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Sherry Whitney

From: John Bodnovich <bodnovich@ablusa.org>Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 8:44 AMTo: John BodnovichSubject: FW: Industry News Update - Monday, January 5

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United Spirits says independent directors approve Diageo deal The firm is meeting its shareholders on 9 January seeking approval for the plan to make and sell brands owned by Diageo Source: Livemint January 3, 2015

United Spirits Ltd, on Friday, said its independent directors have evaluated and approved a plan to make and sell Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff vodka and other brands owned by its parent Diageo Plc, ahead of special meeting of shareholders on 9 January seeking shareholder approval for the plan. In November 2014, minority shareholders of the company had rejected the proposal because it lacked details on how the benefits would be shared between Diageo and its local unit. Touting the potential benefits of the deal, United Spirits said it estimates that the agreement will help generate roughly `700 crore in sales in the first year, if the deal is ratified by shareholders. United Spirits generates roughly `42 crore from distributing Diageo brands in India. "...independent directors of the company at the relevant time, namely, Indu Shahani, Sudhakar Rao and D. Sivanandhan, have independently assessed the agreements and evaluated the transaction for its value accretive potential for the company before according their approval and recommending the resolution now placed before the shareholders for their approval by a special resolution in the ensuing extraordinary general meeting of the company to be held on 9 January," the company said in its filing to BSE. United Spirits said the company had received queries from several shareholders about the assessment of such transaction by the independent directors. Simply put, the company is indirectly endorsing the resolution with the help of independent directors, said Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of proxy advisory firm InGovern Research Services Pvt. Ltd.

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"The company cannot directly influence the shareholders hence it is soliciting the support through independent directors," he said. About 29.8% of public shareholders of United Spirits voted against the resolution to allow the company to sell Diageo brands at a special meeting of shareholders on 28 November. The company needed the backing of 75% of shareholders for a related-party transaction. Shareholders also rejected nine related-party transactions between the company and its Indian promoter Vijay Mallya's UB Group. Diageo and UB Group together own about 60% of United Spirits' stock. Diageo, the world's largest distiller, owns roughly 54.78% of United Spirits after it bought an additional 26% of the company's shares from public shareholders for £1.11 billion in July. Shares of United Spirit ended at `2,811.90 on BSE, down 0.3% from previous close while India's benchmark Sensex Index rose 1.4% to close at 27,887.90 points. ------

Diplomacy of Scotch Whisky Association chief Source: The Scotsman by MARTIN FLANAGAN 29 December

The double-whammy of the first fall in the value of Scotch whisky exports since 2009 and the Scottish independence referendum has made it a lively opening year for David Frost as chief executive of the industry's influential trade body. The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) trod a measured path in the often fractious referendum debate. But it voiced its potential concerns about any break in political and taxation continuity, and said its fundamental aim was to get "a business and export environment as supportive as that which we now enjoy in the UK". Frost spent 25 years as a British diplomat before taking up the SWA post in January in succession to Gavin Hewitt, another former diplomat. Having met him twice now, Frost does seem diplomacy personified. One senses he would instinctively prefer referring to a "frank" exchange of views behind closed doors rather than anything as demotic as a row. So how does his background - with roles and postings including the director for the European Union in the Foreign Office, the UK Mission to the United Nations and the British embassy in Paris - help him promote Scotland's national drink?

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"The Scotch Whisky Association is a really well-known organisation in the diplomatic service," Frost says. "Most ambassadors have had the phone call from it asking them to press and pursue a trade issue. "I think the advantage of a diplomatic background in the job is that it brings a network of people here and abroad that you can tap into. There's a way of engaging with people in other governments to get results. The SWA overlaps government and the private sector in the people we deal with. Having a government background sometimes helps you know how far you can push." He also speaks several languages, including French, German and Greek, with the obvious advantages in political and regulatory discussions. Up to 90 per cent of Scotch whisky goes overseas, and so global travel is a given in the job. Frost says he only spent about 10 per cent of his time abroad in his first year, but that it was "a bit unusual because of the Scottish referendum", and expects that percentage to rise meaningfully in the coming year. He has already been to India for the SWA twice, only cancelling a third planned trip earlier this month due to illness, underlining how much potential that country has for the Scotch whisky industry. Negotiations have been glacial under the European Union-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in trying to engineer a cut in India's swingeing 150 per cent import tariffs on Scotch and other spirits. But Frost says: "India is already an important market for us, with immense potential. It is the biggest spirits market in the world. We have 1 to 2 per cent of it, and if we could double it eventually I think we would be doing really well." He says two factors that could help ongoing talks with the Indian authorities are Scotch market leader Diageo's acquisition of that country's domestic drinks giant, United Spirits, "and a good chunk of Scotch whisky going into Indian whisky products". Other trips he is planning early next year are to China, Taiwan and Korea. The overseas forays come against the backcloth of the SWA revealing in September that exports fell 11 per cent to £1.77 billion in the first six months of 2014, from £2bn in the same period last year. This was largely due to economic pressures in emerging markets, with declines in Asia and the Americas, including Brazil, Mexico, China and Singapore. Frost is sanguine, however. "There have been headwinds this year, largely due to slower growth in emerging markets. But we operate in virtually every country in the world. There's a long way to go before that becomes a real problem for us."

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Back on home turf, the SWA chief said he has been struck most in his first 12 months about the industry he now spearheads by "the depth of history and strength of feeling that goes with it - there is a strong emotional connection with it". A well-chronicled fact is that whisky exports make up £1 in every £5 of Scottish exports across all sectors, and more than 20 per cent of total UK food and drink exports. The SWA, not coincidentally, has asked the Chancellor for a 2 per cent duty cut in his next budget. In the wider political picture, it is clear that Frost - and his recently appointed new SWA chairman, Pierre Pringuet, the boss of spirits giant Pernod Ricard - are intent on anticipating the debate about whether Britain should leave the European Union if it comes to a Tory-promised referendum in 2017. Frost, a recent head of the EU (Internal) Department, says the European single market has been very important for the Scotch whisky industry, not least in adding heft to various free trade negotiations. He says the EU can be "complicated and can be painfully slow to get things done, but it does get things done". He adds: "Any organisation that brings 28 countries together with different traditions, there's going to be an element of complexity. But EU membership is increasingly important to us. It means no paperwork or border checks. It's hard to see how we could replicate that if we are outside." On a related subject, Frost says he is looking forward to working with Pringuet at the helm of the trade body. "I worked at the embassy in Paris for three years," he says. "I did not meet him then, but did meet a lot of senior French business people. They bring an incredible knowledge about how government and private sector works, and how to get results. I see all that in Pierre." Frost emphasises that under his tenure, as with his predecessors, there will be no let-up in the SWA's pursuit of counterfeit whisky producers worldwide. The body has about 70 cases going on at any given time, but Frost is both philosophical and relentless on the issue. "It's human nature," he says. "When you have a great product, people will want to piggy-back on it. You cannot eliminate it [counterfeit whisky products], but you can make it difficult. They know we will come after them if they do try it." It is a hint of the steel that has also seen Frost carry on the policy of fighting the Scottish Government's proposed minimum alcohol pricing policy in the European courts.

