June 20th, 2025: US to drop recommended alcohol limits and other news
Us gov to review alcohol limits guidelines, Italian spirits export and national consumption, is China anti-luxury policy a boomerang?, Pernod to cut costs, DIAGEO to invest in India and more...
Good afternoon!
Late press review today, enough to include some fresh news about the Italian spirits industry. But but I'll start with something different and unexpected.
US to drop alcohol limit guidance
The US government is expected to cancel alcohol limit recommendations from its dietary guidelines. According to “sources familiar with the matter”, an update could be released this month.
This is an exclusive by Emma Rumney and Jessica DiNapoli on Reuters:
Exclusive: US to drop guidance to limit alcohol to one or two drinks per day, sources say
We got used to unpredictable changes from the US recently, let’s see what happens.
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Markets
Italian spirits export is growing in value
Despite the overall market situation, Italy’s spirits export value grew by 3.1% in Q1 2025, in line with last year’s growth of 4.8% comparing to 2023.
in the last 10 years the value of Italian spirits exports has grown threefold, from 0.6 to 1.8 billion euros. Meanwhile, Italian national spirits consumption is going down.
This data where released today during a press conference by AssoDistill, the Italian distillers’ association. Here is my article on VinoNews24:
Spirits italiani, export +3,1% in Q1 2025 e +187% nei 10 anni
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Is China anti-corruption policy hitting its own brands?
This is what Ron Emler is supposind in his article on The Drinks Business:
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Company news (starting from the bad ones)
Pernod to cut 1 billion euros in costs by 2029
The company announced an "internal project to create a more agile and simplified organisation”. It has been put in a nice way here, but we all know what this will mean: job cuts are just around the corner. Another exclusive by Reuters, you can read it here, by Tassilo Hummel and Emma Rumney:
Exclusive: Pernod Ricard launches restructuring plan as spirits sales slide
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Diageo to acquire control of Näo Spirits
Diageo-controlled United Spirits bought its first share in the Indian company in 2022 and just announce it will now purchase shares from investors until the finalisation of the ownership to 100%.
Näo Spirits is the maker of Hapusa and Greater Than gin and DIAGEO strategy seems to be a response to India’s thirst for gin. Article on Just Drinks:
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Events:
Bar Convent debuts in London
The event will take place this month (from June 30th to July 1st) and DISCUS will celebrate its newly recognised American single malt category. Article here by Miona Madsen on The Spirits Business:
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Then, let’s talk about gin.
Gin is like meat sauce
In the recent years I noticed that gin seems to be something you can easily build a philosophy on. Everyone has its own opinion, that’s fair, but gin has become so popular that almost everybody has its own idea of how it should or it should not be. I’m take the opportunity to reflect about this topic, after reading Rupert Hohwieler’s article on The Spirits Business, about UK chef Marco Pierre White:
Chefs, in general, happen to have a lot to say about gin too. I tasted a gin by an Italian chef, that has around 20 botanicals and, actually, it was really good. Then, the question is: does it sell? That makes the difference.
Do you think it is a good moment to launch a new gin brand now? The Italian market figures would say yes, but that’s just Italy. What sort of marketing effort and investments would you need to push a new brand in this moment?
Then, how do you identify your target consumers in this mess?
It is a very hard job now that consumers are constantly moving, as we read a few days ago:
Think about it and feel free to share your opinion. You can use comments, direct messages or The Spirits Post’s chat, if you like.
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While you are thinking about gin, here is another option,
Vodka instead of gin?
This is an article by Henry Jeffreys on Decanter:
It looks like there is a new wave of characterful vodkas in the UK (I told you that journalists like sensational news, didn’t I? ;) ). I don’t know if it is correct to define it a “wave”, but it may be interesting.
Have you ever tasted one of these vodkas? What do you think about this kind of products on the market? I’d love to hear what you think.
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Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!
I’ll see you on Monday ;)