Scottish wine to be produced later this year - weather permitting

Currently the most northerly British wine producer is in Yorkshire, which must be tricky enough. But according to The Drinks Business.com, an optimistic  Scottish chef is preparing to launch the first commercially-produced Scottish wine, provided there is enough sunshine.

Pete Gottgens is planning to harvest grapes at his Perthshire hotel later this year, and wants to use them to produce a crisp Riesling.

He plans to sell the wine in his hotel restaurant and run classes in wine-producing, although he will turn his crop into vinegar if it is not good enough.

A very brave chap.

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Chateau Tooting, a wine made from grapes grown in London. is launched tonight.

The grapes are sourced from private growers allotments and gardens in London in a collaboration run by The Urban Wine Company. The aim is to produce easy drinking wine, rather than compete for awards.

More info at the Drinks Business

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Champagne sales are showing signs of recovery - maybe the recession really is over

Although the full sales figures for the Christmas period are not available yet, it looks like the Xmas season got off to a good start. The November international sales figures were up for the first time in the year.
Off course its been a tough year, the Jan to Nov figures show overall UK sales down by a whopping 30%, whist in Japan sales were down 40%.
Our promotional champagne sales weren't down that much, but it was certainly noticeable. Our Personalised champagne sales for gifts were pretty stable though.
December for us showed a definite increase in champagne demand.

For the full story on international champagne sales visit http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10776&Itemid=66

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English fizz wins international contest against major producers including Bollinger.

Great showing by English sparkling wine producers against top class fizz from the rest of the world, including champagne. Nyetimber has a track record of international triumphs, and was joined in the top 10 by Camel Valley. Although England is still a very small producer, the quality is now in the big league.

For more info visit http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10781&Itemid=66

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Personalised Wine Labels for Valentine's Day

Give your Valentine a bottle of wine with your own personal message on the label. Tastier than a bunch of flowers! http://amplify.com/u/1j2u

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Alcohol helps keep the roads ice free in the US

A canny local distributor is marketing leftovers from the distillation process as “Magic Salt”, passing on this by-product, which works down to -35°F (-37°C), to hospitals and New Haven city council to keep roads free from ice. Thanks to The Drinks Business newsletter for that.

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The record for the world's strongest beer has been broken by the Scots

Those nutters at BrewDog have unveiled the intriguingly named Tactical Nuclear Penguin with a 32% abv, just beating previous record holder, German beer Schorschbraer, at 31%.
This is nearly as strong as whisky.

BrewDog has made 500 bottles of the beer, half of which will be priced at £30 and the rest at £250 including a share in the company.

See the vid at http://www.brewdog.com/blog.php

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