In Brief

27 August, 2008
Page 6 
l Pernod Ricard has sold the boutique New Zealand winery Framingham, including the vineyards, to leading Portuguese producer Sogrape. Pernod retains the distribution rights for Framingham in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific travel retail markets.

l Henkell & Söhnlein, the German wine and spirits producer, has bought a majority shareholding in Mionetto, the Italian Prosecco sparkling wine, still wines and spirits producer.

l Fortune Brands has announced that, for the 11th time, it has filled a million barrels of Jim Beam, the world's top-selling bourbon. This is the first time such a fill has been achieved in under three years.

l Anheuser-Busch, the US brewer, has renewed its sponsorship of US golfing tournament the PGA Tour for another three years. The whole Michelob family of beers will replace Michelob Ultra as the official beer sponsor of the PGA and Champions Tour.

l The old Bushmills Irish Whiskey distillery is to be featured on Irish bank notes, according to the Bank of Ireland Northern Ireland. It coincides with the 400th anniversary of the granting of a licence to distil whiskey to the area around Bushmills.

l Beer sales in Germany have dropped to their lowest

in 15 years. The German Federal Statistics Office said German brewers sold 103.9 million hectolitres of beer in 2007 - a drop of 2.7 per cent on the previous year and the lowest sales figure since 1993.