Shows
A Question of DrinksEp 23: 2025's Beverage Battles: Who Won, Who Lost, and What's NextIn this year-end episode, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead dissect the business stories that defined drinks in 205. From panic-driven mega-acquisitions and brutal brand sell-offs to the collapse of premiumisation as a default growth strategy, they trace how falling volumes, exhausted consumers, and shifting cultural norms forced the global alcohol industry into survival mode. If it earned enough per litre, it stayed. If it didn’t, it was dumped — sometimes at speed.
The conversation ranges across spirits, beer, wine, and no-and-low, covering Diageo’s boardroom bloodbath, tequila’s overstretched boom, wine’s consolidation into mega-entities, and why celebrities are now ba...
2025-12-2248 min
Drinks InsiderEp 40: Ed Mundy From Jefferies on Alcohol's 27 Head Winds
Jefferies beverage analyst Ed Mundy unpacks why alcohol’s post-pandemic slowdown isn’t a single story but a whole world of pressure. There are the macro shocks like tariffs and foreign exchange. The health and wellness trend. The shifting social role of alcohol.
And a big question about whether the industry is doing itself any favours in its approach to marketing and innovation.
In this conversation, Ed gets specific about what’s working and what isn’t; why some of the fastest-growing US products are cheap and fun; why GLP-1 drugs show a measurab...
2025-12-1755 minA Question of DrinksEp 22: Everyone Swears They Want Authenticity. But We Keep Buying Big Brands. Why?Does it matter where your favourite drink comes from or who makes it?
Using the tangled origin story of the Tequila Sunrise, the secretive monks behind Chartreuse, and the very manufactured “Irishness” of Baileys, Lulie and Felicity ask whether the truth still matters… or whether it’s all about who has the best story.
Listener Adele from Australia sets the core question: younger drinkers say they want authenticity, but it’s the big, well-distributed brands that keep growing. Felicity and Lulie pull apart what “authentic” actually means for regulators, for brand owners, and for Gen Z with limited...
2025-12-1034 minA Question of DrinksEp 21: The Real Reason You Can Remember the Name of Your Favourite Spirits, But Not Your WineWine is the original luxury product, so why are there so few memorable wine brands?
In this episode, Felicity and Lulie dig into wine’s historic allergy to the word “brand” – even as wineries are being told their life’s work isn’t worth what they thought, because nobody remembers their labels. Drawing on IWSR data, they look at how few wine brands normal drinkers can actually recall, why most wineries sit at the bottom of the brand pyramid, and what Ehrenberg-Bass really means when it says brands grow through availability, not vague “loyalty”. Along the way, they pit wine ag...
2025-11-2139 min
Drinks InsiderEp 39: Justin Cohen Says Chasing Loyalty Is Killing Your Wine BrandReady to hear marketing folklore dismantled? Justin Cohen from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute takes the myths apart, one by one. In this episode of Drinks Insider, we talk about why mental availability wins out over awareness, how to prioritise category entry points, and why the law of double jeopardy means small brands should stop chasing “loyalty” and start recruiting light and occasional buyers. Cohen maps the mechanics of growth across wine and beyond, from media choices to where your brand physically shows up, and explains why reach beats narrow targeting when you’re trying to get from zero to one purchas...
2025-11-1254 minA Question of DrinksEp 20: Wine's Dirty Secret: Why Everything Looks the Same When Everything's ChangedIs wine innovative or stuck in the past? When listener Patrick asks why nothing seems to have changed in wine over 30 years, Lulie and Felicity turn this seemingly simple question into a full-blown courtroom drama. Lulie takes the prosecution, arguing that slapping fruit flavors into wine and calling it "innovation" is just New Product Development dressed up in fancy LinkedIn copy. Felicity fights back, insisting wine is quietly revolutionary, from screw cap technology to temperature-controlled logistics, but hides its innovations behind a veil of tradition. Spoiler: they both have receipts, and neither backs down easily.
From Pierre...
2025-11-0550 min
Drinks InsiderEp. 38: Zero Sugar, 90 Points, 1 Smash Hit: The Story Behind Sunny With a Chance of FlowersWhat can dog food teach you about the wine market?
Heidi Scheid was walking through the supermarket in 2019 when she noticed that there was a low sugar, ‘better for you’ version of absolutely everything — including dog food.
The result of her insight is the blockbuster wine Sunny With a Chance of Flowers, which is 9% abv, zero sugar and barely any calories, but which has regularly scored 90 points.
In this lively conversation, she explains how Scheid Family Wines moved up the value chain, from being a grape supplier to a producer of private labels, and th...
