Spirits

Months after Brown-Forman’s board rejected Sazerac’s $15 billion buyout proposal, Sazerac has taken a renewed bid directly to shareholders.

As many companies across the beverage aisle run towards wellness, one alcohol replacement brand is backing away from it.

Brown-Forman president and CEO Lawson Whiting will retire, effective once the company names a successor, the Jack Daniel’s parent announced today.

A new counterclaim filed by the receiver overseeing Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey case alleges lender Farm Credit Mid-America ignored years of red flags while a rogue CFO falsified financial reports, misappropriated funds for personal purchases and increased the whiskey brand’s credit line from $35 million to $67 million.

The near-complete wind-down of Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) national operations is sending shockwaves through the three-tier system – triggering a wave of transitions and emboldening distributors to delay payments, according to suppliers. Meanwhile, the country’s largest spirits distributor has cut staff.

Sam Calagione is in a creative groove. The Dogfish Head co-founder is on the verge of releasing a collaboration full-proof whiskey in collaboration with Rolling Stone magazine. He recently wrote a column for the magazine on the 1976 overlap of punk, hip-hop and craft beer. And his 31-year-old craft brewery finished Q1 up, still trucking behind its Grateful Dead collaboration beers and spirits-based canned cocktails.

Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is possibly closer to new ownership after its court-appointed receiver announced today he has signed a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) to sell nearly all of the brand’s assets to a confidential buyer.

After months of legal wrangling, a federal judge has delivered a ruling that keeps Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey under court-supervised receivership and extends that control to founder Fawn Weaver’s personal holding company.

Brown-Forman has rejected a $15 billion takeover offer from Kentucky rival Sazerac.

Ready-to-drink hard lemonade has surged to $1.5 billion in sales, but new styles are squeezing out the segment’s mainstays. 

Indianapolis-based Sun King Brewing has expanded its empire with the acquisition of Hotel Tango Whiskey’s brand assets, the brewery announced this week.

The will-they, won’t-they between Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard has ended with an emphatic they won’t. The spirits giants announced today they “were unable to reach mutually agreeable terms,” ending discussions regarding a potential combination of their businesses.

Spirits giant Sazerac announced today a “strategic partnership” with 818 Tequila, the brand founded by model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner.

Sazerac offered to acquire Brown-Forman for about $15 billion, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.