Tag Archives: hard seltzers

Winebits 742: Grocery Outlet, lawsuit, non-alcoholic alcohol

grocery outletThis week’s wine news: Good news for Grocery Outlet and its cheap wine, plus another wine lawsuit and more buzz about non-alcoholic alcohol

• Grocery Outlet: High gas prices may be benefiting Grocery Outlet, the Wine Curmudgeon’s favorite supermarket that he hasn’t shopped in. Regular readers know about the chain’s heavily-discounted wine prices; Layla Kasha, senior vice president, chief marketing officer and chief new store growth officer for Grocery Outlet, told Supermarket News that hard times usually bring new customers to her company. The podcast doesn’t specifically mention wine; rather, it focuses on the company’s methods that allow it sell $15 and $20 wine for $8. Which it does a lot.

• Another lawsuit: The WC has long been fascinated by wine-related lawsuits, and this one is a doozy. The president of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, whose brands include Josh Cellars, is being sued by its president, Tom Steffanci. The lawsuit claims that the company is withholding royalty payments from Steffanci. The lawsuit is quite complicated, including details about holding companies, tax consequences and — my favorite — the legal discovery process. It also raises an intriguing question: How can all these people work with each other if there is a lawsuit?

• No alcohol: How about fake booze where the key ingredient is apple cider vinegar? That’s the “secret” behind Jukes Cordialites, which offers red, white and rose versions of non-alcoholic wine. The product is made with a variety of herbs and spices, as well as the vinegar; the idea is that it’s concentrated, and can be diluted with water. The WC, always willing to take one for the team, wants to know: Should I ask for a sample and review it?

Winebits 741: Mafia, wine sales, Utah

hard seltzer
Hope they bought these hard seltzers at the state store; otherwise, the Utah liquor cops will be after them.

This week’s wine news: An Italian court absolves a Sicilian winery of Mafia ties, plus more bad news for wine sales and Utah clamps down on hard seltzers

• No Mafia: An Italian court has acquitted Mezzacorona of alleged money laundering in Sicily. The country’s tax police had said the company, whose holdings include Stemmari and Rotari, had used the Mafia to launder money at its Feudo Arancio winery. The company had always protested its innocence, dating to a 2020 raid where police seized more than €70m (US$76 million) in assets. The judge ruled last week that the claims had no validity. The story in the link seems to be some sort of news release from the winery, so it’s not quite clear what the judge said or did, or why the case was dismissed.

• More bad news: The latest set of sales figures offer more bad news for the wine business. SipSource (composed of wholesaler data) shows wine continued its slump in December 2021. Sales, by volume, declined 6.2 percent from 12 months earlier, the ninth consecutive month of declines. Pemiumization is working well, isn’t it?

• No hard seltzers: A new Utah law will force the removal of about half of the hard seltzers in supermarkets, and they will only be allowed to be  sold in state-owned liquor stores. The Salt Lake Tribune says the law prohibits the sale of beverages that contain even a trace amount of ethyl alcohol, a commonly used stabilizer for artificial flavorings that is used in such products as soda, mustard, and teriyaki sauce. Some 80 hard seltzers and kombuchas are approved for sale in Utah grocery and convenience stores; 39 of them have ethyl alcohol in their flavorings. Chalk this up as another victory for the neo-Prohibitionists, protecting us from food stabilizers.

Winebits 623: Baby Boomers and wine, three-tier, hard seltzer

baby boomers
“Maybe I should buy some White Claw instead?”

This week’s wine news: A warning for those depending on the Baby Boomers to rescue the wine business, plus Total Wine appeals to the Supreme Court, and hard seltzer outsells vodka

• Pointed language: How is this for telling the wine business what’s what? “So if your wine clubs are full of people between the ages of 55 and 75, and you’re just trying to grind those guys to death in the last few years, be thinking about that transition.” That’s the blunt warning from a top wine analyst, speaking at a recent wine trade show. Robert Eyler told his audience that the wine business has not been able to convince Millennials to drink wine. Hence, given the aging of the Baby Boomers, who still support the market, the wine business could be in big trouble.

• Bring on the Supremes: Retailer Total Wine, struck down in Connecticut for challenging the state’s minimum pricing law, will appeal to the Supreme Court. This case, if accepted by the court, has the potential to further upset three-tier following this summer’s Tennessee retailer decision. Total is arguing that Connecticut’s pricing laws are no different from an illegal price-fixing conspiracy, since everyone knows the prices ahead of time and no one can deviate them from them.

• Still growing: Hard seltzer, those cheap, easy to drink, low alcohol products like Truly and White Claw, account for some 2.6 percent of the U.S. booze market – more than vodka, the best-selling spirit. That’s triple the share from a year ago, according to a recent report. That works out to about 82 million cases – almost 10 times the amount of Barefoot sold in 2018, which is the top selling U.S. wine brand.