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He says: "We want to be part of the solution with Holyrood, and where I think the Government is reasonable is that Scotland has an alcohol problem. But minimum pricing is heavy handed when all the evidence says that they [problem drinkers] are insensitive to price. We don't see why price fixing is good just because the motives are good." ------

Ireland closer to banning alcohol sponsorship Source: The Spirits Business by Amy Hopkins 2nd January, 2015

Ireland has edged closer to banning alcohol brands' sponsorship of sport under new legislation due to be unveiled later this month, reports claim. According to the Irish Times, Irish lawmakers have included a clause that would see the prohibition of alcohol sponsorships in sport as part of a new policy designed to tackle alcohol misuse. However both the Minister for Sport, Paschal Donohoe, and Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, must ratify the terms of the legislation. Both have said alternative funding for sport must be secured before the ban is introduced. Such measures have been criticised by both drinks and sporting companies, which claim sponsorships are undertaken responsibly and do not encourage excessive consumption. Other terms of the bill will include: a minimum pricing policy for alcohol, calorie and health warnings on bottles, the structural separation of alcohol in shops, and some further restrictions around sponsorships and advertising. In July last year, a Retail Intelligence survey demonstrated that more than two thirds of Irish people are not opposed to alcohol sponsorship in sport, a result that was welcomed by the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland (ABFI). "Let's picture for a moment the hugely negative impact that a ban on sports sponsorship would actually have," commented Kathryn D'Arcy, director of ABFI said at the time. "As communities and business work hard to survive, we must not cut off vital funding to our sporting organisations." In Europe, calls for the ban of alcohol sponsorship in sport have gained pace, with lobbyists urging such action in Formula One racing. ------

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Drink-driver arrested after crashing car into a police station Officers did not have to go far to find the suspect, who crashed his car into the police station in an accident Cheshire Police describe as an "epic fail" Source: The Telegraph By Agency 02 Jan 2015

A suspected drink-driver was arrested after crashing his car into a police station. Officers did not have to go far to find the suspect whose car was left nose-end resting on the outside wall of Frodsham police station in Cheshire. The suspect is believed to have lost control of his vehicle which "rolled" off a car park next door and into the station at around 12.20am on Friday. The driver was then arrested for drink-driving. Cheshire Police released two tweets about the incident: "Man arrested for #drinkdrive after losing control on a car park and crashing into Frodsham police station. #epicfail", and: "Male in Frodsham kindly handed himself in for drink driving #drivenintostationwall". A 49-year-old man is currently on bail. ------

Alcohol and A&E: should drunk people be kept out of hospital? Fed up with the pressure placed on the NHS by drunkenness, doctors are calling for more arrests. Recent estimates suggest that up to three in 10 patients attending A&E in the UK are there because of alcohol - and more at weekends. Source: The Guardian Sarah Whitehead 2 January 2015

It's 7pm on New Year's Eve and the streets of Liverpool are bubbling with the anticipation of seeing out 2014 with a bang. For most people, the evening's consequences will be no more severe than a hangover and the material for a few funny stories. But for the staff arriving at the accident and emergency department at the Royal Liverpool, the city's main hospital, New Year's Day wasn't such a cheerful prospect. The hospital, based in the heart of the city, is usually the first to deal with the overindulgence of the city centre's revellers,

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and paramedics waiting for callouts in the ambulance bays are apprehensive about the night ahead. When I return at 1am on New Year's Day, every bed is full and the bays are empty. A girl in a long black dress hitched above her knees limps through the main entrance, helped by two friends. Minutes later a young man stumbles through the gates and blearily asks where the entrance to A&E is. Blood is streaming from his nose and he is holding his left arm close to his chest. He stops to throw up before crossing the car park to the entrance and a member of staff guides him through the doors. Half an hour later an ambulance pulls into the bay and as the back doors open, the slurred and expletive-filled demands of a man on a stretcher can be heard. Alcohol-related admissions put A&E departments under severe pressure. Recent estimates have suggested that up to three in every 10 patients attending A&E in the UK are there because of alcohol - more at weekends. Now some people are suggesting that more radical action needs to be taken. Last Saturday, Dr Cliff Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, told the Observer that the unsustainable pressure on A&E could be reduced only by arresting more drunk people as a deterrent. "If more people knew that if they got drunk they were going to be arrested, they wouldn't drink in the first place," he said. At the Royal Liverpool, a paramedic waiting in the early hours for his next call attests to the scale of the problem. "A lot of people coming in now have been found drunk in the centre," he says. "They've had accidents, got into fights or, most likely, drunk so much they just can't control themselves. Often they don't need A&E help - they just need to sleep it off. But then they're drunk so they don't know what they need and just call us." That kind of misuse of the emergency services has become a huge issue. "A lot of people treat the ambulance like a free cab service," says Ged Blezard, director of emergency services for the North West Ambulance Service, citing a man in Manchester who rang to ask if he could book an ambulance for 11.45 in case he needed one due to drinking too much. "We definitely have our 'regulars'," says the paramedic outside the Royal Liverpool, who asks to remain anonymous. "You can often guess from the area who it's going to be and we're on first-name terms with them. They get absolutely hammered every weekend and that's normal for them." Increasingly, taxi drivers say they too are being asked to take party-goers to A&E because of the waiting times for ambulances. Dave Henley, a black-cab driver in Liverpool, is working on what will be his fifth New Year's Eve. "I've become a bleeding ambulance service over the past few years for drunk people who've just lost the plot," he says as we drive down Dock Road towards the hospital early in the evening. "I've literally had to scrape people up off the pavement and carry them to the hossy doors." He recalls one incident when he was hailed by a girl sitting outside a pub. "She was absolutely

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hammered and started throwing up. She was too drunk to tell me her address and seemed in a really bad way, so I took her to A&E as she would have had nowhere else to go. "It's always the same. Early on they all come in me cab looking a million dollars with bottles of bubbly in their hands, and then after midnight they're falling over themselves, getting into fights," he says. Several initiatives have sprung up over the past few years to provide temporary shelter for the intoxicated who are only in need of minor attention, allowing A&E to concentrate on more pressing cases. In Cardiff city centre, a chapel has been given over to a team of nurses and street pastors on Friday and Saturday nights over the past year to care for those found drunk on the streets. In the seaside town of Southport in Merseyside, an alcohol recovery centre, known as the "drunk tank", led by NHS Southport and Formby clinical commissioning group, has been set up to run over the festive season. It can take up to 10 patients and is equipped with showers, beds and health professionals. Dr Alan Owens, A&E consultant and alcohol lead at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, who helped to launch the centre, says: "It's hard to say how much this has helped at this stage. But the centre has been regularly taking drunk and disorderly people off the streets, and if that means a few less drunk people in A&E, that's a good thing. In my experience, drunken people in A&E can be among the most time-consuming patients." The verbal and physical abuse many A&E staff face from drunken patients was one of the triggers for Mann's proposal. By the time most people are waking up on New Year's Day, five paramedic teams from the North West Ambulance Service have been assaulted by drunk patients. "This takes paramedics off the streets as they need to recover and speak to the police, which then affects how we respond to more needy patients later on," Blezard tells me. Not long ago, one paramedic was off work for several months with a fractured skull following an attack by abusive drunk patient. One young man, who asked not to be named, had to be rushed to a London A&E last weekend with a broken wrist after falling down the stairs at his friend's house. The following day, he was shocked to discover that he had called a nurse trying to bandage his arm "a bitch" and refused to cooperate with doctors trying to x-ray his arm. "It's embarrassing and I feel really ashamed," he said. "I have no idea how I got like that. I've never really been violent when drunk before so I don't why I lashed out that night. It's scary." He felt so bad about his behaviour that he called the hospital and asked if he could apologise to the nurse. The level of abuse from some patients requires police intervention. During the past few festive seasons, the A&E department at Manchester Royal Infirmary has had a police officer on site to deal with difficult behaviour, because of the large number of times staff were having to call the police due to drunk patients being abusive or violent.