2025-10-2950 minA Question of DrinksEp 19: The 5 Psychological Traps Dominating Your Liquor CupboardLulie and Felicity put out a plea on social media — “Tell us what’s in your drinks cabinet” — and discovered a whole world of crimes against taste.
Sweet, creamy liqueurs dominated the offerings (Baileys, Advocat, and even a banana liqueur with holiday PTSD), alongside objects of pride like single malt and bourbon that get opened but never finished. There was plenty of Sherry, Muscat and half-dead whites lurking in the name of “cooking” while the global curios proved that even the most discerning consumer can get suckered by duty free.
Researcher Lulie revealed the five drivers of the d...
2025-10-2237 min
Drinks InsiderEp 37: How Rod Micallef Turned Lemons into 3.5M Bottles of GoldIt’s the midnight idea that launched a sensation — Zoncello, the “it” drink of summer 2023 that’s now an established classic.
Micallef, a former electrician turned restaurateur and winemaker, created a limoncello/Prosecco spritz that hit the sweet spot between low-alcohol refreshment, Italian nostalgia, and post-lockdown escapism. From the restaurant floor to Dan Murphy’s shelves to Fresh Hippo’s 500 stores in China, Zoncello’s rise offers a masterclass in innovation and operational nerve.
Felicity and Rod unpack the real mechanics of the boom — from cashflow chaos and supplier contracts to the bizarre “vegetable wine” tax category that made...
2025-10-1544 minA Question of DrinksEp 18: Why the Reign of Red Wine Is EndingWhy is it red wine that accrues all the prestige? Is this because red wine is better — or for a historic reason?
Felicity and Lulie dig into this mystery and discover that red wine’s prestige didn’t come from taste alone, but from logistics, trade, and the infrastructure that developed around red wines — merchants, classifications, and long-distance shipping. Red’s ability to age made it tradable and collectible, creating a system of status and expertise that white wines couldn’t match. We trace this history through Bordeaux’s port advantage, Burgundy’s influence, and Italy’s late pivot from bu...
2025-10-0848 min
Drinks InsiderEp 36: Nicholas Crampton on Selling 16.8 Million Bottles a Year Without Owning VineyardsNicholas Crampton has pulled off what many in wine say can’t be done: turning a small redundancy pay out into a multi-million dollar wine juggernaut. As co-founder of Fourth Wave Wines, Nick has mastered the art of “trend-first, retail-ready” wine: spotting shifts in London, Paris or the Hamptons, adapting them to mainstream shelves, and negotiating hard with Australian retail giants like Dan Murphy’s and BWS. The result is a stable of 45 brands, including lighter, sustainable labels like Tread Softly and unapologetically full-flavoured wines like Elephant in the Room.
In this episode, Nick explains why consumer testing...
2025-10-0140 minA Question of DrinksEp 17: Why Does Natural Wine Make Some People So Angry?Natural wine has attracted vitriol, mean-spirited editorials and plenty of controversy. One of our listeners wrote in to ask why all the angst, and the hosts use it as a springboard to map the movement’s rise, backlash, and commercial co-option. Felicity sketches the history from Beaujolais and the “Gang of Four,” through the Parker era reaction, NOMA’s catalytic influence, and the media flashpoints that framed natural wine as an oppositional identity.
Lulie and Felicity also define what natural wine is, how it’s produced and the role of additives like sulphur dioxide. And they also discuss con...
2025-09-2547 min
Drinks InsiderEp 35: How Bonterra Built a New 50,000 Case Brand by Thinking Like CPGKate Herbert used to sell cereal and pet food at General Mills and J.M. Smucker. Now she’s in wine, where the budgets are smaller, the competition is insane (110,000 SKUs in the US alone), and the glamour wears off the moment you look behind the curtain. Her first year on the job produced something unusual: Ranch Wine. It looks like an RTD, comes in at 11% ABV, and tastes like pineapple, strawberry or cherry — except it’s all grapes, no flavourings. “Flavourful, not flavoured,” as she keeps repeating, because even her own winemakers didn’t believe it at first.
The pr...
2025-09-1746 min
Wine Talks with Paul K.Wine Industry at a Crossroads: Changing Tastes, AI, and Where the Money GoesYou can't speak of trends in the wine trends in the wine trade without mentioning Felicity Carter. You can't talk data mining in the wine trade without mentioning Felicity Carter...in fact, I can't think of many surrounding the wine trade that you could speak of without mentioning Felicity Carter. She is a force of date (substituting for "nature"). I've got to tell you, sitting down with Felicity Carter for this episode of Wine Talks was like uncorking an old Burgundy—layered, surprising, and deeply satisfying. There's something about Felicity's perspective that just sharpens the mind. Maybe it...
