Top 10 stories on db.com this week

From celebrity wine to Star Trek and troublesome beer commercials, we reveal the most popular stories on the drinks business website over the last week.

This week we revealed the world’s top 10 Champagne brands by global sales, which proved incredibly popular and db‘s senior staff writer Lucy Shaw got the scoop on the filming of a second Judgement of Paris film.

As well as these stories it has been a busy week, with a range of launches, executive appointments and court cases, but it is quite surprising to us at db Towers to see which story was the most popular this week. (These figures are based on the unique visitors to each story).

Click through the following pages to end out our most popular stories and to make sure you haven’t missed out on this week’s key news.

10. Brothers jailed over £4.7m booze fraud

Cash seized by HM Revenue and Customs officers

Two brothers from the West Midlands were jailed this week after being caught trying to avoid paying more than £4.7 million in alcohol duty. When HMRC officers searched the pair’s home they found £45,000 in cash plus 60 litres of alcohol. A further 8,000 litres of booze was found when officers searched a storage unit rented by the brothers.

Read more on this story – Brothers jailed over £4.7m booze fraud

9. Diageo announces executive changes

Diageo’s chief marketing officer Andy Fennel

This week the world’s biggest drinks company announced a range of changes to its executive committee. The chief marketing officer gained a promotion and the HR director retired and these positions were subsequently filled by others within Diageo.

Read more on this story – Diageo announces executive changes

8. Top 10 most shared alcohol videos

New research from video technology company Unruly suggests that drinks industry market leaders like Diageo and SAB Miller are lagging behind in social video marketing because “they are not optimising their content for social web”. The research also found that a staggering 97% of the alcohol sector’s video shares came from just four adverts and this feature reveals the world’s 10 most shared alcohol videos.

Read more on this story – Top 10 most shared alcohol videos

7. Actress and rock star join celeb wine craze

Matt Bellamy of Muse and his actress fiancée kate Hudson

Famous couple actress Kate Hudson and her rock star fiancé Matt Bellamy of Muse have become the latest in a steady stream of celebrities to enter the wine business, following the likes of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Drew Barrymore and film director Francis Ford Coppola.

Read more on this story – Actress and rock star join celeb wine craze

6. Full speed ahead at LVMH

Jean-Guillaume Prats, new head of Moët Hennessy’s Estates & Wines division

Jean-Guillaume Prats, the new head of Moët Hennessy’s Estates & Wines division, spoke to the drinks business, outlining an ambitious timetable for its new Indian and Chinese wine projects.

Read more on this story – Full speed ahead at LVMH

5. Second ‘Judgement of Paris’ film to be made

This week Lucy Shaw got the scoop on the plans for a second film based on the famous Judgement of Paris tasting, which having been in the pipeline for six years will finally start filming this autumn.

Read more on this story – Second ‘Judgement of Paris’ film to be made

4. Limited edition Star Trek wines on sale

Who would have thought that a story with a link to Star Trek would be popular on the internet? Well, it was and the news that a Sonoma-based winery has created a limited edition range of Star Trek wines with labels based on the original series’ most popular shows, was the fourth most popular story on db.com this week.

Read more on this story – Limited edition Star Trek wines on sale

3. Parker moves into branded wine cases

Our third most popular story this week was the news that négociant Bordeaux Wine Selection is to release limited edition cases of 100-point claret from the 2009 vintage, with each bottle signed by US wine critic Robert Parker. There are now rumours on Twitter that these cases are not actually authorised by Parker.

Read more on this story – Parker moves into branded wine cases

2. Top 10 biggest Champagne brands

This is consistently one of the most popular features on db.com and this week we revealed the figures for the world’s biggest Champagne brands. Based on the global sales figures for 2012 also looks at how the big brands have done compared to sales in 2011.

Read more on this story – Top 10 biggest Champagne brands

1. Sri Lanka to sue over beer commercial

It is possibly a surprise to see that this story is the most popular on db.com this week, especially as we revealed the top 10 Champagne brands this week. But the story proved to be big in Japan; it was picked up by Yahoo! Japan, and that helped to drive a high number of unique visitors to the story, which revealed that the Sri Lankan government was planning to sue an advertising company after it featured a Unesco World Heritage site in a Japanese beer commercial. Alcohol and tobacco advertising are banned in Sri Lanka.

Read more on this story – Sri Lanka to sue over beer commercial