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Jonathan Smith, matron for emergency services in central Manchester, said the officer had provided a huge source of support. "More than anything, I think it was simply the presence of a police uniform that helped. It's sad that you need a police officer to prevent people treating staff badly, but this was the case, and any difficult behaviour was dealt with much more effectively." Lack of funding means the service is no longer operating, and Smith is anxious about how the department will cope with difficult patients. "Although we have gone through training to deal with challenging behaviours, there are some situations we just can't deal with." Smith recalls incidents in which patients have thrown furniture at staff and threatened to hurt other patients or colleagues. "These are the times when we need police help. Often the police don't respond fast enough to deal with the issues, so they easily escalate." While services decide how to cope with increasing numbers of drunk A&E admissions, many health professionals are urging individuals to take responsibility. "The people Mann is talking about are those who go out in the evening, become appallingly drunk and need A&E attention because they fell over, choked on their own vomit or fell asleep and got hyperthermia," says Dr Katherine Henderson, an A&E consultant at St Thomas' Hospital London and a registrar at the College of Emergency Medicine, who works closely with Mann. Although she supports his proposal that more drunk people should be arrested, she believes the key is for people to take responsibility before the emergency services become involved. "It often feels that people are not prepared to make any plans at the end of the evening to get safely home, look after their friends and take control. The existence of the A&E as a safety net means people are not so careful. We would plead with patients to ask themselves: How can you control yourself? How can you get home? If you know you become aggressive and get into fights when you drink too much, then don't do it. It shouldn't be an excuse for bad behaviour. A whole department can be deeply disrupted from just one drunk patient. "The aim is to stop people getting to that stage, and that is the responsibility of the individual and their friends. We've had patient monitors smashed and staff threatened. If you get to a stage where you hit a nurse in a hospital, you should not drink like that again." But for doctors, the more serious issues around drinking are not focused on New Year's Eve - or even the disorder often seen in city centres on Saturday nights. Ninety per cent of hospital admissions related to alcohol are not weekend binge-drinkers but individuals with long-term problems caused by chronic consumption, such as cirrhosis of the liver. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore is a leading expert on liver disease and a former president of the Royal College of Physicians. He says liver disease is one of the biggest health issues the NHS is facing and cause of an increasing proportion of deaths. "Most of that harm is being done behind closed doors at home," he says, "not on the streets on Saturday nights."

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Hours before the flood of drunk patients filled the Royal Liverpool's A&E, I meet a 53-year-old man sitting in the still-quiet ward after being treated for alcohol withdrawal symptoms. John called an ambulance when his body began to shake so badly that he was unable to move. He lives alone and has been off alcohol for two weeks, although has suffered from alcohol dependence for almost 30 years and has had five visits to A&E in the past year - the most recent being for a pulmonary embolism. John is an example of the many patients for whom alcohol is part of a much more deeply rooted problem. Gilmore says: "One of the challenges in A&E is to distinguish between someone who is simply drunk and someone who has been drinking but also has a serious medical problem. There is a tendency to blame every drinker for their predicament, but there are 1.5 million people in this country dependent on, or addicted to, alcohol - which is an illness. Alcohol may be legal, but it is a drug of dependence, and how we use it is a huge issue affecting society." According to Gilmore, alcohol is the single biggest factor in young men dying between the ages of 16 and 24, whether it be through accidents, suicide or violence. "We've got this macho drinking culture in this country where consuming huge amounts is often considered in some way heroic. We do need a culture change but nobody has a magic bullet. The easiest and quickest way to bring about a cultural shift is to get rid of cheap supermarket drink at pocket-money prices and stop drink being available and heavily marketed 24/7," he says. Peter Howarth is the manager of Dr Duncan's, a public house in Liverpool named, ironically, after William Henry Duncan, the UK's first medical officer of health, who was appointed to the role on New Year's Day 1847. "From my experience, alcohol is generally something people enjoy and use to relax and have fun. There are the odd customers who get aggressive, but as a manager you try and monitor people and intervene before they get to the stage of being disorderly. As a city centre pub, we have a nice mix of a hardcore regular crowd and also people merely passing through the city. Most of them seem to just have fun." When taxi driver Dave Henley picks me from A&E at 2.30am we drive back through the Waterloo area down South Road, a popular local runway of bars bordering the mouth of the Mersey. It is hard to draw any firm conclusions from the scene that we find: one man grapples a paramedic trying to remove him from the aftermath of a fight while a group of girls with their heels in their hands are huddling around a friend being sick. But against the backdrop of blue flashing lights and loud music, others are dancing and laughing. When I get out at the end, as the road meets the water, a group of revellers are linking arms and happily singing Auld Lang Syne when their chants are cut short by the sight of a man shivering. Unable to ascertain where the man's friends are, someone starts to call 999, but then decides it would be quicker to take back him back down South Road, where more ambulances are arriving.

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Purina Credit Union merges with Anheuser-Busch Employees' Credit Union Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch By Tim Barker January 2, 2015

The closing of 2014 brought an end to the independence of the Purina Credit Union. The financial institution, with 3,800 members and $48 million in assets, has merged with the Anheuser-Busch Employees' Credit Union, or ABECU, an independent financial institution that is not an affiliate of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch. The Purina unit will be a division of the much larger ABECU, along with the American Eagle Credit Union. The merger was completed Thursday. The A-B credit union now has nearly 120,000 members with $1.5 billion in assets. It has 30 locations around the country. "One of our core strategic goals is managed growth, so we can continue to provide our members with superior products, enhanced services, and long term value," said Dave Osborn, chief executive of Anheuser-Busch Employees' Credit Union, in a statement. Through the merger, members of the Purina Credit Union will have access to branch locations and services offered by the A-B credit union. The Purina Credit Union's membership covers employees and retirees of several companies, including Nestle Purina PetCare, Energizer Holdings and Post Holdings. ------

Is a Great Wine Palate God Given, Learned or Bought? Lettie Teague talks to wine collectors, olfactory researchers and reviewers to get to the bottom of the oenophile's quest: Can a great palate be acquired? Source: WSJ By Lettie Teague Jan. 2, 2015