2025-09-1150 minWine Talks with Paul K.Wine Industry at a Crossroads: Changing Tastes, AI, and Where the Money GoesYou can't speak of trends in the wine trends in the wine trade without mentioning Felicity Carter. You can't talk data mining in the wine trade without mentioning Felicity Carter...in fact, I can't think of many surrounding the wine trade that you could speak of without mentioning Felicity Carter. She is a force of date (substituting for "nature"). I've got to tell you, sitting down with Felicity Carter for this episode of Wine Talks was like uncorking an old Burgundy—layered, surprising, and deeply satisfying. There's something about Felicity's perspective that just sharpens the mind. Maybe it...
2025-09-1150 minA Question of DrinksSummer Repeat: Why Isn't There More Wine In Small Bottles? (Or Cans?)While Lulie and Felicity are busy writing the scripts for the new episodes, here's a repeat of one of our most downloaded episodes to date, asking that all-important question of why you can only get wine in big formats.
If everybody is moderating their wine intake, then how come there aren’t more small wine bottles on the shelf? And what would it take to put them there?
In this episode of A Question of Drinks, join hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they explore why wine continues to be sold in those standard 750ml...
2025-09-1055 min
Drinks InsiderEp 34: How Los Cuernos Canned Wine Transformed the On-Trade With Just $1.4MHow did US wine lose the plot — and a whole generation of new consumers?
Cory Assink and Zeke Blattler, co-founders of Los Cuernos, explain what happened and how they’re rebuilding the on-trade wine category, one consumer trial at a time.
They discuss the incentive failures of the three-tier system, why on-premise margins bred stale product and bad value, and how beer distributors outmanoeuvred wine by owning convenience and single-serve.
They detail how they grew their accounts from 0 to more than 240. Forecast: ~15k cases this year, aiming for 50–70k next year.
And don...
2025-09-0359 min
Russell Reads with the Rach(a)elsCats, Murder, and Cardigans [September Reading Challenge]Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our September reading challenge, books set in a library! We discuss the wonders libraries can bring into your life and Russell’s library fever dreams.Books we discuss include:“The Great Library” series by Rachel Caine“The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin“The Secret, Book & Scone Society” by Ellery Adams“The Haunted Library Mysteries” series by Allison Brook“The Library at the Edge of the World” by Felicity Hayes-McCoy“The Library at Mount Char” by Scott Hawkins“The Woman in the Library” by Sulari Gentill“The Invisible Library” by Genevieve...
2025-09-0130 minA Question of DrinksSummer Repeat: The Unstoppable Rise and Rise of Rosé WineLulie and Felicity are going on holiday! And so have re-uploaded one of our most commented-upon episodes, for new listeners.
Pink wine is everywhere. On supermarket shelves, on Instagram, and clutched in the hands of celebrities. If there is a single defining wine of the 21st Century, it has to be rosé.
How did this pink wine go from being considered an icon of 70s kitsch to a celebrity diva?
In this episode of Drinks Insider, hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of rosé wine, looking at the ec...
2025-08-2751 min
Drinks InsiderEp 33: CEO John Sutton on Why The Wine Group Is Betting Big on the Future of WineThere’s a wine downturn going on, and yet The Wine Group, America’s second-largest wine company, is snapping up brands like the market is expanding. Felicity Carter speaks with CEO John Sutton, who explains why he remains bullish on wine even as headlines warn of slowdown. Earlier this year, The Wine Group bought a suite of Constellation Brands labels, including Meiomi, Robert Mondavi Private Selection and Woodbridge, plus vineyards and production facilities — a deal Sutton describes as both a vote of confidence and a deliberate decision to consolidate scale.
He discusses how the company rehabilitates neglected brands...
2025-08-2051 minA Question of DrinksEp 16: How Do Celebrities Influence What We Drink?Celebrity drinks are nothing new — they’ve been around for the past couple of centuries. But today’s star-backed bottles are more strategic than ever, blending personal branding with product placement. In this episode we look at where the phenomenon started, the different ways celebrities attach themselves to drinks, and the very real influence they can have on whole categories — for better or worse. We pull apart the success stories of Casamigos, Aviation Gin, and Miraval, and contrast them with high-profile disasters like Trump Vodka and the Bud Light backlash.
Along the way we unpick why some famous f...
2025-08-1354 min
Drinks InsiderEp 32: How Stuart Forsyth Parlayed the Great Oat Milk Shortage Into a $40M BusinessHow did a scrappy idea born in a London garage turn into one of the world’s most recognisable oat milk brands? From the early days of KeepCup to building the first shelf-stable cold brew, Stuart shares the hard truths about entrepreneurship in food and drink — wafer-thin margins, constant reinvention, and the sheer expense of creating a new category.
