News Briefs for September 23, 2016

•Wine cocktail brand Myx Fusions is launching its top-selling expressions in new 750-ml. bottles. Starting this month, Myx’s Original Moscato, Peach Moscato and Classico Sangria will begin rolling out in the 750-ml. format throughout Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, California, New York, Texas, Maryland and Arkansas, with nationwide availability expected by March 2017. The new size joins the brand’s existing four-packs of 187-ml. bottles (around $10 each) and 375-ml. bottles. Co-owned by entertainer Nicki Minaj, the Myx Fusions range was up 33% to 200,000 nine-liter cases in the U.S. last year, according to Impact Databank, earning “Hot Prospect” accolades.

•Ontario-based producer Andrew Peller Limited is debuting Wayne Gretzky No. 99 Red Cask Canadian Whisky. The new offering is made with locally sourced grains that are matured, blended and then finished in red wine casks from the Wayne Gretzky winery. The Wayne Gretzky Estates Winery & Distillery is located in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, and includes a 23,000-square-foot facility for wine and spirits production, as well as a tasting room, which will open to the public in spring 2017.

•The Distilled Spirits Council’s 15th annual “Spirit of Mount Vernon” heritage dinner and rare spirits auction, held September 21 on the lawn at George Washington’s ancestral home, raised more than $300,000 for Mount Vernon’s educational programs. The event has garnered more than $4 million in its 15-year history. The evening’s honorees were former Distilled Spirits Council President and CEO Dr. Peter Cressy and U.S. Senator Mark Warner, who were inducted into the George Washington Spirits Society. A live auction featured two sets of bottles from George Washington’s Distillery. First were bottles #1 and #2 of from the distillery’s first run of small-batch apple brandy (the first apple brandy made at Mount Vernon in more than two centuries), which sold for $6,000. The second set comprised two bottles of the George Washington Distillery Single Malt—bottles #3 from the “Distillers’ Reserve” and “Limited Edition” releases, respectively, which sold for $7,000. The single malt was made at the distillery by a team of Scottish and U.S. distillers in March 2012, from 100 percent Scottish malted barley.

Tagged : DISCUS, Distilled Spirits Council, Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., Myx Fusions

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