WHEN ONE WINE lover wants to compliment another, the words "great palate" are often bestowed. An oenophile with such a palate is perceptive, discerning and often possessed of an extensive if not expensive wine cellar-or so it seems. (I've read one wine lover's

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waggish suggestion that the greatness of someone's palate is directly proportional to the value and size of his or her wine cellar.) The Merriam-Webster definition of the word is pretty straightforward: "the roof of the mouth separating the mouth from the nasal cavity." The Oxford Companion to Wine defines "palate" a bit more broadly as "the combined human tasting facilities in the mouth and sometimes nose." I would amend the "sometimes" to "always," since the vast majority of what we perceive about a wine is aroma and not taste. While a palate is a physical fact, a great palate seems much more abstract. What are the criteria? Does someone with a great palate possess a superior ability to recognize aromas and flavors or simply a better-than-average capacity to describe them? How much is innate and how much can be learned? I put these questions to a few talented amateurs as well as experts in the wine and olfactory worlds. My first call was to Dr. Gary Beauchamp, emeritus director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. Dr. Beauchamp has made a broad and extensive study of the olfactory and taste systems. Although he didn't offer specific guidance as to how a great palate can be achieved, Dr. Beauchamp does think a palate could be improved, especially by repeated and focused tasting. "If you have lots of experience with particular smells, you might be able to pick them out better," he said. Wine drinkers can take other specific steps as well to develop what Sue Ebeler, a professor in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California at Davis, calls "more sensitive palates." These include tasting a wide range of wines, talking with wine drinkers about their perceptions, blind tasting with others and buying a Wine Aroma Wheel, which will "provide you with terms that you can learn to apply to standards," said Prof. Ebeler. The Wine Aroma Wheel was created by her colleague Ann C. Noble, a sensory chemist and professor emerita at UC Davis (now retired). Prof. Noble is famously the first female professor hired in the University's Viticulture and Enology department and an important member of their wine-sensory group. Her now much-imitated aroma wheel, developed in 1984, was the first graphic presentation of wine-tasting terms. It's a deceptively simple device: A laminated plastic circle breaks down wines into 12 broad categories (e.g., floral, spicy, nutty) at the center, then moving outward to the edge of the disk, subdivides those categories into more specific aromas (e.g., orange blossom, anise, walnut). A wine drinker with a wheel will, theoretically, have a better vocabulary to describe various aromas and flavors. But what of wine enthusiasts lacking large vocabularies? I asked Richard Jennings, a Silicon Valley-based wine taster who samples up to 8,000 wines a year and has over

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40,000 tasting notes on the popular CellarTracker website. Does someone have to be as articulate as he is to have a great palate? Not necessarily, said Mr. Jennings. "I know people who have really good palates who can't pull out the words to describe [wines]," he said of these naturals. "They're not geeky, but they know what's good." Dr. Beauchamp attested to the inverse: The more verbally dexterous drinkers don't necessarily have better palates. "It just means that they've learned how to attach words to sensory experiences," he said. Mr. Jennings offered this advice to wine lovers looking to improve their ability to "know what's good" and talk about it: They need to taste widely and patronize good wine shops. "Your best friend is your fine-wine store-ideally one that holds frequent tastings," he said. The importance of tasting widely came up over and over again in conversations with my wine-collector friends. They all agreed that exposure to a range of wines is key and perhaps even more important than an extensive tasting vocabulary. My friend Andy, a Westchester-based wine collector, said his wife, Holly, has a great palate-perhaps better than his own-in part because they taste a lot of wine. He also attributes his wife's palate to "her physical ability to distinguish smells and tastes well," adding that she too lacks "a wine geek's vocabulary." Andy was with his friend Evan when I called for a chat. Andy and Evan are in the same "serious" wine- tasting group, although "Evan has a more refined palate than I do," said Andy. "He can pick up subtleties that I can't." Evan demurred but allowed that he has more experience. The men recalled their first shared bottle-a Ridge Zinfandel, from California-and agreed that their palates have evolved from those early days. They now prefer what they called more nuanced, European-style wines. The evolution of one's palate is another favorite topic among oenophiles, and it usually describes a movement away from one type of wine to another. This progression generally begins with simple, fruity young wines and moves to more complex, structured and often well-aged wines. One of the most typical evolutions I've come across is of a wine drinker who begins with California Cabernets and Zinfandels, then moves to the red wines of Bordeaux and ultimately Burgundy grand crus. (Needless to say, this sort of evolution requires a certain "evolution" of the pocketbook, too.) Does a great palate need to be evolved? I asked the two men whether a person who drank only the same sort of wine repeatedly could have a great palate. They thought not. Or as Evan put it, "I think it's hard for your palate to evolve if you only drink California Cabernet." And what of the quality of my own palate? It has certainly evolved. I don't drink the same wines I did 20 years ago, but that is partly because there are so many more wines in the world. I also have more money to spend on wine than I did in those early years-not to mention a professional obligation now to drink as broadly as possible. I can describe

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wines fairly well, although I've never owned an aroma wheel and I'm no Richard Jennings when it comes to tasting notes. I think what I have-and what most serious wine drinkers possess-isn't a great but an educated palate. In fact, I'm not even convinced that a great palate exists. Those two words imply a kind of universal capability I'm not sure is possible in the vastness of the wine world today. I think there are oenophiles with a great affinity for and deep understanding of particular wines and particular regions who are effective at transmitting those impressions to like-minded wine drinkers: a great palate for German Rieslings, for example, or a particularly keen understanding of Bordeaux. They've developed a natural talent with schooling and hard work, and like pianists who cannot possibly master every piece of classical music, must focus on one area close to their heart. ------

What's The Difference Between Champagne And Sparkling Wine? Consumers' Tastes Have Changed, But Understanding Lags Source: IBT By Philip Ross December 31 2014

Consumers have flocked to Prosecco in recent years because, in many ways, it is more accessible than Champagne, both in terms of taste and price. Reuters Wine consumers have embraced a new kind of ceremonial bubbly in the form of Prosecco and to a lesser degree cava, two lower-priced sparkling wines whose effervescence attracts New Year's Eve partygoers for the same reasons as Champagne. Whether revelers understand what exactly it is they're drinking is another story. "There are two kinds of people: Those that know about bubbles and those that don't," Stefano Campanini, owner of Wine By the Bay in Miami, Florida, told International Business Times. Many people "confuse Prosecco with Champagne, which are two totally different things," Campanini said. Consumers have flocked in recent years to other sparkling wines like Prosecco because, in many ways, they are more accessible than Champagne, both in terms of taste and price, according to industry experts. The average bottle of Italy-made Prosecco costs about $12 - right in the $10 to $20 price range that attracts more buyers - and is fruitier than Champagne, which tends to be acidic. Sparkling wine sales in general have skyrocketed in recent years, with Prosecco leading the charge. In 2014, Prosecco sales jumped 32 percent, far outpacing overall sales of sparkling wine, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sales of cava, which is made in Spain, saw a modest but notable 2.2 percent increase in U.S. sales since last year.