Their conversation dives into the evolution of plant-based beverages, the chaotic launch into the US market during the Great Oat Milk Shortage, and the role of timing, luck, and relentless work. Stuart is candid about investor relationships, the brui...
2025-08-0657 minA Question of DrinksEp 15: Why Do Holidays Change the Flavour of Wine?Why does the same wine taste magical on holiday but boring when you open it at home? Felicity and Lulie unpack the fascinating mix of physiology, psychology, and culture that shapes our experience of flavour. From the mechanics of taste buds and retronasal smell to the cultural lexicons we use to describe flavour, they reveal why context is as important as chemistry.
Drawing on cutting‑edge research in sensory science, food psychology, and wine training, the hosts explore everything from genetic taste differences and airline wine selection to the role of branding, price, and expectation. If you’ve e...
2025-07-3056 min
Drinks InsiderEp 8: High Stakes International Alcohol Policy With Julian Braithwaite, CEO of IARDWhat actually happens when the alcohol industry gets a seat at the global health table? In this episode, Julian Braithwait, the former UK ambassador to the UN and now Director General of the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, lays out how international alcohol policy is made and contested.
From WHO mandates to temperance NGOs and the upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs, this wide-ranging discussion explores why “no safe level” is a political slogan, not a scientific consensus and what’s at stake if the global policy framework shifts away from managing harmful drinking.
Topics Covere...
2025-07-1656 minA Question of DrinksEp 14: Is Gen Z Giving Up On Alcohol? Part 2In this episode of A Question of Drinks, Felicity and Lulie continue their deep dive into Gen Z drinking habits. Is this generation truly rejecting alcohol — or are they just broke?
Leaving no stone unturned, they dissect commercial reports from Barclays, Rabobank, and IWSR, comparing them with public health research that claims Gen Z is fundamentally different from previous generations. Discover how social media, economic pressures, and delayed adulthood are shaping drinking patterns.
From Tinto de Verano cocktails made with cheap Pinot Noir to boarding school rebellions and prawn cocktail crisps, this episode blends hard da...
2025-07-0948 min
Drinks InsiderEp 31: How Allison Luvera Tripled Juliet Wine’s Sales in Just One QuarterAllison Luvera, co-founder of Juliet, joins Drinks Insider to talk about how she built a premium boxed wine brand in the US. She reveals how pandemic insights led to launching Eco-Magnum, how her background in fashion and at Pernod Ricard shaped strategy, and the reality of creating a new wine packaging format. Allison explains fundraising challenges, distribution hurdles, and why direct-to-consumer is vital for proof of concept. She shares lessons on hiring, influencer marketing, customer insights, and what it takes to premiumise boxed wine in a sceptical market.
00:20 Allison realised during the pandemic that boxed wine offered c...
2025-07-0251 minA Question of DrinksEp 13: Is Gen Z Really So Different When It Comes to Alcohol? Part 1It’s the question of the moment: why is Gen Z drinking less alcohol? Academics are wondering, banks are wondering, and the drinks trade doesn’t know what to think.
In the first episode of a two-part deep dive, Felicity and Lulie tackle this hotly debated question head one. In Part One, they examine a major new academic study, Young People, Alcohol and Risk: A Culture of Caution, which argues that Gen Z's attitudes to alcohol mark a generational shift, not just a life stage delay.
From risk-aversion to the rise of the Clean Girl Aesth...
2025-06-2548 min
Drinks InsiderEp 30: How Orka Built an Energy Drink for People Who Hate Energy DrinksWhat happens when two friends in their twenties get fed up with syrupy energy drinks and decide to invent a caffeinated water that actually tastes like water? Orka founders Michael Moriarty and Nash Hale join Drinks Insider to talk about their journey from college roommates to beverage entrepreneurs. They reveal how they raised $355K in friends-and-family money, endured a year of catastrophic production failures, and finally cracked the code for manufacturing a clear pressurised can — just in time to ride a viral wave on Amazon.
We cover:
The unglamorous truth about energy drink flavour fatigue
2025-06-1836 min
What's the Problem?Felicity CarterFelicity Carter is an acclaimed wine journalist, editor, and speaker with a global reputation for her deep understanding of the wine industry. She currently serves as Editorial Director of ARENI Global, a London-based think tank focused on the future of fine wine. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International, where she transformed the magazine into a leading global trade publication with readers in over 35 countries.In 2021, she became the founding Executive Editor of The Drop at Pix, a digital wine discovery platform recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the most trusted so...
2025-06-1759 minA Question of DrinksEp 12: Lies on the Label and Other Wine CrimesFelicity and Lulie investigate the murky world of wine and spirits fraud — from harmless fakes to lethal counterfeits.
