News Briefs for June 20, 2012

•Pernod Ricard USA has named Southern Wine & Spirits as its exclusive spirits distributor in Iowa, effective July 1. Southern has tapped Sam Crowder as Iowa general sales manager and Peter Gati as the state’s portfolio manager. Crowder has been key account manager of Southern’s Illinois division, while Gati has been portfolio manager for Pennsylvania. Both will report directly to Robinson Cooper, vice president, general manager for Southern Wine & Spirits of Ohio and Iowa.

•New Zealand’s 2012 grape harvest was down 18% from the previous year to 269,000 tons, according to the New Zealand Winegrowers trade group. Sauvignon Blanc dropped 19% to around 181,000 tons, while Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fell 25% and 11%, respectively, to roughly 23,000 tons each. Influenced by a cooler spring and summer, the 2012 decrease should help offset the country’s ongoing supply glut, which was exacerbated in 2011 by a record 328,000-ton harvest.

•Pura Vida Spirits Co. will begin importing Controy orange liqueur to the U.S. from Mexico this week. Controy will be distributed as Controy de Pura Vida in the company’s current markets of Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, and will be available to consumers in the on- and off-premise by July 4. According to Pura Vida, Controy (owned and distilled by La Madrilena) sold over 1 million bottles (83,300 nine-liter cases) in 2011 in Mexico.

•The Miami outpost of chef José Andrés’s restaurant The Bazaar is officially open in the SLS Hotel on South Beach after operating under a soft opening for about a week. The eatery features an ever-changing tapas menu of multi-cultural food described as “Spain-meets-Florida-meets-the-Caribbean,” as well as high-end molecular cocktails, including a liquid nitrogen Caipirinha and a Margarita featuring salt air. This is the second location of The Bazaar, which debuted in the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, in 2008. Andrés is chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup, which operates the food and beverage programs at SLS Hotels, in addition to Andrés’s various restaurant concepts in the Washington, D.C. area and in The Cosmopolitan hotel in Las Vegas.

Tagged : New Zealand, Pernod Ricard, restaurants, Southern Wine & Spirits

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