Wine – The boom in the Indian economy hasn’t bypassed the sale of liquor, especially wine. What is more pleasing though, for a wine producing country like South Africa, is that Indians are changing their traditional drinking patterns. Young adults use to migrate from consuming hard liquor to wine in their thirties, but are now doing so from a much earlier age. As a result, the sale of wine has nearly doubled in most regions in 2010. Even more pleasing to wine producers is the fact that it has become popular culture to attend wine tastings and to drink wine in restaurants. This will usually have a long term benefit.

Wine distributors have been quick to catch on. They are now importing wines from South Africa, Chile, Russia and Italy. They sponsor activities around wine such as wines samplers, menus paired with wines and even piccolos (small pints or half bottles). Restaurants are finding that an increasing number of their clients order expensive foreign wines. Demand covers the full spectrum of wines, from sparkling wines to desert wines.

Corporates and hotels host regular wine tastings to get their clients and employees to taste good wines. They sponsor employees to attend wine courses to learn how to appreciate wine when interacting with business clients.

A few wine facts about India • It has become the 10th largest growth country for wine (Vinexpo study, 2010) • Wine consumption has grown from 4m litres in 2008 to 14m litres in 2010. South African wine producers can take note of the growth of wine consumption in India and cultivate a new market for the very good wines they are known to produce.

(Article in Hindustan Times, Edited by LiquorWise)

Article by LiquorWise - supporting responsible alcohol use.  Don't drink & Drive!.

The wine vending machine is the result of strict laws prohibiting the sale of liquor by any business other than state-owned business.     An exception relates to beer - the public can by a maximum of two six-packs per customer from private businesses – but not wine.

Liquor Licence Cost -  It is often debated what one should pay for a liquor licence.   There are no hard and fast rules, as most business brokers will confirm.   One of the best ways of establishing the value of a liquor licence is to have a look at the selling price of licensed businesses or offers for state liquor licences.  

An offer for $615 000 has been accepted for a liquor licence to sell liquor from a package store in West Cape May.

(Article by LiquorWise) 

Ocean Basket, the national chain of family seafood restaurants, has introduced a new type of chip – Lamb Weston Stealth Fries – to its menu.

What makes this addition really hot is a light coating of potato starch that enhances the potato flavour, keeps the chips hotter, ensures that less oil is absorbed in the preparation process and maintains crispness longer than regular fries.

The coating is said to have no allergens and the chips can be cooked in a convection oven or deep fried.

Lamb Weston has been in the food business since 1950, operates over a dozen plants worldwide and is recognised globally for its innovation. While the company’s products are sold in over 100 countries on all continents, Ocean Basket is the first to offer Stealth Fries in South Africa.

With restaurants all over South African and in Cyprus and Mauritius, Ocean Basket sees the new chips as a selling tool for its franchisees.

(Article by Andrew Moth - Edited by LiquorWise) 

Liquor products - The port and wine drinking South African public will have to get use to new names for these well-loved fortified wines. Why? The pre-2000 agreement between the EC and South Africa prohibits the use of the names “Port” and “Sherry” in the local market from 1 January 2012. Exporters of Port and Sherry has already had to cease using these names since 2000(EC countries) and 2005(rest of the world).

The background to this regrettable state of affairs is shortly the following. South Africa contended in 1999 that ‘port" and sherry’ are not Geographical Indications(“GI’s) as defined by the World Trade Organisation. The reason was that they do not describe any particular region or location in the EC (notably in Spain or Portugal in this case). South Africa contended that the terms were simply vaguely derived from regions in Spain and Portugal. For ‘sherry’ the word is drawn from ‘Jerez’ in Spain, defined as‘Jerez, Xérès and Sherry in the TDCA. For ‘port’ the word is drawn loosely from ‘Oporto’ in Portugal, defined as Oporto/Portwein/Portvin/Portwijn’ in the TDCA. Note that the latter incarnations look decidedly non-Portuguese. Wine aficionados have also pointed out that the products do not even necessarily originate in Jerez or Oporto within the EC. Portuguese port is not produced anywhere near the town of Oporto although it is often aged and blended there. Sherry is made from grapes farmed in the Jerez area, but much of the actual manufacture happens in other Spanish towns. These vagaries are now part oftrade legend, but have no legal value today as ‘port’ and ‘sherry’ have been directly conferred GI status in the text of the TDCA.

Is it all gloomy? It depends on how one looks at the transaction. The sugar with the medicine was in the form of a grant of Euro 15 million for the restructuring of the South African wines and spirits sector and for the marketing and distribution of South African wines and spirits products. This grant was supposed to have been made available in 2000. This grant has not been made available to date. This may give local producers the chance to put pressure on the EC, but we will have to wait and see. The overall answer is thus that ‘yes’ things are fairly gloomy.

It is expected that ‘port’ or ‘sherry’ will still enjoy a dedicated consumer following as they are still excellent quality products at good value for money. Good news for wine collectors- you can buy products with the “sherry” or “port” label as a collector’s item and possibly benefit in the long run when local stocks run out.

For a more detailed version of this topic, you may visit http://www.internationaltradelaw.co.za.

(Article by LiquorWise) 

Liquor Licence Fees (Western Cape) -  Liquor licence fees are to be increased dramatically for licence holders in the Western Cape.   This will be the case if the Western Cape Liquor Regulations are implemented unchanged.   The Liquor Regulations were published in an extraordinary provincial gazette on 21 December 2011.  For example, the lodgement fee for a new liquor licence application will be increased from R200 to R1250.    Annual liquor licence renewal fees will increase from a minimum of R3000 (currently R250) to a maximum of R5000 (currently R1000) per year.

LiquorWise encourages business owners to take advantage of the window period (February and March) to lodge applications.   This will apply to all liquor licence applications, but specifically to the following :

1.  New liquor licence applications;

2.  Changes to the licence holder - This would typically apply to new members of a close corporation, share holders of a company or new partners.

3.  Changes to a licensed premises - This would be required for any structural changes to a premises, for instance -  a new wall, bar area moved or where the premises has been extended(i.e. outdoor area added).

Business owners should Contact LiquorWise without delay to ensure that their applications are lodged at the current lower fees and before the increase of licence fees.