They start with historic wine scandals that rocked Austria and Italy in the 1980s, where illicit additives led to injury and even death. From there, they explore the modern world of counterfeiting: billionaires tricked by fake Romanée-Conti, questionable Thomas Jefferson bottles, and the infamous case of Rudy Kurniawan, whose kitchen doubled as a counterfeit factory.
Lulie introduces her framework for understanding deception in drinks — “fake, fraud or faux” — and the duo discuss how fakes can turn up anywhere...
2025-06-111h 03
Drinks InsiderEp 29: How Daniel Rodriguez Raised $1.4M to Launch a Disruptive Wine Brand in an Aluminium BottleWhat kind of founder quits a high-paying tech job to launch a single-SKU wine brand in an unfamiliar package — and manages to raise $1.4 million to do it?
In this episode, Felicity talks to Daniel Rodriguez, founder of Currently Wine Co., a Sauvignon Blanc from California’s Central Coast packaged in an aluminium bottle. The packaging isn’t just a gimmick: it’s core to the bigger mission of lowering the carbon footprint of wine while supporting nearshore environmental projects, from oyster bed regeneration to coral reef restoration.
Daniel explains how he:
Raised nearly $1 million...
2025-06-0359 minA Question of DrinksEp 11: Who Really Invented Champagne?In this fizz-filled episode of A Question of Drinks, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead investigate one of the wine world’s most persistent myths: who really invented Champagne? Was it Dom Pérignon, as the marketing legends claim — or were British scientists and merchants bottling bubbly decades earlier?
Expect exploding bottles, legal firestorms, Russian oligarchs, Stalinist innovation, and a blind tasting study that might permanently change how you see cheap sparkling wine.
What we cover:
The overlooked role of English scientist Christopher Merret (1662) in documenting secondary fermentation.
Why British coal-f...
2025-05-281h 00
Drinks InsiderEp 28: US Wine Consumption Trends With Christian Miller, Wine Market CouncilChristian Miller, Research Director at the Wine Market Council and founder of Full Glass Research, joins Felicity Carter to explore changes in wine consumption. With decades of market research behind him, Christian outlines how economic, cultural, and demographic shifts are shaping the way Americans approach wine.
From the decline of traditional wine drinkers to the rise of hybrid and alternative alcohol products, the conversation covers a range of factors that are altering the market. Christian also examines the role of gender, income, and ethnicity in changing wine preferences, and discusses why some long-standing assumptions no longer hold...
2025-05-211h 02A Question of DrinksEp 10: Why Are So Many People Signing Up for Wine Education?Why are so many people suddenly fluent in tannins, terroir, and Tokaji?
There is an explosion of interest in wine education — and not just in the wine trade. Thousands of enthusiasts are signing up for wine courses, regardless of difficulty or cost.
What’s driving this new thirst for knowledge? Is it fun, status, or the chance to bond with others? s not just about work: many are taking courses for fun, for status, or to bond with others. The episode dissects the appeal of rigorous wine courses, from the WSET diploma to the notoriously diff...
2025-05-141h 07
Drinks InsiderEp 27: Unlocking Innovation in the Wine Sector with Jonathan SteynHow can wine businesses innovate while remaining true to tradition?
Jonathan Steyn, convener of the Wine Business Management and Hospitality Leadership program at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, offers a way forward, grounded in both practical experience and academic rigour. An expert in market creation and innovation, he addresses everything from overcoming traditional mindsets to navigating global market shifts and connecting with new generations.
He gave lots of practical advice on:
How to unlock wine innovation
How to bust up silos and get teams to work together
The strength of...
2025-05-0758 minA Question of DrinksEp 9: Is The Wine Trade Out Of Touch? Understanding Why People Get Confused by WineWhy do so many people find wine so confusing?
Is it something about wine itself, or is it because of the misconceptions that the wine trade has about wine drinkers?
Data maven Lulie Halstead and wine journalist Felicity Carter dive into the topic, looking at the consumer experience:
In supermarkets
When reading about wine on menus
In front of the wall of wine in retail
When talking to sommeliers and other wine professionals
With other people.
Is the wine trade putting up barriers to entry — or is there something else going on? Felicity and...
2025-04-3052 min
Drinks InsiderEp 7: The Surprising Reasons Why Humans Love Alcohol With Edward SlingerlandIt gets you drunk, hungover and sick. And yet we go back for more. What’s the attraction of alcohol?
According to Professor Edward Slingerland, author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Stumbled, and Danced Our Way to Civilization, alcohol is the key to civilisation. In this insightful episode of Drinks Insider, he tells host Felicity Carter that much of what we think about alcohol is false.
We did not, for example, develop a taste for it because over-ripe, fermenting fruit has more calories. Nor did we value it primarily as a way of rendering dirty wa...
