On just-drinks last week:

• Diageo hogged the headlines throughout the week. The company's annual investor conference in the US gave us the chance to ask senior management about the firm's ongoing talks with the owners of the Jose Cuervo Tequila brand, plans for the emerging market of Brazil and what its CFO had to say about United Spirits.
• No sooner had Deidre Mahlan declined to be drawn on the latest speculation than Diageo confirmed on Friday that it has lined up the purchase of majority control of United Spirits in India. When the largest premium spirits company secures a tie-up with the largest volume spirits company, you would forgive us for getting as many details together as we can.
• Away from spirits, Heineken was warned by an analyst last week that focussing its efforts on its global brands could mean it misses out on more local opportunities. While the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller appear keener than Heineken to include local beer brands in their portfolios, “the recent trend towards 'small is beautiful' could in many ways make it easier for local premium brands in beer to achieve growth,” said Nomura.
• In soft drinks, Monster Beverage Corp came out fighting last week, countering recent challenges to the safety of its namesake energy drink brand. CEO & chairman Rodney Sacks used a conference call with analysts to dismiss a recent lawsuit against Monster as containing allegations that are "false and totally baseless and are not supported by either the science or the facts”.
• The wine world, meanwhile, will be watching Amazon's latest attempt to relaunch its wine platform in the US with interest. After its last move failed to take off four years ago, here's hoping that the lucrative opportunity of online wine sales takes off this time around.

Until next time...

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