Spirits

YOSHI Matcha Liqueur is moving from a two-state test market to national distribution in under a year, testing its thesis that the popularity of espresso martinis and matcha prove there’s demand for green tea-laced cocktails.

The latest spirits distribution headlines include RTD gin cocktail The Original Southside landing in major retailers, a wave of Southern Glazer’s (SGWS) additions spanning vodka, rum, and scotch, and distributors scooping up new territory in the wake of Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) collapse, among other moves.

If there’s ever a good place to make a pitch that a drinks brand is about hedonism, it would be at Tales of The Cocktail, the U.S. bar industry’s biggest event, which took place in New Orleans last month. What’s surprising is that the pitch came from a non-alc brand.

Vodka’s buyer base is aging and drinking less, but new formats can serve as recruitment tools, according to a new report from NIQ. 

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.