AROUND THE WORLD

Cellar Door’s web-led campaign is dedicated to the finer things in life, including the famed Californian winery

Robert Mondavi Supper Club
Robert Mondavi Supper Club was launched in June 2006 by Cellar Door, the premium wine division of Constellation Europe. The £600,000 marketing campaign  was designed to raise brand awareness in the UK market for the iconic Californian winery.

Central to the campaign is a magazine-style website  dedicated to the “finer things in life”, which was created to provide subscribers with an array of recipes from high-profile chefs, which to date have included Jean-Christophe Novelli, Raymond Blanc and Angela Hartnett, as well as feature articles on the arts, and related topics such as table styling and floristry from entertaining experts.

The campaign has been brought to life via media relations activity aimed at both national and consumer lifestyle publications, a Christmas regional radio campaign that was heard by more than five million listeners, and creative sampling of Robert Mondavi wines in national retailers including Thresher, Waitrose and Tesco.

Recent ACNielsen figures (MAT w/e 02.12.06) demonstrate that  the US wine category is gaining in both volume and value in the UK, with an overall increase of 8%.

For more information, visit www.robertmondavisupperclub.com

New rum distillery
Havana Club has announced plans to open a new rum distillery in San José, Cuba.

The company was created 13 years ago, a joint venture between Cuban company Cuba Ron and Pernod Ricard. The former has taken full responsibility for rum production up to this point, with Pernod Ricard developing the brand via its international network.

Cuba Ron will continue to produce the brand’s white rums, but the new facility will see dark rum production move to Havana Club International.

The new plant, which will have a capacity of 12,000 bottles per hour, will assist the brand in keeping up with rising demand. Since its launch, the brand has experienced double-digit growth every year, and is estimated to have sold nearly 2.6 million 9-litre cases in 2006.

The new distillery, 30 kilometres from Havana, will remain true to Cuban rum tradition, using the añejamiento natural process, which governs both the blending and ageing of rum. With six ageing cellars, Havana Club claims that the new facility will provide more ageing capacity than any other rum producer.

Record year for Oz
Australian wine exports increased significantly last year, setting new records for value and volume, according to The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation.

Wineries exported 757 million litres for A$2.82 billion in 2006. Volume increased by 8%, while value rose 1%.
China contributed significantly as an export market, buying 21m litres last year, compared to 4m litres in 2005. Sweden also contributed to export growth, importing 16m litres (up by 4m litres on 2005).

The country’s traditional export markets continued to have a marked effect. The UK, still the number one export market for Australia, imported 266m litres (up 2% on last year) for A$929m, 1% lower than in 2005.

The US may soon become the most important market for Australia, however, with volume increasing by 5% to 219m litres. Lawrie Stanford, Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation’s information and analysis manager, commented that “the US made ground on the UK in value terms and is close to overtaking it as Australia’s major market”.

Stanford went on to comment that Australia’s increasing exports were achieved despite tougher global competition and a more difficult trading environment.

Surprise buyer for Independent liquor
A partnership of two private equity firms has snapped up Independent Liquor, one of Australasia’s fastest-growing ready-to-drink companies, from under the noses of Diageo, Lion Nathan and Foster’s Group for around NZ$1.25bn [£446m].

All three had expressed interest in buying 20-year-old Independent Liquor, but the trade buyers could not match the combined offer of Pacific Equity Partners and CCMP Capital Asia.

Diageo won regulatory approval to bid with Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, but was reportedly surprised by the enthusiasm of the bidding and lost interest in the subsequent auction. Lion Nathan, mainly interested in Independent Liquor’s dark rum business, dropped out when bidding topped NZ$1bn [£357m]. While Foster’s would have had to go to the capital markets to beat the private equity firms without breaching its debt-equity ratios, already standing at 70-80%.

The trading of all three has been hurt in the last few years by Independent Liquor, a maverick business founded and managed by mathematician Michael Erceg, a member of a New Zealand wine-producing family, who died in November 2005 while piloting a helicopter in bad weather. His widow, Lynette, put the company up for sale.

Established in 1987 in Auckland,  by last year Independent Liquor had grabbed 65% and 30% of the New Zealand and Australian RTD markets respectively, with brands such as Woodstock Bourbon & Cola – which became its flagship product – Vodka Cruiser, Pulse, KGB, Mudshake and Purple Goanna.

Erceg additionally challenged Asia Pacific-owned DB Breweries’ and Lion Nathan’s duopoly of the New Zealand beer market with his Haagen and New Zealand Lager brands. Independent Liquor also secured profitable distribution rights to a range of imported beers.

He took an inexpensive approach to beat his much bigger rivals, working closely with the retail trade rather than relying on advertising.

The sale, which should be approved by the regulatory authorities of both countries by the end of January, concludes a four-month process.

Beer dispute settled
An ongoing battle between Heineken, InBev and electrical group Philips over a home beer draught system has been settled out of court.

Heineken first initiated legal action against InBev and Philips in 2005 over the launch of their PerfectDraft home beer system. Heineken claimed at the time that the system encroached on its BeerTender product, launched in 2004.

A district court in The Hague dismissed the case, and InBev continued to sell PerfectDraft in the Netherlands, while Heineken appealed against the decision in January last year.

Last month it was announced that the dispute had been settled, but no details were disclosed.

New TCA-removing compound revealed
A compound, named TRIEX, has been developed that removes TCA from wine without affecting aroma or flavour. This was the claim made by G3 Enterprises and Filtrox at last month’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in the US. US-based G3 Enterprises provides a number of services to the food and beverage industry, while Swiss company Filtrox specialises in filtration. The result of the collaboration is a filter containing TRIEX through which wine is run to remove TCA.

Other methods used to remedy TCA in the past have either diminished the flavour of the wine, or have merely masked the effects of the chemical.

TRIEX is also effective in treating TBA, which is similar to TCA. “We have treated several thousand gallons of wine that were unusable as a result of being contaminated with TBA. This wine is now being bottled,” said Charles Pierce, general manager of G3’s closure division.

Yquem thinks big with 2005
The iconic Château d’Yquem has announced plans to celebrate its 2005 vintage by producing a limited number of nebuchadnezzars for the first time.

Only 100 of the 15-litre bottles will be available, with a further 20 being kept by the château. Each bottle retails at £8,625, and yet Bordeaux Wine Investments, the London-based merchant which helped to develop the 15-litre offer, has had no trouble selling its 50-bottle allocation. The fact that bottling will not take place until 2009 has not discouraged buyers either.

The remaining 50 bottles have been allocated to US company Bordeaux Wine Locators. The bottles will be individually numbered, and all 100 buyers will go into a draw to determine the owner of nebuchadnezzar number one.

The last time Yquem was released in a format larger than three-litre was in 1982, in six-litre bottles. Château d’Yquem made headlines recently when a collection of every vintage between 1860 and 2003 sold for £775,000.

Pop stars
A london ska band claims that Coca-Cola has plagiarised its music and video material
to promote Coca-Cola Light in Argentina.

7 Seconds of Love is unsigned, but enjoys a degree of popularity online. Since the alleged similarities were discovered by an Argentine fan of the band, the group has received global media coverage.

The advert was reportedly created by an Argentine agency, and is claimed to be original.

© db February 2007