Alcohol Law Enforcement Agency in North Carolina could cut one-third of its agents due to state budget cuts
August 12, 2013 State lawmakers chopped $1.75 million from the Alcohol Law Enforcement agency's budget, which will slash its manpower by a third. ALE has 83 special agents actively working on investigations in the state. The Department of Public Safety said the cuts...
Beam Q2 results: great sales growth overall – against the trend Skinny Girl down 23%
August 8, 2013 Beam Inc. (NYSE: BEAM), a leading global premium spirits company, today reported results for the second quarter of 2013. Net sales for the second quarter increased 7% and were up 5% on a comparable basis. Strong sales growth for the company's global...
Legislation to allow the creation of craft distilleries in New Jersey signed into law
August 8, 2013 Legislation sponsored by Assembly Democrats Reed Gusciora and Connie Wagner to allow the creation of craft distilleries in New Jersey has been signed into law. “A craft distillery license brings the manufacturing and distribution options available to...
Pennsylvania Liquor Board reports record $128m in profits
August 6, 2013 The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said Monday it enjoyed record profits in the last fiscal year, a time when special interests were spending millions to advance or derail efforts to privatize liquor and wines sales after 80 years of state control....
Champagne yields set for 2013 harvest
August 5, 2013 The yield for the 2013 Champagne harvest has been set at 10,000 kilograms per hectare, with an additional 500kg/ha allowed to be released from producers' reserve stocks next February, the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) has...
US facing grape shortage – soon there won’t be enough grapes to make all of the wine the country wants to drink
August 5, 2013 There's a grape shortage developing in the U.S., warns Citi's Gino Rossi and Craig Woolford. And the roots of this problem originate twenty years ago. "An excess of US vineyard plantings in the 1990s resulted in surplus wine grape supply through the...
Diageo’s strategy to reclaim leadership position in Tequila includes buying a couple of Tequilas
August 1, 2013 Diageo Plc may be close to a deal that would help it reclaim its dominant position in the global tequila market, according to a senior executive. The world's biggest spirits group lost its right to distribute Jose Cuervo tequila outside Mexico last...
California wine grape harvest coming early this year
July 29, 2013 There’s no such thing as “normal” weather in California wine country, and vineyard operators say this year that truism could mean good news for wine lovers. After cool temperatures slowed ripening and kept grapes on the vine until fall in recent years,...
Pennsylvania legislators back shipping wine to consumers
July 25, 2013 Will Pennsylvanians soon be able to have a cabernet sauvignon or a Riesling from California shipped straight to their door? Despite the bruising battle in the Legislature over privatization of state wine and spirit stores, allowing direct shipment of...