2025-04-1649 minA Question of DrinksEp 8: How The World Went Wild for Prosecco and Launched a Trade WarWhat happens when sparkling wine, global trade policy, and Paris Hilton collide? In this episode, Felicity Carter and Lulie Halstead take a deep dive into the unlikely but very real international trade war over Prosecco.
What could be more civilised than a glass of refreshing Prosecco, or a colourful Aperol Spritz? And yet this aperitivo ritual, adopted around the world, led to one of the most bitter fights in wine.
From vineyard slopes in northern Italy to Australia’s King Valley and the halls of the EU, this is a story of politics, marketing, and viti...
2025-04-0952 minDrinks InsiderEp 26: Inside Finland's Dynamic Wine Market With Heidi Mäkinen MWWho created the Finnish long drink? When did Finns start drinking wine? And how does wine get into their glasses?
At a time of market turbulence, when wineries are looking for new export markets, why not consider Finland? And for anybody interested, the person to talk to is Heidi Mäkinen MW, Portfolio Manager and Partner at Viinitie importing company. She’s the former Best Sommelier of Finland and a well-known WSET educator.
She talks sommeliers and Finland’s restaurant scene, why the Finns love acidity in their drinks so much, and how the wine marke...
2025-04-0251 min
The Oregon Wine History Archive PodcastFelicity Carter: Oral History InterviewThis interview is with Felicity Carter of Drinks Insider. In this interview, Felicity shares about growing up around Europe and finding her way to Sydney, Australia. She goes on to talk about her life and journey in both media and wine. Felicity dives into her path in becoming a journalist and how she eventually found wine. She shares about her time as a freelance writer and how she found herself writing about wine business in Australia. Later in the interview, Felicity talks about how she found her own passion for wine and the industry. She go...
2025-03-3146 min
A Question of DrinksEp 7: Why Isn't There More Wine In Small Bottles? (Or Cans?)If everybody is moderating their wine intake, then how come there aren’t more small wine bottles on the shelf? And what would it take to put them there?
In this episode of A Question of Drinks, join hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they explore why wine continues to be sold in those standard 750ml bottles. And who decided it should be 750 ml in the first place?
Come on a journey into wine history, into a world of glass blowers, Biblical figures, show-offs and vending machines. Along the way the hosts explore bag-in-box, al...
2025-03-2654 minDrinks InsiderEp 25: Natalie Wang on Building a Wine Media Powerhouse in AsiaThe first time Natalie Wang drank wine she found it ‘rancid’.
Today, Natalie is Southeast Asia’s leading voice for the wine trade. She began as a hard news journalist for outlets like the International Herald Tribune and Reuters, before moving to work with James Suckling, which opened her eyes to the world of fine wine.
In 2019 she founded Vino-Joy, a wine trade magazine based in Hong Kong, which offers business-focused coverage of the Asian wine market, addressing a major gap in the English language media. After attracting significant attention, Don St Pierre invested in the fl...
2025-03-1950 minA Question of DrinksEp 6: Why Is Everybody Drinking Guinness All of a Sudden?It may be more than 300 years old, but sales of Guinness are surging, as the Irish beer finds popularity with new groups of consumers of all ages. How has it managed to reinvent itself in a world of falling beer sales?
Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into everything Guinness, from the beer’s history to its taste, to the ‘Splitting the G’ social media trend that’s taking TikTok by storm. They explore every question, from the effectiveness of the 51-page pouring manual, to the immersive beer tourism experience, to the value of legac...
2025-03-1257 min
Bottled in China: A Wine & Food PodcastFrom Health Benefits to Health Risks: The Evolving Narrative of Wine with Felicity CarterWhat if your daily glass of wine, previously celebrated for its health benefits, is now viewed through a critical lens that labels it a health risk and labelling it as cancerous? Today, we unpack the complexities of this narrative with Felicity Carter, exploring the science, media influence, and industry responses that shape our understanding of wine's place in a healthy lifestyle.Today, we are excited to welcome Felicity Carter, a distinguished journalist and editor based in Europe. As the Editorial Director of ARENI Global and co-founder of Business of Drinks, Felicity's expertise is unmatched. She formerly served...
2025-03-0615 minDrinks InsiderEp 24: How Morten Sørensen Created ISH, Conquered 25 Markets and Partnered With FordMorten 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 the world as a digital nomad, to identifying a gap in the market for mindful drinking. Despite knowing absolutely nothing about beverages, he set out to create drinks that would make it easy to participate in ev...
