Global Sound Byte! BevCast Weekly News Episode #9

Listen to Industry News and other Insights on the Bevcast Podcast Channel on Soundcloud. Bevcast Weekly News is a news series giving you a quick look at the most important news, trends and developments of the week.

Bevcast Weekly News is brought to you by USA Wine Ratings, which is an international wine competition that Beverage Trade Network hosts in San Francisco where wines are judged For On-Premise Market on Food Pairability, Typicity, Value, Quality, and Package.

 Submission is now open for the 2019 USA wine ratings. Please visit USAWineRatings.com for more information on how winning the USA Wine ratings medal can help you grow your wine brand.

 So gear up for your week ahead - these are our top stories of the week.

*To listen to the full Podcast and more, kindly stay tuned into BevCast channel on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.

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• In Search of the Lost Wine Consumer

 A recent Silicon Valley Bank report on the wine industry is still making headlines. There is growing concern that the wine industry could lose the young consumer altogether if wine starts to be viewed as “your parent’s beverage.” Older millennials are now an age when they should be embracing wine.

• Kombucha, the Next Great Beer Alternative

It’s not only winemakers who are wary of alternative beverages. Hard kombucha, a fermented beverage made with 4.5% ABV, is growing in popularity as a beer and hard cider alternative. Flying Embers now offers an organic hard kombucha product in flavors like “ancient berry,” “lemon orchard,” and “ginger & oak.”

• Turkish Wine Industry Looking to Embrace Exports

Elsewhere in Europe, the fall of the Turkish lira (down 40 percent against the U.S. dollar) means the Turkish wine industry – currently ranked 45th in the world – could be exploring export markets as a path to growth. Turkey has the fifth-largest vineyard acreage in the world and an ancient winemaking tradition.

• Glass Recycling For Wine Industry Gains Attention

A single wine company, E.&J. Gallo, is now the largest consumer of recycled glass in the state of California, accounting for nearly 30 percent of all glass recycled in the state. That’s raising questions about why other wine industry players are not doing more to support glass recycling.

• US Wine Industry Posts 24th Straight Year of Growth

According to a market report presented at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in California, the U.S. wine industry sold over 405 million cases of domestic and foreign wine in 2019. That marks an incredible 24 years in a row of annual sales growth.

• European Online Wine Sales on the Upswing

Between 2010 and 2017, the total volume of wine sold via online e-commerce surged by 66 percent in Europe. As a result, online wine sales now account for nearly 4 percent of total off-trade wine sales in Western Europe, according to a new report from Rabobank.

• Climate Change in Australia Attracting Headlines

Australia has seen record-breaking heat recently, as well as floods, and that has thrust this winemaking nation into the headlines. How is climate change impacting winemakers and growers? It’s not just record heat, it’s also record cold: Tasmania, located between the mainland and Antarctica, has been experiencing severe frost events.

• Washington State Experimenting With Wine Program For Prisoners

By 2020, the Wall Walla state penitentiary in Washington could include a 5.2-acre vineyard and hopyard, which will be used to teach inmates about growing grapes and hops. The prison has over 2,500 inmates, but participation in the program will be limited to approximately 10 inmates at a time.

• VinePair Announces Plans to Publish Print Magazine in 2019

VinePair, which bills itself as the “largest and fastest growing drinks media brand” in the world, will begin to publish a bi-annual print magazine starting in May 2019. In addition, the media company continues to explore other options for bridging the online/offline divide, including reader trips to wine regions.

• Super Bowl Ad for Stella Artois Goes Viral

However, honors for the most popular wine or beer ad of Super Bowl 53 goes to Stella Artois for its “Change Up the Usual” spot, which featured both Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges reprising their roles as Carrie Bradshaw from “Sex and the City” and the Dude from “The Big Lebowski.”

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• Wine Industry Keeping Its Eye on Changing Millennial Tastes

The slowing growth rate in the U.S. wine industry is leading to new thinking about how best to sell wine to the millennial generation. And that includes a review of how other product categories – such as hard seltzers, non-alcoholic drinks and cannabis-infused beverages – are winning over these younger drinkers.

• How to Market Wine to Younger Millennials

At the recent Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in California, a major topic of discussion was how to market wine more effectively to younger drinkers. Rosé, for example, is the fastest-growing wine category, but is still growing slower than the hard seltzer category, which did not exist six years ago.

• UK Wine Industry Growing At a Record Pace

One place where wine sales are very strong is the UK, where England and Wales produced a record number of bottles last year: 15.6 million. According to the trade organization WineGB, that’s up from just 5.9 million bottles in 2017, when frost conditions negatively impacted the overall harvest.

• Europe and Australia In a Legal Battle Over Prosecco

According to the European Union, “Prosecco” is a protected trademark, and that means Australian producers should not be able to use that word on any of their bottles. However, intellectual property experts Down Under say that this legal interpretation could be a breach of World Trade Organization rules.

• Vinventions Announces Bold Plan to Recycle Corks and Wine Closures

The “endless cycle of life” is a term that you might not associate with wine corks. But, at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Vinventions showcased the world’s first-ever truly circular wine closure recycling initiative. Most wine corks today are “downcycled” rather than recycled.

• Investors Taking Note of Consumers’ Move to Spirits

Publicly traded drinks conglomerates like Diageo, which has a portfolio of some of the most iconic spirits brands in the world, could benefit from shifting trends in drinking habits, say investors. Younger people are prioritizing hard liquor over beer and wine, and that will benefit companies like Diageo.

• Champagne Exports Outpace Domestic Consumption For First Time in 50 Years

For nearly half a century, there has been more Champagne consumed within France than elsewhere in the world on an annual basis. But that all changed in 2018, thanks to strong growth for Champagne in export markets such as the U.S., Australia and Japan.

• Luxury Developers in California Adding Features For Wine Lovers

Multi-million-dollar real estate properties in San Francisco are increasingly adding a wide range of luxury amenities – such as custom-designed wine walls and storage rooms – in order to appeal to high net-worth buyers who are also collecting fine wine and would like unique ways to showcase their collections.

• Wine Enthusiast Celebrates the Stars of the Wine World

The 19th annual Wine Star Awards, hosted by Wine Enthusiast magazine, had two big themes this year: responsible stewardship of the land and the support of women winemakers in the wine industry.

• The Future of Wine Marketing Is the Yellow Tail Super Bowl Ad

If you watched Super Bowl 53, you probably saw the Yellow Tail Super Bowl ad promoting its “Tastes Like Happy” campaign. According to Forbes magazine, the ad is a great example of how wine brands can use video to tell their stories, especially to younger drinkers.

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Thank you again for going through the Bevcast Weekly News. Once again, a quick reminder to enter your wines in the 2019 USA Wine Ratings, the international wine competition that is organized by Beverage Trade Network every year in San Francisco that rates wines by Quality, Value, and Package.

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