Drinks Insider

Morten Sørensen is the man behind ISH Spirits, a revolutionary line of non-alcoholic drinks that have taken the beverage world by storm — including listings on the Michelin-starred menus at 11 Park Madison and Alchemy. And he’s done the unthinkable, like partnering with car companies. In this entertaining episode, Morten shares his journey from running a creative agency in Copenhagen to travelling...

Everybody says they want to attract a new generation of consumers to wine, but Jess Druey’s gone and done it. In this episode of Drinks Insider she tells the unlikely story of how a college dropout launched a wine brand at 22, after Googling how to make wine. From getting her Mom to help package and send the bottles to partnership with the McBride Sisters, to taking home the $250,000 first prize o...

The wine trade is facing its worst trading conditions in 30 years — but it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s according to long-time wine industry observer and well-known journalist Jeff Siegel, who’s been immersed in the US market for going on 40 years. This alternate title for this episode could be ‘Bitchin’ With Jeff’ as he offers his no-holds-barred take on what’s gone wrong and why. Is there...

Prohibition didn’t begin as Prohibition. It was a bottom-up movement embraced by working people but seized on by temperance campaigners, who turned it into a disastrous social experiment that’s a byword for authoritarian overreach. Prof Dan Malleck from Brock University in Canada is a medical historian who has studied Prohibition and its fall-out and charted the rise of the contemporary neo-temper...

Want to know about trends in the US beverage alcohol market? And not just drinks trends, but how they dovetail with broader social trends? Then Bryan Roth, analyst extraordinaire, is your man. In this episode he talks about confusion, convenience and the “invisible barrier of choice” and explains why the market is in a tailspin right now. And did you know that carbonation is a trend? That’s right...

It’s time to do a deep dive into wine export markets! Joris Snelten, CEO of Delta Wines, knows everything about the Netherlands—Delta Wines is not just a major wine importer and distributor that handles more than 80 million bottles, it also has a presence in Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Finland . Joris talks about how he got into wine, and the journey of a European wine professional. H...

Alba Hough isn’t just president of the Icelandic Sommelier Association and chief production officer of Himibri Gin. She’s also the coolest woman in wine. In this wide-ranging conversation, Alb talks about her unexpected career path in wine, including her participation in international sommelier competitions. She also discusses how Iceland’s unique food and wine culture was shaped by its history, g...

Noah Sanborn Friedman, the co-founder of Top Shelf Ventures, spends his day looking for alcohol brands to invest in, and he has a lot of insights into everything from navigating the USA’s complex regulatory system to raising capital in a challenging market. In this interview, he discusses what he looks for in a brand, the importance of liquid-to-lips strategy and why he believes now is the best ti...

Were you a brainy kid in high school? If so, science may be able to predict how much alcohol you will drink later in life. That’s a finding from Professor Sherwood Brown, a distinguished teaching Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. In this wide-ranging interview, he discusses the relationship between IQ and alcohol consumption in later life, the factors...

One of the hardest problems to solve in the non-alc category is the substitute wine. Charlie Friedmann, the president and co-founder of Proxies, was not only one of the earliest brands in the non-alcoholic drink space, but also one of the first to solve the taste problem — and do it in an artisanal way. In this episode of Drinks Insider, Charlie talks about his journey from corporate lawyer to foo...

What does it take to be successful in the beverage business? According to industry veteran Adam Kost, nerves of steel help. Kost, who co-founded the successful Dirty Shirley RTD, discusses his career trajectory, starting from running nightclubs in Las Vegas to marketing global brands like Heineken and Jameson. He talks about what he learned from working with major companies and how he applied thos...

Amy Troutmiller, the CEO of Really Good Boxed Wine, has reinvented boxed wine in the US market — and achieved a whopping 417% growth by focusing on quality, value, and consumer demand for moderation.  Amy explains how she and co-founder Jake Whitman created a premium boxed wine brand and tapped into consumer desires for convenience and value, especially among older demographics. Contrary to expect...