2025-03-0555 min
Italian Wine PodcastGenerative AI: Big Possibilities and Unexpected Pitfalls with Felicity Carter | wine2wine Business Forum 2024Welcome to Episode 2265, where we present a session recording from the wine2wine Business Forum 2024. Today’s session is entitled “Generative AI: Big Possibilities and Unexpected Pitfalls with Felicity Carter”.Italian Wine Podcast is proud to be a media partner of wine2wine Business Forum and is pleased to present this series of market-focus sessions, recorded in Verona in November 2024.wine2wine Business Forum is an international wine business event held annually in Verona, Italy since 2014. The event is a key reference point for wine producers and wine professionals from around the world, providing an opport...
2025-02-2721 minA Question of DrinksEp 5: The Unstoppable Rise and Rise of Rosé WinePink wine is everywhere. On supermarket shelves, on Instagram, and clutched in the hands of celebrities. If there is a single defining wine of the 21st Century, it has to be rosé.
How did this pink wine go from being considered an icon of 70s kitsch to a celebrity diva?
In this episode of A Question of Drinks, hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of rosé wine, looking at the economic, social, and technological forces that have made rosé wine such a hit.
From novel cooling systems to Ins...
2025-02-2648 minDrinks InsiderEp 24: Boosting Wine Profitability With Your Own Data, According to BevSuite’s Jonathan ReeveJonathan Reeve, co-founder of BevSuit, is on a mission to get the wine companies to improve profitability by embracing data-driven decision-making — using the data locked up in their own company.
He shares insights from his extensive experience at Treasury Wine Estates, Wine Searcher, and Liv-ex, and explains what he’s learned about email marketing strategies, the importance of data integration, and value-based selling.
Jonathan also touches on the impact of AI on the wine business and the growing market for low and no-alcohol products. This is a great episode for anybody who wants to improve profi...
2025-02-1955 min
A Question of DrinksEp 4: What’s Driving Us All to Drink Less?The days of the pre-lunch cocktail followed by the bottle of wine at lunch, followed by a chaser, are well and truly over. The peak of alcohol consumption came in 2012 and it’s fallen 25% since then. Not only are people drinking less alcohol than ever before, but many people now see any amount of alcohol as being bad for them.
What happened?
In this insightful episode, Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter look at the impact of technology, the rise of health and wellness trends, and the emergence of the sober curious movement. They also discuss the...
2025-02-1248 minDrinks InsiderEp 23: How GenZ Jess Druey Disrupted the Wine Industry and What Happens NextEverybody 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 on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, this is one of the unlikeliest stories in wine.
But it works. Jess honed her skills at Red Bull...
2025-02-0559 minDrinks InsiderEp 22: The Fork In the Wine Road and Where to Go Next With Jeff SiegelThe 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 any hope? He says yes, and outlines what needs to be done to appeal to new consumers while retaining the old ones, and securing the future of wi...
2025-02-0549 min
The Tim Atkin Cork Talk PodcastCork Talk with Felicity CarterFelicity Carter is a journalist who specialises in the business of wine. More recently, she’s become an acknowledged expert on health and alcohol policy, interviewing several of the key figures in the sector on her Drinks Insider podcast. I chatted to her from her home in Germany about the French paradox, the j-shaped curve, the World Health Organization, Prohibition, safe drinking levels, Big Tobacco and good and bad science.
To read more about Felicity have a look at the Drinks Insider website. You can also follow her on Instagram at @carter.felicity.
Don’t forg...
2025-01-3051 minThe Tim Atkin Cork Talk PodcastCork Talk with Felicity CarterFelicity Carter is a journalist who specialises in the business of wine. More recently, she’s become an acknowledged expert on health and alcohol policy, interviewing several of the key figures in the sector on her Drinks Insider podcast. I chatted to her from her home in Germany about the French paradox, the j-shaped curve, the World Health Organization, Prohibition, safe drinking levels, Big Tobacco and good and bad science.
To read more about Felicity have a look at the Drinks Insider website. You can also follow her on Instagram at @carter.felicity.
Don’t forg...
2025-01-3051 min
Drinks InsiderSpecial Announcement: A Question of DrinksA short announcement about a new initiative.
2025-01-2902 min
A Question of DrinksEp 3: Do Award-Winning Wines Taste Better?Join Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter as they unpack the complex world of wine scores, medals, and critics, asking where they come from and why the results can be so different between competitions and critics. Then they move into the history of wine criticism and the impact of figures like American wine critic Robert Parker, who changed the market.
They also unpack the psychological and sociological factors that affect consumer perceptions of wine, to find out what consumers think about it all. And they discover a surprising truth about what drives people to choose one wine over...
2025-01-2858 min
A Question of DrinksEp 2: The Surprising and Sometimes Violent History of the Gin and TonicGin may have started life as a medicine for heartburn, but it became so popular, it turned into an instrument of mayhem and murder.