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That's not to say consumers have abandoned Champagne, a premium product with a loyal market of wealthy drinkers. Despite a crippling dip in U.S. sales between 2007 and 2009, when Champagne shipments to the country dropped 42 percent, Champagne returned to pre-recession levels two years later, according to the Journal. Shipments are expected to increase 1 percent in 2014 from last year. Wine sellers say that the average customer is unaware Champagne is a very specific type of bubbly that comes from the eponymous wine region in France. Oftentimes, store owners are left explaining the differences between Champagne - which has a higher price point, often upwards of $50 a bottle - and Prosecco. Champagne is fermented in bottles for at least 15 months -- sometimes up to several years -- a tedious process that contributes to the wine's prestige and cost. Prosecco is fermented in one large tank for about a month. These nuances are often lost on consumers who simply want something bubbly to celebrate with without shelling out $80, $100 or even $200 for a bottle of French Champagne. "There are still some people who come in and ask for Champagne. Then they see the price tags and they say, 'Oh no, we're looking for something closer to $12,'" Frank Pagliaro, owner of FranksWine in Wilmington, Delaware, told IBTimes. "They think anything with a cage on the bottle is champagne." Also called a muselet, the wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparkling wine or to a lesser extent, beer, prevents the cork from popping under pressure. Consumers have long associated the Champagne brand with sparkling wines in general. "It's like saying Kleenex for all facial tissues," Tom Geniesse, founder of Bottlerocket Wine and Spirit in Manhattan, New York, told IBTimes. "It's become a common language descriptor for all sparkling wines," something that has often angered purveyors of true Champagne who want to limit the name to wines only made in France. Like Champagne, sparkling wine sales tend to spike in December ahead of the New Year. For many wine stores, New Year's Eve is the busiest day of the year. "Even on a wholesale level, I'll get calls from my suppliers saying they have end of year deals" on sparkling wines, including Champagne, Pagliaro said. "They're all trying to make their numbers and today is the day to do it." ------

Why champagne hangovers ARE the worst: Bubbles help you absorb the alcohol faster, causing you to get drunk quicker Carbon dioxide in carbonated drinks speeds up alcohol absorption This leads to higher blood alcohol and brain levels People therefore get drunker faster and have a worse hangover

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Source: Daily Mail By Madlen Davies for MailOnline 2 January 2015

With millions of bottles popped to hail the start of 2015, after the champagne celebrations comes the inevitable hangover. The searing headache piercing your temples, the persistent nausea and room spinning around you as you lift your head from the pillow - all tell-tale signs. But while you may have declared champagne hangovers to be the worst from experience, research has now backed up that claim. The signature bubbles that set champagne apart are caused by carbon dioxide pumped into the drink. And it is the carbon dioxide that causes the bad hangovers, according to Boris Tabakoff, pharmacology professor at the University of Colorado. He explained it is the gas that causes the alcohol to be absorbed into the blood stream quickly. 'The carbon dioxide in carbonated beverages like champagne helps absorb the alcohol,' he told ABC news. 'You get a faster rate of absorption, higher blood alcohol levels - and brain levels - if you drink champagne as opposed to something non-carbonated.' Around two thirds of people get drunker faster when they drink champagne, or other carbonated drinks like Prosecco or Cava. Because of that, the hangover is worse, Professor Tabakoff said. A study at the University of Surrey in 2001 found volunteers given two glasses of fizzy champagne had an average of 0.54 milligrams of alcohol per millilitre of blood after five minutes, while those given the same amount of flat champagne had 0.39 milligrams. Hangovers occur for several reasons. As alcohol is a diuretic (triggering the production of urine), it causes dehydration, which in turn leads to symptoms such as headache, dry mouth, reduced concentration and irritability. Meanwhile, blood-sugar levels drop because the body produces too much insulin in response to the high sugar content of alcohol.

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This contributes to a throbbing head, as well as driving the rampant hunger that many drinkers experience. Alcohol also irritates the stomach and disrupts sleep, causing nausea and exhaustion the next day. The brain also overcompensates in the face of alcohol's depressant mechanisms, Professor Tabakoff said. This is why bright lights and loud noises are exaggerated - and almost unbearable - after a night of heavy drinking, he added. 'The best way to avoid a hangover is not to drink,' doctors advise on the NHS Choices website. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2894311/Why-champagne-hangovers-worst-Bubbles-help-absorb-alcohol-faster-causing-drunk-quicker.html#ixzz3NmE5JxWz ------

Could investing in wine boost your wealth? 2015 may be the year to raise a glass to your portfolio Source: Consumer Reports January 2015

Whether it's baseball cards or Beanie Babies, most collections don't result in financial gain for the collector. The dividends tend to be paid out in enjoyment instead of dollars, and only the rarest of specimens will ever appreciate in value. Investing in more grown-up items, such as wine, won't necessarily inoculate you from loss, either. Wine investing is often more for pleasure than price appreciation. Sipping wine may be great while sitting by the fireplace, but no one's making a killing from a cellar stocked with pedestrian wine-or even better wines, in some cases. At the higher end of the spectrum, the equation can change. Some vintages, costing thousands of dollars per case, have dramatically increased in price, rising more than 300 percent since 2004. Stocks, as measured by the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, haven't even doubled over the same period. To find out more about buying wine, read our wine buying guide. An alternative investment

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So is now the right time to jump into the tub of grapes with both feet? Not necessarily, at least judging by the performance of the Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index. Akin to a Dow Jones industrial average of wines, the Liv-ex comprises "100 of the most sought after vintages"-mostly Bordeaux. Prices increased more than 60 percent from 2009 to 2011 but have since fallen back to 2009 levels (see chart). Even if you were inclined to consider an investment, wine-based mutual funds remain in short supply. In the U.S., you won't find any such funds by using an online broker. But for $50,000, the Bottled Asset Fund, a portfolio focusing on Italian wine, will consider taking you on as an investor. We did find one mutual fund devoted to wine, headquartered in Bermuda. That's just as well. With hedge-fund-like expenses (an annual fee of 1.5 percent, a performance fee of 20 percent of returns, and a subscription fee of 5 percent), most of us would likely be better off investing in two-buck Chuck. If investing in wine funds seems daunting, a more direct approach, wine futures, may be more palatable. Wine futures, or pre-arrivals, are vintages with limited availability purchased well in advance of production. Securing wine from a reputable wine merchant gets you in on the ground floor-the closest to an IPO some of us may ever get. How do you know whether the wine purchased will appreciate in value? Well, that's where the speculation comes in, and there's no guarantee. Since the 2002 vintage, purchasing wine futures would have resulted in gains only 50 percent of the time. If you don't have a wine cellar in your home, wine merchants can store your wine for you. Like safe deposit boxes at banks, wine storage lockers come at a cost. The website WineFolly.com quotes prices ranging anywhere from $20 to $200 per month, depending on size. Beware of fraud Wine investing has attracted much attention from investors in recent years, and it has also become a target of fraudsters. Most of the stuff they sell is old wine in new bottles, and their marketing techniques have the hallmarks of many other scams: cold calling, "guaranteed" returns, and high-pressure sales tactics. (Most wine merchants we know are more demure.) Overseas, there have been reports of fraudsters using websites with names similar to legitimate outfits, looking to bilk unsuspecting buyers. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission has, on occasion, reined in wine-investment outfits that overpromised and underdelivered. All of this is to say that although investing in wine could enhance your portfolio, it could also diminish it. If you decide to try wine futures, consider the merchant's reputation as

