The top five fastest-growing spirits brands in volume terms are Indian and all are sold almost exclusively in their domestic market, according the The IWSR’s fastest growth spirits brands list, published in the August issue of The IWSR Magazine.
ABD’s Officer’s Choice whisky tops the list, closely followed by UB India’s McDowell’s brandy; both brands grew by more than 2.9m nine-litre cases in 2010. UB India is the leading producer in India and owns four of the five largest growth brands and eight brands in total in the top 25. The continued growth in India is attributed to its population growth, its increasingly important status in the world economy, and the consequences this has had on personal wealth.

Ten whiskies feature in the top 25 largest growth spirits brands, eight of which count India as its lead market. The leading market for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker, ranked 14th in the list, is duty free/travel retail, although at just 11% of its total sales Johnnie Walker is the most international brand featured in the top 25. Suntory whisky, whose main market is Japan, also features in the top 25.

Vodka also features heavily with eight brands in the list. As with whisk(e)y, the leading growth brands were concentrated in one area, in vodka’s case – Russia, the Ukraine and Poland. Synergy’s Belenkaya vodka is ranked sixth, having grown by more than 2.1m cases in 2010.

Belvédère’s Krupnik vodka is the fastest-growing vodka from Poland. Stock Spirits have two vodkas in the list, Zoladkowa Gorzka and Stock Prestige, both with Poland as their key market. Also, Stock Spirits’ low-strength flavoured vodka range Lubelska ranks 19th in the list. The success of Lubelska is derived from its appeal to younger consumers, although it is said to have also attracted regular vodka drinkers.

The article in the August issue of The IWSR Magazine also includes the following lists:
Top 25 fastest growth whiskies
Top 20 fastest growth vodkas
Top 15 fastest growth flavoured spirits
Top 20 fastest growth rums
Top 10 fastest growth brandies (including Cognac)
Top 5 fastest growth gins
Top 5 fastest growth tequilas

More information at http://www.iwsr.co.uk

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

The judging panel included many names from the beer world: Daniel Trivelli of Maltexco, Franco Alarcón, sommelier with a specialization in beer, Antonio Aravena of the magazine Alma Cerveza, Jaime Ojeda of conespuma.com, Lucie Drahosava, head of Cervecera Checa, and John Holl, U.S. columnist specializing in beer and other drinks, who has written for a wide range of publications, including Ale Street News, Beer Connoisseur Magazine, craftbeer.com, and BeerBriefing.com, as well as working as the beer correspondent for the New York Times.

The results were:

LAGER DIVISION
1. Austral Lager
2. Volcanes del Sur

PALE ALE DIVISION
1. Austral Pale Ale
2. Rock Classic
3. Guayacan

PORTER DIVISON
1. Yungay
2. Leyenda
3. Kobold

STOUT DIVISION
1. Insular Robinson Crusoe
2. Bundor

SCOTTISH/IRISH ALE DIVISION
1. Tubinger Red Ale
2. Kobold Scottish Ale
3. Cerv. Del Puerto Scottish Ale

STRONG DIVISION
1. Gran Torobayo
2. Kross 5
3. Tubinger Tubinator

BOCK CATEGORY
1. Kobold
2. Volcanes del Sur Chocolate Bock

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Kross Abby Ale, golden strong ale
Austral Calafate, fruit beer
Cerveza Leyenda British Bitter
Tubinger Honey Ale

BEST NON-CHILEAN
Holsten Festbock

With the Twitter topic #chileanbeerexperience and @andeswines and the participation of attendants, the event generated a real-time discussion about the Beer Experience, which spread information about the entire community of Chilean craft beers. Among the highlights of the social media participation were Mariana Martinez, journalist from the well known Planetavino.com, food writer Rodrigo Martines, and Tatiana Hirsh of the magazine Platos & Copas.

The participating beers were: Desertica (Antofagasta), Vaguada Costera (San Antonio), Kona, Volcanes del Sur, Austral (Punta Arenas), Quimera, Kobold (Quintero), Kross (Curacaví), Kunstmann (Valdivia), Rock, Yungay, Bundor (Valdivia), Cervecera del Puerto (Valparaíso), Guayacan (Valle de Elqui), Insular (Isla Robinson Crusoe), Leyenda and Tubinger.

