As a journalist, I'm only too well versed in the glory of clichés, and I was all geared up to trot one out in this, our last weekly mail-out of 2010. “While this year started with a bang,” I was hoping to write, “it will exit with a whimper”, before proceeding to prattle on about how quiet news-wise December has been for us.

But, wait. What's this? Our discovery today (20 December) that Constellation Brands is expected to sell off its Australian operations (at least) in the coming weeks has bookended 2010 for us really rather well. The year started with a story far bigger than we would have liked as we returned from our Christmas break, when Heineken pipped SABMiller to buy FEMSA Cerveza in Mexico in very early-January.

So much, then, for easing ourselves slowly into our armchairs, which, incidentally, we'll be filling for all of next week. We'll close for the holidays at the close of play this Thursday (23 December), returning to the fray on Tuesday 4 January. While we're away, feel free to enjoy our review of the year. The spirits and wine sections will be with you before we scoot off.

Finally, I'd like to give a huge thank you to all of our subscribers for being with us during what has been a landmark year for just-drinks. Not only did we launch a redesign of the site in 2010, we also changed the angle of our coverage, focussing more on analysis and comment, while looking to maintain our high level of news coverage.

We thank you for joining us on this journey, we also wish you a very merry Christmas and peaceful New Year, and we'll see you in early-2011.

Now, a bit of peace for a fortnight, please. Because, I've got a feeling 2011 is going to be a busy year.

Until next time...

Olly Wehring
Managing Editor
Web: http://www.just-drinks.com
Email: editor@just-drinks.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/just_drinks