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well as the price of your investment. Given the pitiful performance of wine in recent years, invest for reasons other than price appreciation-perhaps to cultivate your expertise in sniffing, swirling, and slurping. In that case, if the value of your wine investments falls, at least you can always open up a bottle and drink it. $ ------

Subsidising wine Source: FT Jancis Robinson January 2, 2015

The EU has now increased the sum available for promoting wine over the period 2014 to 2018 by 121 per cent to ?1.15bn "Making good wine is just the beginning - selling it is what's difficult." So says Silvana Ballotta, and she should know: she runs Business Strategies in Florence, helping small and medium-sized wine companies to expand internationally. A common, and to my mind justified, complaint of wine producers outside Europe has been that their EU counterparts have long been cosseted by subsidies to guarantee a minimum price or even paid to have their unwanted produce distilled into industrial alcohol. In 2008, all this changed: the EU decided that the funds once poured metaphorically into the European wine lake should be spent instead on promoting European wine outside Europe, creating new markets and making it more competitive with the likes of Australian Shiraz and California Chardonnay. Some ?522m was spent promoting European wine outside the EU between 2009 and 2013. And now - rather amazingly considering how many misappropriations have been uncovered - the EU has increased the total sum available for the period 2014 to 2018 by 121 per cent to ?1.15bn a year. (Wine exports from the EU are worth ?8.6bn.) Illustration by Ingram Pinn of the EU subsidising the price of wine©Ingram Pinn France, for example, is to be allotted ?280.5m every year between now and 2017 - very much less than the other two big wine producers of Europe, Spain and Italy. Perhaps this is in response to the discovery, as part of the EU audit into how the money was spent, that "one beneficiary presenting an amount of ?3,405 was classified as 'informative travels for journalists, importers, market co-ordinators, etc to the area where the wine is produced'," but turned out to be the cost of three VIP tickets for the tennis championships at Roland Garros "which cannot be considered as a wine promotion action", as the report concludes drily. The French were also highlighted unfavourably for claiming ?2.4m between 2009 and 2012 for the promotion of champagne, a name that is already world-famous and has been fiercely protected for years.

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The country that had the most money to spend last year, ?353m, was Spain, although the EU pointed out that far too high a proportion of funds, 88 per cent, was given to six big companies that already had a presence in export markets. The whole point of this initiative is to make life easier for small and medium-sized companies. Spain's budget has been slashed from this year but Italy has ?334m to spend annually up to 2017 - good news for Ballotta. She has worked at the World Bank and, usefully, for the EU. Since 2009 she has been helping smaller Italian companies find EU matching grants to promote their wares outside Europe (whereby the EU funds 50 per cent of approved projects). She speaks disapprovingly of the ?14m that some of Italy's biggest wine companies managed to claim in 2009. Her work has typically involved grouping small companies into a larger entity so as to qualify for the minimum EU grant of ?100,000, nursing them through the process of attacking Asian and US markets and, crucially, helping them account for themselves afterwards. The Veneto (Prosecco, Amarone, Soave and cheap Pinot Grigio) takes the lion's share, then Sicily, Tuscany and Piemonte. "Getting the money is the easiest part," she says, "but 10 out of the 15 people in our office spend their time auditing. If there's a missing boarding pass or comma on a report, then things are very difficult. And if they forget the EU logo [on promotional material], the EU won't pay." Indeed, in Italy at least, there seems to be far more emphasis on the process than the results. Wine exports from the EU to Asia have been increasing but it is difficult to argue this is as a result of the sort of initiatives that Ballotta and her like have been organising. She does realise what a blunt instrument she is working with. "We find wine producers filling in forms proposing a campaign in, for example, Shanghai, getting the grant, and then asking, where's Shanghai?" she says. "Typically, they get the money and then we have to nurse them through how to spend it. And we have to be careful that everything is co-ordinated and the recipients aren't all trying to court the same importers. Many of them don't speak languages, get the funds to go to an Asian wine fair and just sit there. Not even a prostitute sits and waits.'' The most obvious beneficiaries of the EU strategy have been the organisers of wine fairs in Asia; Asia has the least saturated target markets and the easiest way to make contacts is at a fair. These have mushroomed across China - rare is the month when I am not invited to one of China's third cities for the wine event of a lifetime. Hong Kong Vinexpo, the Asian version of Bordeaux's wine-trade fair, started off with just one floor but had grown to such an extent last year that Italy alone occupied a whole floor. A more recent Chinese problem has been organising grand dinners to accompany the fine Barolo and Brunello being represented. "You can't serve lamb in pineapple sauce with fine Barolo," says Ballotta. She is opening an office in Shanghai, to be run by a Chinese woman who used to represent Château Mouton-Rothschild but wants to move on to the wines of Italy.

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In the US, the approach is very different because Italian wine is so well known there and trade fairs are less important. Instead, efforts tend to be focused on tastings for sommeliers. Any half-decent restaurant can be depended upon to come up with suitable food matches. EU funds may be used for advertising and at one stage it was the summit of many small producers' desires to see their wine feature in a glamorous ad in one of the world's top wine magazines. But now that little effect has been noted, most of them are questioning the value of this particular approach, according to Ballotta. She sees potential in Central and South America, even though Brazil has protectionist measures in place. But, if all goes as expected, the next target market will be the UK, which the EU is expected to add to its permitted spheres of subsidised wine promotion shortly. Good news for organisers of UK wine fairs, presumably. ------

Virginia becomes the wine center Thos. Jefferson envisioned 200 years ago (Excerpt) Source: Daily Climate By Marianne Lavelle December 30th

Gabriele Rausse tends to grape vines that are thriving on the same high slope where Thomas Jefferson tried, and failed, to launch a Virginia wine industry more than 200 years ago. As one of the newest of the New World wine regions, Virginia also may be one of the best places to witness the impact of climate change on the wine industry. Rausse is widely hailed as the father of Virginia winemaking, having spent the past 38 years bringing the art and craft of his native Veneto region in northern Italy to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the United States. Now chief gardens and groundskeeper at the 2,500-acre historical site of Monticello, Jefferson's plantation, Rausse thinks often about climate - what it was like during the third president's time, and what it is like as he works the soil today. http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2014/12/virginia-wine-climate ------

Corks seal a wine's fate: aging under natural vs synthetic closures

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Source: The Conversation Andrew Waterhouse Professor of Enology at University of California, Davis December 30th