As part of the Artisan Beer Strategic Plan, initiated by Andes Wines, the event announced the creation of the first map of Chilean artisan beer. The map will feature the geographic location of 100% of the microbreweries and breweries in Chile, serving to support and encourage the development of the beer tourism industry, according to Maximiliano Morales, general manager of Andes Wines and creator of the Chilean Beer & Drinks Experience.

Among the companies, institutions and media that supported the event were Maltexco, Prochile, Atton el Bosque, Revista Alma Cerveza, Revista Platos & Copas, Revista City, Tomocerveza.cl, labuenavida.cl, conespuma.cl and Nirvino.cl.

Andes Wines
andes@andeswines.com
(56) 2-3702997
twitter: @andeswines.com

The event is part of an advertising effort to position Chilean craft and industrial beer production in the international market, together with local brands of pisco, rum and whiskey.

A graduate of Seton Hall University, Holl has been writing about craft beer and the American drinks industry since 2003, and worked as a reporter for the Star-Ledger and the Indianapolis Star.

He’s a regular columnist for NewJerseyNewsroom.com and also writes for AndesWines.com about United States trends and culture. His visit to Chile to witness what the local industry has to offer, by invitation of Andes Wines, is part of Holl’s broader search of topics regarding the “culture of drinking”.

During the “Chilean Beer & Drinks Experience” Holl will assess craft and industrial beers currently brewed in the country. At dinner time, the event will hold a special food-and-beer pairing, occasion at which guests will enjoy some of the best Chilean gastronomy. Visits to local breweries to learn first-hand about the innovations on Chilean craft beer production and a rum-pisco-whiskey tasting with specialized journalists, will complete this Chilean drinks experience.

Holl’s visit to Chile is part of the Strategic Craft Beer Plan sponsored by Andes Wines and sommelier Franco Alarcón. Launched in 2010, the plan comprehends a series of tastings and to advertise Chilean brands in the national and international markets and also support local production.

He will write about his Chilean experience on his website BeerBriefing.com and is available for exclusive freelance work from publications interested in highlighting the rapidly changing and dynamic Chilean drinks scene.

This visit is sure to be the start of a great introduction of Chilean beer brands into the American market.

andes@andeswines.com
twitter: andeswines

The latest reports show that micro wine growing regions Agrelo, Sur de La Consulta, Ugarteche y Altamira have resulted affected in specific areas.

This year’s frost has been the largest one in years, say local growers. Nonetheless, AndesWines reports that enologists and wine producers are expecting grape prices to stay below record levels because of last year’s price spike, especially in the areas that produce Premium grapes.

Familia Catena’s chief enologist, Alejandro Vigil, explained to AndesWines.com that the frost destroyed many recent sprouts and that the weather conditions drew humidity of the zones, allowing the rime to stay longer.

The CEO of Bodega Melipal, Santiago Santamaría, added that operations in Agrelo, region with a small frost history and where the company’s head operations are located, will register small losses in Merlot, while some Malbec lots will also have to be downsized.

The chief enologist from Bodega Kaikén, Eduardo Alemparte, explained that the current frost episode was more intense and longest than in previous years, with temperatures dropping to -4°C in some areas.

Alemparte insisted that “the previous frost did not affect us so much, because for many of the varieties, at least in the first region and in the Uco valley, the vines hadn’t blossomed yet. I think there will not be a setback to the sprouts, they will recover but we will have to wait to
see if there were any damages to the fruit. I do believe it’s highly unlikable because they were in a pre-blooming state”.

Andes Wines
(56) 9-9 219 7117
twitter: andeswines

Grapes are good…wine even better!!

István Szepsy’s wines are not cheap. In fact the average price of wine in Hungary is quite high – for imported wines as well as for Hungarian wines, partly because so many Hungarian winemakers are so ambitious. But I do feel the word genius is not too hyperbolic a word to describe the modest Mr Szepsy. He is based in Tokaj, Hungary’s world-famous sweet wine country, on some of the most extraordinary, and extraordinarily varied, soils in the world of wine.

He carries the same surname as the man who originally put immortal sweet Tokaji, reputed to revive corpses, on the map by developing the complex Aszu technique in the seventeenth century, and is today the acknowledged king of that unique wine style. But, unfortunately for the locals and the many foreigners who have invested there, sweet wines are not in vogue. (You may have noticed this.)

