Wine industry veteran Barbara Laithwaite has been made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) as part of the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List.   Laithwaite, who is co-chairman of Laithwaites Wines and founder of Oxfordshire’s Wyfold, initially began her career in 1970 when joining her sister’s friend and now husband, Tony Laithwaite, in his start-up business, Bordeaux Direct. Then, in 2003, she planted…

Proximo-owned Irish whiskey brand Bushmills has added a second facility to the site of the Old Bushmills Distillery. The £37 million Causeway Distillery, so-called because of the distillery’s proximity to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, is part of Proximo’s £60 million investment at the site over the past five years. The investment, in Irish single malt distilling and ageing, includes additional warehousing and infrastructure,…

Entries for the International Cider Challenge (ICC) 2023 will close on March 3. With the aim of platforming the cider industry, the competition is open to cider producers from any part of the world.  Ciders entered into the tasting categories will be blind tasted by a panel of independent judges, while those entered into the design and packaging awards will be judged against a set…

Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Co (CMBC) has announced plans to offload its Eagle Brewery in Bedford to Spanish brewer Damm. Eagle will become Damm’s first brewery outside of mainland Europe. As part of the agreement, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, the Eagle Brewery’s beers will remain part of CMBC’s portfolio. A spokesperson for CMBC said the beers “will continue to…

Accolade Wines has agreed to sell its bottling and warehousing facility to glass company Encirc. Accolade said the deal will include The Park facility in Bristol along with all associated plant and equipment. As part of the transaction, around 400 employees will transfer to Encirc.   The deal, which is expected to close in January 2023, will see Accolade enter a 10-year contract bottling and…

Burgundy wine producer Maison Louis Jadot has partnered with industry charity The Drinks Trust to support a training package exclusively for those working in independent wine merchants with a focus on Burgundy. As part of The Drinks Trust’s Develop programme, Louis Jadot is sponsoring 20 places on WSET Level 1 in wine. The initiative includes an online Burgundy masterclass with a selection of Louis Jadot wines,…

Sustainability has been a part of cidermaking for generations, but it’s only recently being talked about, finds Jaq Bayles  With climate change anxieties mounting in the face of increasing evidence that the planet is under threat, it’s no surprise that drinks producers across the industry are taking steps to mitigate their impact. And cider is a sector at the forefront of this movement.  While…