"The need to open a bottle 'just to be seen' is going away" - just-drinks meets Piper-Heidsieck Champagne's global executive director, Benoit Collard 7 Jan 19

Lucy Britner

Late last year, Champagne house Piper-Heidsieck released two expressions under its prestige cuvée brand, Rare. A bottle of Rare Le Secret High Jewellery, which costs around US$150,000, features a precious stone embedded "in the heart of interwoven bands of gold set with 510 diamonds". It was released in partnership with jeweller Mellerio. The second expression, Le Secret Goldsmith, is limited to 1,000 magnums and carries an RRP of around $1,650. Shortly after the launch, just-drinks sat down with Benoit Collard, global executive director for Piper-Heidsieck, to talk about prestige cuvée consumers and what the future holds for Piper-Heidsieck.  

"We've got to be a little different and break some of the moulds" - just-drinks meets Distell CEO Richard Rushton - Part II 4 Jan 19

Olly Wehring

Late last year, just-drinks spoke to Richard Rushton, CEO of Distell, in London. In part two of our exclusive interview, Rushton tells us about the group's plans outside of Africa and how Distell aims to become a larger player internationally, while also riding the wave in markets closer to home.

"It was a lot harder without the power of Diageo behind me" - Ami-Lynn Bakshi, co-founder of Cafe Agave & former Diageo executive 4 Jan 19

Andy Morton

Last year, Ami-Lynn Bakshi launched one of the first alcoholic cold-brew coffee RTDs in the US, the 12.5%-abv Cafe Agave Spiked Cold Brew. Before helping to pioneer the hard coffee category, she spent 20 years working for Diageo in a number of roles around the world, including North American innovations head and American whiskey marketing director. Here, Bakshi tells just-drinks what she learned from her time with the spirits multinational and how those lessons are informing her new career as a beverage entrepreneur.