Wine & Spirits

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Beringer Classic Wines released new bright, appetite-appealing packaging for the spring season, the company says.

The Macallan single malt Scotch whisky brand partnered with Oakley Inc. to create a rugged flask for on-the-go consumers.

Sidney Frank Importing Co.’s Jägermeister brand partnered with boxing trainer and Hall of Famer Freddie Roach to launch the “A Brother In Your Corner” social responsibility campaign.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but this month it could be worth a trip to Spain thanks to Pernod Ricard USA’s Campo Viejo Spanish wine brand.

Phillips Distilling Co. released an upgraded bottle for UV 80 vodka to help the product stand out more on the store shelf, the company says.

Malibu, a product of Pernod Ricard USA, launched a new bottle style that changes almost everything but its signature white color, the company says.

New York-based Scotch whisky brand Label 5 launched its WorldmiXperience Web series, a social media campaign that follows a team of five global Label 5 fans as they spend five days in New York City. The series will broadcast daily on Label 5’s Facebook page and will be updated with photos, interviews and videos of the mission of the day.

Although the vodka sub-category remains the No. 1 segment in terms of volume sales, whiskey has become so popular that it is beginning to take over as the No. 1 spirit on a dollar sales basis, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s monthly wine and spirits report, which cites Chicago-based SymphonyIRI data.

Wine sales in the United States from all production sources increased 2 percent from the previous year to a new record of 360.1 million 9-liter cases with an estimated retail value of $34.6 billion, according to Wine Industry Consultant Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, Woodside, Calif. Of this total, almost two-thirds or 207.7 million cases of California wine account for a 58 percent share of U.S. wine sales with an estimated retail value of $22 billion, he says. Including exports, California wine shipments to all markets in the United States and abroad reached 250.2 million cases in 2012, he says.

Rising demand for Scotch whisky from both mature and emerging markets saw the value of exports grow for the eighth consecutive year, according to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), Edinburgh, Scotland. Exports of the alcohol beverage hit a record £4.3 billion or approximately $6.5 billion in 2012, an increase of 87 percent in the last 10 years, the SWA reports. Scotch whisky currently leads the way for British food and drink in overseas markets, forming about 80 percent of Scottish food and drink exports and a quarter of U.K. food and drink exports, it says.