As a consequence, as we have noted here, wine producers in Tokaj have been focusing increasing attention on dry wines. In a tasting he led at last weekend’s VinCE wine fair, and at a subsequent private tasting we attended together, Szepsy admitted, ‘nowadays we cannot survive financially without dry wines. For a long time I didn’t drink them because I have a very weak stomach and they used to be too acid.’ (I dread to think what life must be like as a Tokaji producer who finds it difficult to digest acidity…) He continued, ‘I didn’t believe in them at first but today I cannot imagine our future without dry wines. I don’t know the ideal style yet. I know only directions. We’re trying new things every day and we try to integrate feedback from consumers into the style too.’

He is continuing to explore the potential of new areas in the Tokaj region, and of course the vines are getting older and the wines more intense all the time. He makes enormous sacrifices in terms of crop thinning and even cutting off the wings of individual bunches to imbue his wines with the essential character of each parcel of vines. Although he continues to make sweet wines that stand head and shoulders above those of most of his peers, his aim is increasingly to understand the very precise but varied character of his different vineyards and express them in a range of dry wines, notably from the great grape of Tokaj, Furmint – although he does make varietal Hárslevelű too. (Unfortunately I did not have a chance to taste any on this trip.)

Szepsy says that he conducted an experimental blind tasting with some very well qualified palates (I got the impression they were French sommeliers but I may be wrong) to compare how accurately they could spot individual vineyards in a range of his wines and in a range of Côte d’Or white burgundies and – guess what? – the Furmints were much more expressive than the Chardonnays. (He ages them in large Hungarian oak.)

The sweet wines are sold in the half-litre flasks characteristic of Tokaji, and you can also taste some of the Szepsy magic in various bottlings from Királyudvar, the Tokaji estate run alongside Domaine Huet of Vouvray by owner Anthony Hwang, where Szepsy was involved until 2006 (see my recent tasting notes on Huet and Királyudvar).

I can honestly and thoroughly recommend any Szepsy wine, though among dry wines, the individual vineyard bottlings such as Szent Tamás (St Thomas) are by far the most exciting, have real potential to age, and deserve a place in any fine wine lover’s cellar. I prefer the 2008 vintage to the 2007 of the ‘basic’ (if that is not too insulting a word) dry wine, the Estate Furmint. The dry wines tend to retail at between £20 and £33 a bottle while his painstakingly made sweet wines are even more expensive: from around £40 to hundreds of pounds a bottle.

But, unusually, I do think these expensive wines are worth it. Szepsy is utterly convincing. Very low key, very quiet, obviously thoughtful and troubled, he says ‘the quest for quality is a daily way of life’. He is clearly on a journey, and fortunately has his son and daughters alongside him so he almost certainly has not arrived at the final destination. ‘In terms of style there are no limits’, is another of his observations.

Clicking on the Find these wines link above or below reveals many a listing around the world. In the UK the wines are imported by fellow Hungarian Akos Forczek of Top Selection and listed mainly by Fortnum & Mason (who even had an ownülabel sweet wine from Szepsy until recently), Huntsworth Wine of Kensington Church Street, Selfridge’s, and online, though chiefly by the six-bottle pack, via www.one4wine.com

Some releases are also offered for sale here on Szepsy’s own website at prices from 18 to 80 euros a bottle.

Authorized to published in AndesWines.com by Jancis Robinson
andes@andeswines.com

“The main requiremente of the visitors is being allowed to talk with the wineries’ oenologists for them to explain the winemaking process and what is envolved in the production of wine. This demand is a challenge to us, because thanks to our eight-year experience in wine marketing we have an excelent contact with the owners and oenologists of the national wineries, something we put to the test everyday to offer unique and unforgettable experiences”, as said by AndesWines.com

Among the most sucessful programs of these years we have “Stars & Wines”. In this program visitors are able to visit observatories in the north of Chile and they can also taste wines classified by stock and valleys where they come form,. Another famous tour is the “Flowering Desert & Wines”, where visitors tour the flowering desert where they can taste a sparkling wine or a late harvest from many wine growing valleys.

This season Andes Wines will offer a new tour called “Terroir Wine Experience”, that pretends promoting the visit to remote zones where are producing unique wines with low production of renowned oenologist in Colchagua Valley (Apalta), Leyda, San Antonio, Elqui, Limarí, Cauquenes, Itata and Malleco.

More information in andes@andeswines.com or (56)9-9-2197117