imports from reduced tariffs "risks undermining" market-access benefits agreed in the UK-India trade pact, which since July cut whisky import duties from 150% to 75% with further cuts to 40% over ten years, per a letter seen by Reuters. Indian investigators have told firms that bulk Scotch concentrates do not qualify and must be declared under a classification carrying the full 150% duty, following revenue intelligence visits to Pernod Ricard, Diageo's local subsidiary, and Allied Blenders & Distillers.
Just Drinks |
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LCBO's sales of Ontarian-made RTDs rose 25.3% to CA$826m in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, the biggest gain of any local category after the board removed American products in March 2025. Total sales of Ontario products reached CA$3.07 billion, up 20% year on year, though LCBO net income fell to CA$1.81bn from CA$2.17bn.
The Spirits Business |
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Prepared cocktails are the standout of the alcohol category across off-premise channels, with premixed cocktails up 50.1% in the convenience channel, per CSNews.
CSNews |
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Europe's 2026 grape harvest is wrapping up earlier than usual, but the new bulk wine season is starting in a weak market, with producers in France, Spain and Italy facing slow demand and high inventories.
Vinetur |
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AB InBev released a marketing spot titled "Choose Moderation. Choose Beer" featuring its biggest global brands, including Budweiser, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra, pitching beer as a drink for moderation and spotlighting its no- and low-alcohol options. The ad is part of a group-wide platform called "Cheers to Moderation" rolling out across more than 40 markets through sporting and cultural events, brewery tours and product innovations.
Drinks Intel |
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A Tennessee federal judge denied a whiskey maker's CEO's bid to halt asset sale efforts by the company's receiver while the CEO appeals the court's decision to keep the receivership in place.
Law360 |
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The third edition of Vinitaly.USA, organized by Veronafiere with the Italian Trade Agency, opened October 26 at Pier 36 in New York and runs through October 27, bringing together 300 exhibitors and 2,500 Italian wine labels. Per the UIV-Vinitaly Observatory, 35 million U.S. consumers currently drink Italian wine, while more than 50 million of the country's nearly 90 million regular wine drinkers represent a potential audience.
PR Newswire (Wine & Spirits) |
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Heineken's report "The Future Role of Bars in Europe," based on a survey of 9,227 adults across nine European markets, found that 18-to-29-year-olds are visiting bars more often than their national averages but expect more than drinks, with 73% of the Gen Z cohort saying the best future bars will need to offer food, music, sport and live experiences. Only 52% of those surveyed said bars are "adapting well" to changing consumer needs, and Heineken said Millennials aged 30 to 45 showed the sharpest five-year drop in bar visits in every market surveyed.
Drinks Intel |
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Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits' 2026 Raise the Bar report finds consumers are drinking more selectively rather than quitting, with alcoholic RTDs now driving 94% of spirits volume growth and cocktails accounting for 92% of total wine growth. The report points to a barbell split between premium and value spirits, tequila growth (55% of Gen Z drank it in the past year), and a fast-growing zero-proof category whose innovation dollars more than doubled from 2024.
Restaurant Business Online |
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Restaurants without full liquor licenses are building cocktail programs around beer, wine, and fortified products, with New York and California allowing soju and shochu at 24% ABV or under as base spirits. At Sipeo's in Walnut Creek, California, low-alcohol cocktails hit 25 percent of beverage sales in August 2026, passing wine's 22 percent for the first time, bar lead Vincenzo Piccione says, using Kumiho flavored sojus to stand in for gin and whiskey in classics that land at 24% ABV versus roughly 34%.
SevenFifty Daily |
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DISCUS wrapped a round of trade promotion events in Warsaw and at Bar Convent Berlin, held through its partnership with the USDA Market Access Program, with producers including Brown-Forman, Campari, Middle West Spirits, Ole Smoky, Suntory and craft distillers taking part. DISCUS said its export program has directly generated at least $18.5 million in new U.S. spirits exports since 2024 and supported more than 45 distilleries over the past three years; the EU remains the largest U.S. spirits export market at roughly $1.2 billion in 2025.
Fred Minnick |
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Carlsberg India's revenue from operations fell 2.2% to Rs 8,708.8 crore ($915.19M) in the year ended March 2026, while net profit rose 22% to Rs 534.51 crore ($56.17M) on roughly 12% lower excise payments and a 4% cut in total expenses. The Tuborg and Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc marketer, which received SEBI approval on October 1 for a secondary share sale that could raise up to $700 million, lifted sales promotion spending 42.6% to Rs 848.71 crore.
foodbusinessmea |