The week in pictures

Never ones to turn down an enticing invite, having sent our August issue to the printers, team db celebrated with fishbowl-sized G&Ts at eccentric new bar Mr Fogg’s House of Botanicals in Fitzrovia. Completing the Mr Fogg’s hat-trick, the sister bar to the Mayfair original and Covent Garden gin parlour shines a light on botanicals and is filled with fabulous flora and fauna, butterflies and birdcages. Phileas himself would have no doubt approved.

The bar serving cocktails and light bites inspired by exotic botanicals and plants that Phileas Fogg came across during his travels in Around the World in 80 Days. And if you’re lucky you might be served by this dapper chap.

What a week for H1 results, eh?

First it was Heineken, which saw profits fall by in the first half of 2018 amidst a “volatile” economic climate.

It said it expects the margin to shrink by 0.2 percentage points by the end of the year, instead of the 0.25 point boost it predicted in February, as “economic conditions are expected to remain volatile.”

Then it was fellow beer giant Molson Coors, whose beer sales also saw a dip in the start of the year. In a bid to diversify their offerings, both beer companies have recently moved into the cannabis drinks sector. Heineken just launched a non-alcoholic, THC-infused “water” under the Lagunitas craft beer label, while MC has forged a partnership with a Canadian medical marijuana manufacturer to explore opportunities in the green drinks market.

One company which fared better was spirits firm Campari, which reported “solid” sales growth in the first half of the year, thanks to strong performance for orange liqueur for Aperol.

Is this a pattern we see before us? Earlier this week we reported that 20% of people now prefer cocktails to wine and beer, according to a survey of 2,000 brits.

The survey was carried out by Diageo-owned Gordon’s, Baileys and Tanqueray, mind, but it’s still food for thought.

When you release your inner GOAT:

Ok now that’s out of the way, DJ Khaled achieved the greatest accolade of all this week: Most Appearances in a db Week in Pictures round-up.

Why? Well the booze-loving rapper is the new star of Bumbu rum’s ad campaign, and honestly the video is very, very funny.

The video sees DJ Khaled in a private yoga session with an instructor encouraging him to be the G.O.A.T.,

For those unfamiliar with the jargon, this translates to “The Greatest of All Time.”

You can watch it here:

Khaled, like many artists, is an old hand when it comes to working with Sovereign Brands, the parent owner of Bumbu. He regularly crops up in promotions for Bumbu and Belaire sparkling wine, so much so he has even landed in hot water when he plugged some of the drinks brands on his own Snapchat stories.

Graham Norton is about to release his fifth vintage with Kiwi producers Invivo Wines, and the team are so excited they wanted to share some #plandid photos from their recent blending session which took place earlier this week.

With a Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé and Shiraz already in the portfolio, Norton’s latest wine will be a Prosecco, for which the New Zealand-based wine producing firm has partnered with Italian growers in Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Northern Italy. So far Norton, along with Invivo founders Tim Lightbourne and Rob Cameron, have tried eight different styles of fizz, with Norton going for a drier blend.

“It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.” Cameron said.

On Thursday, Guinness brewers, executives and locals gathered for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the new home of Guinness in America – the Open Gate Brewery & Barrel House in Maryland.

It’s the first stateside brewery the Irish beer giant has owned for more than 60 years.

The first part of the brewery’s name takes inspiration from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Dublin – where the company has experimented in beer for more than a century.

But it has another connotation. Guinness recently launched Open Gate Pure Brew, a new non-alcoholic beer aiming to capitalise on the now fast-growing category and give it a premium feel.

While we’re still on that side of the Atlantic, congratulations to Lee Jones, bartender at the Smokestack bar in Leeds, who has won the International Final of the Southern Comfort Southern Showdown 2018 cocktail contest in New Orleans.

Lee’s winning drink, the Whitesmith Cobbler, had to include Southern Comfort Original (35% ABV), the 40% ABV New Southern Comfort Black, or the 50% ABV Southern Comfort 100 Proof.

Back in blighty, heavy metal group Iron Maiden and Stockport brewery Robinsons have partnered with Virgin Trains to launch Trooper beer onboard all trains for the duration of the band’s Legacy of the Beast UK tour.

To celebrate the partnership with Virgin Trains, Iron Maiden’s lead singer Bruce Dickinson, who is also a qualified airline pilot, travelled from London to Stockport in the cab of a Virgin Trains Pendolino. Iron Maiden are up in Aberdeen this weekend, but they’ll be back next week to play London’s O2 arena on Friday. There’s a Wheatus reference in here somewhere.

Meanwhile, those already in the capital last weekend witnessed thousands of cyclists take part in the annual RideLondon race, and there were a few folks from the industry there, too.

“The Brompton World Championships” a race for 500 qualifiers held on The Mall during The Ride London, marked the launch of a new sponsorship deal for Champagne Bollinger in the U.K with the winners of the men’s & women’s individual and team awards being presented with bottles of bolly to mark their achievements.

Riders must follow the strict dress code which reflects the heritage of the event.

Francis Ford Coppola Winery celebrated the launch of its new line of wines by American film director Gia Coppola with a pool party last weekend, featuring a silent disco with tunes by DJ Myles Hendrik, carnival food, and 80s arcade games. You know, the usual pool party stuff.

Everyone knows that designing product labels is one of the most expensive parts of the beer production process, and no one knows this better than independent UK brewer Purity, which circumvented the cost of creating one for its new Session IPA this week by getting students from Birmingham City University’s School of Art to do it for them.

Only kidding! The brewery collaborated with the university on a competition which challenged budding creatives to design the artwork for the new beer.

Graduates Bethan Nicol and Zunaira Muzaffar saw their designs selected for production, winning a cash prize, honouree “Puritan” memberships (read: free beer) and even getting a namecheck on the cans.