The week in pictures

June Sarpong speaks at Spirit Forward LONDON, the first ever S.H.E. Summit in Europe, hosted by Bacardi Ltd and S.H.E. Gobal at Sea Containers (Photo: Wilson/Getty Images for Spirit Forward)

It’s International Women’s Day today, and while many a drinks company or hospitality firm has fallen foul of the #dontpinkmydrink rule, many are also helping to further discussion around gender equality.

This week, Bacardi’s hosted the inaugural European S.H.E. Summit, and head of advocacy Shervene Shahbazkhani was one of many high profile panelists at the event.

Meanwhile, Diageo has hired its first female cooper apprentices (the ones that make the barrels), and acknowledged that while the ancient craft of creating oak casks has been part of Scotch whisky for centuries, it’s a fairly male dominated role.

First-year coopering apprentices Angela Cochrane and Kirsty Olychick are working at Diageo’s Cambus Cooperage in Clackmannanshire.

Angela and Kirsty are part of team of 16 coopering apprentices in the Coopering School at Diageo Cambus, learning the skills of a cooper over the course of a four-year apprenticeship.

In honour of IWD 2019, we have published a short series of features on women working in and helping to shape the drinks industry today, whether that means being at the heart of the UK’s booming beer trade, driving the growing interest in wine in China, or influencing household brands in the world of spirits.

Women’s involvement with beer dates back millennia. Throughout the 9,000-year history of fermented drinks, archaeologists and historians have charted the role of women, both in the production and sale of beer. These days, though groups such as Women on Tap and Ladies that Beer, and initiatives such as International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day actively campaign to celebrate women in beer and safeguard against offensive marketing or sexism in the workplace. Phoebe French has listed the female brewers in the engine room of the UK’s beer industry.

Meanwhile, Edith Hancock has detailed the women who shape everything about the spirits industry, from the whisky in your glass to the adverts you watch. Women have long had a valuable presence in the spirits sector, but master distiller, CEO and senior brand ambassador roles are often occupied by men

In what is typically perceived as a male-dominated industry, a number of trail-blazing women have made their mark in the spirits world, including at household names such as Jameson and Hendricks. We’ve taken a look at the women getting valuable work done in the sector.

Finally, dbHK editor Natalie Wang takes deep dive into China’s wine market, and reveals the women influencing it today, from bloggers ruffling feathers with established estates such as Australia’s Penfolds, to winery owners flying the flag for China’s domestically produced plonk.

In other news….After a hiatus in 2018, Matthew Clark’s on-trade tasting event, Uncovered, returned this week.

Our deputy editor Phoebe French caught up with managing director David Phillips, and director of wine buying, Simon Jerrome, who revealed the changes the company has made to turn its fortunes around since the collapse of parent owner Conviviality.

“The business was hours away from collapse in April, but since then we’re spent a lot of time, energy and effort getting it back on track,” Phillips said.

“It took us five months to get our wine stocks back to normal levels. We also paid off all debts owed, both to our customers and also the crown – this was particularly important for us going forward.”

You can read the full story here.

Ladies and gentlemen Mr Al Gore #portoprotocol pic.twitter.com/0e6tC0xqpW

— Rupert Millar (@wineguroo) March 7, 2019

Meanwhile, on the continent, db was in Porto this week for the hotly anticipated (see what we did there?) Climate Change Leadership conference.

Our man on the ground Rupert Millar reports that the opening two sessions included speakers from leading wine companies such as LVMH, Torres, Concha y Toro and Sogrape. Notable speakers also included wine writer Jamie Goode, who called the wine industry the “canary in the coal mine” for climate change, and former US vice president Al Gore.

Back in Blighty, it was the last week of lager brand Peroni’s cocktail bar-cum-immersive fashion exhibition in London’s Covent Garden.

The fashion-focused House of Peroni, which closes on Sunday, has eight immersive rooms “delving into the minds of eight creative emerging designers” including Mancunian Hannah Wallace, Teeside’s Matthew Duffy, London-based Joel Boyd, and Brightonian Danial Crabtree.

Guests will also be able to sip on a selection of Peroni-based cocktails created by long-standing ambassador, Simone Caporale.

Up north, Ogilvy Vodka – Scotland’s first potato vodka distillery – is preparing to open the doors to its new £150K visitor centre on the outskirts of Dundee.

Independently owned and run by husband-and-wife team, Graeme and Caroline Jarron, Ogilvy Vodka has been distilling at the couple’s Angus farm since 2014.

Licensees from across the UK were celebrated at Star Pubs & Bars’ annual Star Awards last night.

Representatives from 90 finalist pubs attended the gala ceremony, which was hosted by comedian Ed Byrne at The Belfry resort in Sutton Coldfield.

Tequila brand Olmeca  has crowned the Pineapple Express Tequila shotTail, created by a group of young bartenders from Russia, as the winner of the ‘Colossal Shot Kings’ competition, in the “first ever crowdsourced shot ritual contest in the world.”

Held in Cape Town, South Africa, teams of bartenders from different countries were challenged to work together to evolve the iconic Tequila shot ritual Inspired by cocktail culture, shotTails showcase the versatility and approachability of Tequila shots through different flavours and ingredients.