Most foods are best as fresh as possible. I remember picking peaches at my grandfather's ranch in Northern California and eating them on the spot. What a taste! But the exceptions to this rule are the many wines that actually need some aging to taste their best. Winemakers know this, and work to control the aging process including decisions they make about how to bottle up their product. Aging and oxygen One aspect of aging has to do with the reaction of fruit acids with the alcohol. This process reduces sourness in the wine, but it's really only important for very tart wines, the ones coming from cold climates. The complex oxidation process is the second aspect of aging. When oxygen interacts with a wine, it produces many changes - ultimately yielding an oxidized wine that has a nutty aroma. This is a desired taste for sherry styles, but quickly compromises the aromas in fresh white wines. However the oxidation process provides benefits along the way to that unwanted endpoint. Many wines develop undesirable aromas under anaerobic - no oxygen - conditions; a small amount of oxygen will eliminate those trace thiol compounds responsible for the aroma of rotten eggs or burnt rubbber. Oxidation products also react with the red anthocyanin molecules from the grapes to create stable pigments in red wine. The way a bottle is sealed will directly affect how much oxygen passes into the wine each year. That will directly affect the aging trajectory and determine when that wine will be at its "best." Stick a cork in it? Glass is a hermetic material, meaning zero oxygen can pass through it. But all wine bottle closures admit at least a smidgen of oxygen. The actual amount is the key to a closure's performance. A typical cork will let in about one milligram of oxygen per year. This sounds like a tiny bit, but after two or three years, the cumulative amount can be enough to break down the sulfites that winemakers add to protect the wine from oxidation. There are three major closure options available: natural cork and technical cork, its low budget brother made of cork particles, the screw cap and synthetic corks. Natural cork closures appeared about 250 years ago, displacing the oiled rags and wooden plugs that had previously been used to seal bottles. It created the possibility of aging wine. Until 20 years ago natural corks were pretty much the only option for quality wine. It's produced from the bark of the tree, and harvested every seven years throughout the life of a cork oak tree, Quercus suber. The cork cylinder is cut from the outside to the inside of the bark.

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The cork is harvested manually from the bark of the cork oak tree. A small fraction of corks, 1-2% today, end up tainting the wine with a moldy smelling substance, trichloroanisole. This TCA is created via a series of chemical reactions in the bottle: chlorine from the environment reacts with the natural lignin molecules in the woody cork to make trichlorophenol, which is in turn methylated by mold. TCA has one of the most potent aromas in the world - some people can smell as little as 2 parts per trillion in wine. So, in every eight cases of wine, one or two bottles will smell like wet cardboard or simply not taste their best. This is why restaurants let you taste the wine before pouring - to let you judge if the wine is tainted. A 1% failure rate seems high in today's world. Synthetic corks are made from polyethylene, the same stuff as milk bottles and plastic pipes. After years of research and development, these corks now perform nearly the same as the natural version with three exceptions: they have no taint, they let in a bit more oxygen and they are very consistent in oxygen transmission. Their consistency is a major selling point to winemakers because the wine will have a predictable taste at various points in time. In fact, winemakers can tweak the oxidation rate of their wine by choosing from a range of synthetic corks with different rates of known oxygen transmission. Screwcaps are actually two parts: the metal cap and the liner inside the top of the cap that seals to the lip of the bottle. The liner is the critical part that controls the amount of oxygen getting into the wine. Back when screwcaps were only used on jug wine, there were just two types of liners available. But today multiple companies are jumping in to offer their take on what rate of oxygen transmission is best, as well as to replace the tin used in one of the traditional liners. The standard liners admit either a bit more or a bit less oxygen than good natural corks. Screwcaps, being manufactured, are also very consistent. Is there an optimum wine closure? Performance of the manufactured closures, made with 21st century technology, is excellent. Generally they approximate our expectations, based on over two centuries of experience aging with natural cork closures. For the regular wine you might purchase for dinner this weekend or to keep for a year or two, any of these closures are perfectly good, while the manufactured closures avoid taint. In fact, your choice is more a matter of preference for opening the bottle. Do you want the convenience of twisting off the cap, or do you want the ceremony of removing the cork? Final goal achieved - a perfectly-aged glass of wine, ready to imbibe. Dennis Wilkinson, CC BY-NC-SA Click to enlarge For long aging however, the only closure with an adequately long track record is natural cork. So to be safe, that is the closure to choose. Once we have solid long-term

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evaluations of synthetics and screw caps, it will be possible to judge their suitability for extended aging, such as more than ten years. Over centuries, winemakers have consistently taken advantage of new technology to improve their product, from oak barrels to bottles to modern crushing and pressing equipment and micro-oxygenation. While manufactured closures have some key advantages, it is proving difficult to displace natural cork due to its centuries-old tradition, albeit with a few problems, and its connection to the natural environment. ------

Mature Content: Mixing Cocktails With Sherry Mellow with age and possessed of a civilized alcohol content, Sherry makes the most companionable cocktails Source: WSJ Luke O'Neil Jan. 2, 2015

BARTENDING TREND watchers have been reminding us that Sherry is more than just your grandmother's drink for so long that the conceit itself seems old enough to be your grandmother. And yes, the fortified wine-made from grapes grown in Andalusia, Spain, and allowed to mature in a series of oak casks-has, over the last several years, entered heavy rotation among bartenders with a sense of history and a taste for well-aged ingredients. Yet, in the hearts and on the home bars of a large number of their customers, Sherry has yet to regain a foothold. The reluctance may persist due to a misperception that all Sherries are sweet. Not so. Only a small segment of the wide range of styles skew sweet. For mixing, Sherries on the drier end of the spectrum serve best. That means Fino, the driest, palest style; Manzanilla, a type of Fino produced close to the ocean that's known for its camomile color and saline notes; and Amontillado, a somewhat darker and richer variety. The subtle nuttiness of Amontillado in particular makes for a base with remarkable depth. "It's dry but has a nice touch of natural sweetness from its aging process," said Nicolas Torres, bartender at the Hideout at Dalva in San Francisco. He uses this style of Sherry in his Quinine Cobbler, mixed with the herb-infused aperitif Cocchi Americano Bianco as well as grenadine and a generous quantity of spicy Angostura bitters. Paulo Pereira, beverage director at Brass Union in Somerville, Mass., believes Amontillado's nutty quality makes it especially well suited to winter drinking. In a drink he calls the Citadel, Mr. Pereira combines Amontillado Sherry with Maurin Quina, a fortified wine redolent of bitter almond and cherry. "Like fire-roasted chestnuts and freshly cracked walnuts, [Sherry is] something I've always associated with cold, snowy nights," he said. Advertisement

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And let's not forget how long those nights can be. The various Sherry styles will carry you right through a wintertime dinner party or restaurant meal you're reluctant to see come to an end. Sherries make excellent aperitifs and pair well with food, sipped straight or mixed into cocktails. And with their relatively low alcohol by volume-typically between 15 and 20%, as opposed to upward of 40% for many spirits-they're a far safer bet for sipping over an evening than, say, whiskey or rum. ------