How do you launch a category-busting brand from New Zealand and storm into the US market? Lisa King can tell you, because she’s done it. A serial entrepreneur from New Zealand, King's first venture, Eat My Lunch, tackled the issue of child poverty in New Zealand with a buy-one-give-one model that provided thousands of free lunches to Kiwi kids. Her current venture, AF Drinks, is a non-alcoholic be...

Professor Tim Stockwell is the most influential figure in the world of alcohol right now. His research claiming there are no health benefits to moderate drinking has attracted wide media attention and directly led to people either moderating their alcohol intake or quitting altogether. In fact, The New York Times has called him “ one of the people most responsible for our cultural course correctio...

Who truly understands what people are drinking? In this episode of Drinks Insider, host Felicity Carter chats with Gary Ross, Chief Growth Officer at Union, a point-of-sale and guest ordering platform that gives new meaning to the phrase “data mining”. There’s not much he doesn’t know about drink trends and consumer behaviour, because Union sees what’s happening in real time. From the meteoric ris...

Why are there so many anti-alcohol stories appearing in the media? One of the harshest critics of the anti-alcohol movement is Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the free market think tank Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK. In this wide-ranging discussion, we delve into the anti-alcohol movement, exploring its implications on personal freedoms and public health. Topics cover...

While many entrepreneurs are backing away slowly from both the wine industry and China, Don St Pierre Jr is rushing back in — because he sees plenty of opportunity. In 1996, two Don St Pierres — senior and junior — changed the world of wine forever when they founded ASC Fine Wines in Shanghai. Don St. Pierre Snr saw an opportunity in wine: as he later wrote about China’s 1.2 billion population, “...

Entrepreneur and co-founder Marian Leitner-Waldman has single handedly overcome all the problems facing the wine industry. Archer Roose has a thriving audience of young consumers, who can’t get enough of high-quality wine in cans and bagnums, which appear in more than 6,000 outlets. The reason that sales are up 35% year-on-year? The brand is built on a combination of high-quality wine, total trans...

Why do winemakers add chemicals to wine? Are these additives dangerous? How do we know? And why do winemakers take the risk? The person who knows more about this topic than almost anybody alive is pharmacologist and toxicologist Creina Stockley, who has been not just in research, but in the regulatory process. In this episode, she delves into the use of additives and processing aids in winemaking,...

Increased sales of more than 40%. High customer loyalty. And the ability to spot a customer who’s about to unsubscribe. As Ben Gibson explains, there is still plenty of growth to be found in direct-to-consumer sales. He’s the founder of WineHub, the wine and spirits plug- in for Shopify, which is enabling exponential growth in wine sales. Ben explains how and why he created WineHub, and explains h...

There is a massive fight brewing in the United States, and it's over the question of how much alcohol people can safely drink. Every five years the US government updates its dietary guidelines, and in that process outlines what the limits of alcohol consumption should be. The process has been fraught, with claims and counter-claims of bias and irregular dealings. David Clement , North American Aff...

What does science tell us about hangovers? Frustratingly, very little is known about them, apart from the economic havoc they wreak. But everyone who has experienced them knows exactly how evil they are. Wouldn’t it be great if it was possible to drink without any side effects? Professor David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist, has been hard at work on that very thing. In this episode, he discusse...

Alcohol consumption is predicted to drop precipitously in the next five years. What actions should wineries (and distilleries) take to ensure their business is one of those that comes out the other side in good financial shape? What opportunities are there for wine-adjacent products? In this episode, wine data guru Lulie Halstead shares insights on branding, consumer behavior, and practical resear...

How do you turn your customers into fans? How do you even connect with your customers—and how do you do it if you have a wildly diverse customer group? The man to ask is Justin Noland, who recently became VP of Digital Experience at Treasury Americas. Treasury Wine Estates is a multi-national company headquartered in Australia, which has 20 wine brands in its portfolio including the blockbuster 19...

How would it change your business if you could predict how successful your products would be before you launched them?  Or what about if you wanted to create something very risky, and someone handed you a map of all the places where it was guaranteed to sell? Or how would your life change if you’d launched a wine that wans’t working, and someone could tell you how to fix it? The technology to do a...