Spirits

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ signature album may be “No Way Out,” but Diageo apparently didn’t get the message.

Brown-Forman has announced an agreement to sell Finlandia vodka to Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) for $220 million.

Music mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs is suing business partner Diageo today alleging that the brands he co-owns with the spirits group, Cîroc Vodka and DeLeon Tequila, were given worse treatment because he’s Black.

Tonight when hordes of fans are pushing their way towards refreshment stands at Massachusetts’s Gillette Stadium during the opening night of Taylor Swift’s much-heralded tour, they’ll have the option to order a glittery purple cocktail inspired by the pop star’s hit, “Lavender Haze.”

There were several factors that made ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail Fishers Island Lemonade an attractive acquisition target for E. & J. Gallo: premium positioning, high reorder rates, excellent taste and founder Bronya Shillo’s pioneering vision for canned cocktails. The New York-based brand agreed to be acquired by Spirit of Gallo, E. & J. Gallo’s spirits division, earlier this month.

Luxco, Inc., a subsidiary of Indiana-based whiskey giant MGP Ingredients, has acquired Penelope Bourbon for $105 million upfront, the company announced Monday. The deal also includes a maximum potential payout of $110.8 million by the end of 2025 if “certain performance targets” are achieved.

CEO of Sazerac Mark Brown plans to leave his role next month, according to reporting by Louisville Business First. The move is part of “a long-signaled and eight-year succession plan,” that will see Brown move to the role of executive chairman.

From the land of Cran-Grape comes… Cran-Vodka? Absolut and Ocean Spray are teaming up to launch Vodka-Cranberry Range, a ready-to-drink (RTD) line coming early 2024, a press release announced today.

When non-alcoholic spirit Drink Monday launched in 2019, it was an exclusively digital brand. But as the company continued to grow, CEO Ken Young began pondering the path forward.

In the midst of a bourbon boom, the Kentucky General Assembly has passed a bill to gradually phase out the state’s tax on aging spirit barrels.

Jennifer Lopez is the latest high-profile name to jump into the rising ready-to-drink cocktail category with the launch of The House of Delola, a new Beam Suntory-backed brand of spirit-based, pre-mixed drinks which is set to debut this spring with its first product, Delola Spritz.

In 2017, the Chehalis Tribe, comprised of around 900 members living on just over 11 square miles of reservation in southwest Washington, decided to construct a community-owned restaurant, brewery and distillery. There was just one problem: distilling on tribal lands was illegal.

Not everyone agrees on how to make a margarita, but one thing most cocktail enthusiasts do align on is that the cocktail has mass appeal.

Pernod Ricard has made a play for flavored whiskey by acquiring a majority stake in peanut butter flavored Skrewball whiskey, the company announced today.