Tesco poised to axe offices and jobs Source: FT Andrea Felsted January 2, 2015

Dave Lewis, Tesco's new chief executive, is poised to take an axe to the company's cost base - putting thousands of head office jobs at risk - and set out a plan to sell off assets in an effort to revive what was once Britain's most successful supermarket. Mr Lewis, who was parachuted in to replace Philip Clarke in July, and revealed a £260m hole in the company's profits just months later, will set out his strategy for reviving the fortunes of Britain's biggest retailer next week. Known as "Drastic Dave" for cutting costs at his previous employer Unilever, Mr Lewis is expected to announce hundreds of millions of pounds in savings when he updates investors on Christmas trading on Thursday, according to several people familiar with the situation. His moves are expected to involve trimming employment at Tesco's head office, and reducing the number of Tesco UK offices from the current level of 23. Mr Lewis said in October that the retailer, which is Britain's biggest private sector employer, had scope to be "streamlined". Cutting costs would make it easier for Mr Lewis to offer additional discounts at a time when Britain's grocery stores are locked into a bitter price war. Tesco is also expected to brief investors on plans to strengthen its balance sheet after its investment grade credit rating was put at risk in December by its fourth profit warning in six months. It has brought in Goldman Sachs to advise it on its options. Mr Lewis is expected to try to extract value from Dunnhumby, the data analysis business that helped create Tesco's Clubcard, which the group now owns. The business could be worth £1bn to £2bn, and Tesco could look at a partial or possibly a full sale, according to people familiar with the situation. Several private equity groups, as well as WPP, are said to be interested in the business, although the advertising group declined to comment.

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Other options include a sale or float of part of Tesco's Asian businesses. According to bankers, the bulk of the value is in the Thai business, which could be worth between £5bn and £6.5bn. The Korean business could be worth £2.5bn, they estimate. Selling off a minority stake in Tesco Bank would also raise funds to shore up Tesco's balance sheet, although bankers say this would be more complicated. The retailer could announce the sale of Blinkbox. The Financial Times reported last week that TalkTalk was the frontrunner to acquire that video streaming business. Other non-core assets expected to have come under review are Dobbies Garden Centres and the Harris and Hoole coffee chain. Tesco officials declined to comment on any of its plans. The board will meet next week to finalise the conclusions of the strategic review, and it is possible that their discussions could result in changes. Next week is also likely to bring discouraging news from Marks and Spencer. The Analysts expect the group to announce a 3 per cent fall in underlying sales of clothing and homewares in the three months to December 27. This would be the 14th consecutive quarter of decline, after M&S experienced problems with its new online platform and warehouse. ------

New York: Arrests made in Liquor Authority sting Source: Tonawonda News January 2, 2015

A collaborative effort between City of Tonawanda detectives and the New York State Liquor Authority lead to the arrests of seven individuals employed by city alcohol vendors. Two 19-year-old SLA decoys were sent into each business that sells alcohol for consumption either on or off the premises, and attempted to purchase alcohol. Each decoy was equip with a valid driver's license that plainly stated that they were 19 years old. "Of the 28 establishments that were checked seven, including three bars and four retail stores, had employees who were cited for selling alcohol to individuals who were not of legal age," said City of Tonawanda Police Capt. Fredric Foels. The individuals arrested are as follows: . Debra S. Kochan, 39, of 60th Street, Niagara Falls, was charged with two counts of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child. She is employed at the Isle View Bar and Grill on Niagara Street.

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. Matthew J. Sutton, 19, of Ransom Road, Grand Island, was charged with one count of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child. He is employed at Rite Aid on Niagara Street. . Elizabeth Miranda, 25, Clair Avenue, North Tonawanda, was charged with two counts of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child. She is an employee at Swiston's Beef and Keg on Young Street. . Sherry L. Bronson, 48, of East Thompson Street, North Tonawanda, was charged with one count of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child. She is an employee at the Eldredge Club on Broad Street. . Matthew J. Ciuzenski, 22, of Tremont Street, North Tonawanda, was charged with one court of first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child. He is an employee at 7-11 on Broad Street. ------

Colorado grocery stores brewing up efforts to change liquor law Source: Colorado Public Radio By Ben Markus Jan 2, 2015

Grocery stores in Colorado are in the beginning stages of a new campaign to sell craft beer and wine, hoping to overturn current state law that restricts most grocery stores from selling full-strength alcohol. Grocery chains can only sell full-strength beer and wine in one of their stores -- the Target in Glendale is the only location in the state with a liquor license, for example. Other locations are restricted to selling beer with just 3.2 percent alcohol by volume. "Liquor laws here in Colorado are antiquated, silly, and just frankly out of date," said Chris Howes, with Colorado Consumers for Choice, a coalition of grocery stores. Stores are measuring support for a future ballot initiative to change the law. Howes says 30,000 people have liked their Facebook page. Craft brewers, however, oppose any changes to the law. They argue that independent, mom-and-pop liquor stores deserve a lot of the credit for the rich diversity of brands. "The only reason you see our full lineup of beers in so many stores is because the liquor store owners are so dedicated to Colorado beer," Matt Fowler, founder of Upslope Brewing, told the Boulder Weekly. "We currently are in a few other states in large chain

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stores and it's a battle to get them to carry more than two of our products; the beer cooler is tiny compared to what you see across Colorado." Craft brewers have vowed another fierce defense of the current liquor laws. Previous attempts to change the law in the Legislature have failed. But there's some evidence that the liquor stores' fears are unfounded. Grocery stores stocking and selling full-strength beer wouldn't lead to the widespread closing of independent liquor stores, a 2009 white paper to the Legislature found. It was prepared by Henry Sobanet, currently Gov. John Hickenlooper's budget director. "Many states with more lenient liquor laws than Colorado's -- permitting grocery and convenience store sales of full-strength beer, wine and spirits -- have higher per-capita incidence of liquor stores," it noted. The report also predicted that more competition would lead to lower prices for consumers. ------

Wisconsin: WI: Wisconsin grocers want to refill 'growlers' Source: WISC News January 1, 2015

The Wisconsin Grocers Association is pushing to allow customers to get fresh beer on tap at grocery stores. Currently in Wisconsin, most grocery stores have a Class A liquor license allowing them to sell pre-packaged beer and liquor. The association wants to amend the law to allow customers to refill half-gallon glass containers, known as growlers, with tap beer as a means of expanding beer drinkers' options. "The industry, really around the country, has been moving in this direction," said Marlin Greenfield, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Festival Foods in Wisconsin. Greenfield said the proposal would not mean having a bar in the store, WKBT-TV (http://bit.ly/174uvwK ) reported. Instead, customers could bring in or buy an empty jug from the grocery store and have it filled there, he said. Joe Katchever, owner and brewmaster of Pearl Street Brewery in La Crosse, said growlers can help a brewery get its beer out to customers in an environmentally friendly way.

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"When you buy a growler, instead of a six-pack, you don't have six bottles to throw away, caps or labels," Katchever said. But the La Crosse Tavern League contends growlers would mean competition for pubs. "The last venue we really do have is tap beer, so we would like to keep that in house," La Crosse Tavern League president Mike Brown said. "We are losing enough market shares every year so we are just trying to protect the little bit we do have left." More than a dozen states already have amended their laws to allow liquor stores within grocery stores to fill up growlers. There is no current legislation in Wisconsin, but the association is asking state residents to voice their opinion online at www.foodaction.net/wisconsingrocers.