Blog: The just-drinks Weekly Round-Up

Olly Wehring | 15 September 2014

On just-drinks last week:

• We started with a bang in spirits on Monday, as William Grant & Sons announced its acquisition of Drambuie from the MacKinnon family. While the winning suitor was never really in doubt - our brown spirits commentator,Ian Buxton, took a punt back in May - that as progressive a spirits company as William Grant should move for such a dusty brand is still a surprise.
• Here in the UK, the wine folk of Argentina, Chile and South Africa came over for the second annual Wines of the Beautiful South tasting event. One year on from its inaugural appearance, and the event has come on leaps and bounds.
• The global brewing industry was rocked over the weekend by reports linking SABMiller with a takeover of Heineken. While neither side would comment yesterday, Heineken confirmed the claims this morning, Has SABMiller shown its hand in its face-off with Anheuser-Busch InBev? Is the endgame about to start? Take your seats!
• In soft drinks, our regular commentator Ray Rowlands turned his attention to Russia, while The Coca-Cola Co's launch of Coke Life in the UK this month also came under the microscope.