Hosts Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter delve into the fascinating world of gin to explore the question of how this one drink shaped history —and what has driven the contemporary gin craze. The discussion then explores the role of tonic water and its connection to the expansion of the British Empire.
And then the question comes round to the current boom in non-alcoholic versions. Can they last? And why did gin ne...
2025-01-2838 min
A Question of DrinksEp 1: The Hidden Drivers of Fashions in WineWhy do we drink what we do? And why are we drinking different wines than we did 30 years ago?
Lulie Halstead and Felicity Carter do a deep dive into why the wine rack looks very different than it once did. But what is a wine style and who determines it?
And who gets to decide what we drink? It turns out the answer involves changes in technology, fashion and even what looks good on Instagram.
In the course of the discussion they roam over academic research, popular culture, the role of celebrities and...
2025-01-2859 min
Drinks InsiderEp 6: From Prohibition to Neo-Temperance With Historian Dan MalleckProhibition 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-temperance movement.
In this special Drinks Insider episode, Dan discusses the history of the temperance movement, highlighting its moral and economic underpinnings, and compares it to the current neo-temperance movement. He critiques their selective use of r...
2025-01-241h 17Drinks InsiderEp 22: Daniel Rowntree Explains the Trends Shaping the Next Wave of Non-Alcoholic BeveragesWant a glimpse into the future? Then listen in on this conversation with Daniel Rowntree, the founder of High & Dry foresight agency. He’s seen the beverage trade from every angle, and believes it’s now on the cusp of a generational change.
Daniel's career began at Bacardi before he founded the drinks marketing agency, Elastic, which he sold to Matthew Clark in the UK. When he moved to the US to be part of a venture fund, he saw the explosive growth of wellness culture and realised there was a huge opportunity in the drinks space, read...
2025-01-1546 minA Question of DrinksTrailer: Welcome to A Question of DrinksWhy do we drink what we do? Why do some drinks catch fire for a time, and then spend decades at the back of the cupboard? And how do some drinks become classics? In this engaging podcast, drinks data maven Lulie Halstead joints drinks writer and researcher Felicity Carter on a journey into the world of drinks. Along the way, they discover that what's in the glass is more than a drink — it's a representation of cultural, technological and social shifts.
2025-01-0901 minDrinks InsiderEp 21: US Market Beverage Trends 2025 With Bryan RothWant 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 — there are people who know what they like when it comes to the tingle on the tongue, and seek exactly that sensation, and not a bubble more.
2025-01-081h 04Drinks InsiderEp. 20: New and Old Wine Markets of Europe with Joris Snelten, CEO of Delta WinesIt’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. He also explains how the Dutch wine market works from supermarkets and wine shops to online retailers—and reveals that Holland is moving from a beer and spirits market...
2024-12-1850 minDrinks InsiderEp. 19: Alba Hough of Iceland, the Coolest Woman in WineAlba 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, geography and tourism — and reveals a unique approach to fish preservation. And there’s plenty about what Icelanders drink and how to get in to the alcohol monopoly.
But more than that, she discusses...
2024-12-1148 min
The Connected Table LiveBehind the Byline with Wine Journalist Felicity CarterFelicity Carter is the founder of the Drinks Insider podcast, research and content consultancy, as well as Editorial Director of Areni Global, a fine wine think tank based in London. Previously, she was founding Executive Editor of The Drop at Pix, editorial consultant for Liv-ex, and Editor in Chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International. Carter is a versatile wine writer who tackles intricate topics with finesse, from the global business of wine to the connection between wine and health.The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy...
2024-12-0451 minDrinks InsiderEp 18: Noah Sanborn Friedman on Why Now Is the Best Time to Invest in AlcoholNoah 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 time to invest in alcohol. He also talks about the industry’s response to health and wellness trends and the rise of non-alc beverages.
Noah’s great combination of hard-h...
2024-11-2754 min
Drinks InsiderEp 5: Professor Sherwood Brown Unravels the Surprising Relationships Between IQ, Alcohol and the BrainWere 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 that contribute to alcohol use disorder, and what’s currently known about the best way to treat alcohol use disorder. And also the surprising relationship between alcohol consumption and asthma.
But there’s also...
2024-11-2056 minDrinks InsiderEp 17: Proxies Co-Founder Charlie Friedmann on Building a Beverage Category from ScratchOne 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 food and wine writer to entrepreneur. He shares the story of Proxies, from its humble beginnings in a small production facility to its current status as a leading brand in th...
2024-11-131h 03
Drinks InsiderEp 16: Adam Kost on How to Create a Distinct and Scalable Beverage BrandWhat 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 those insights into creating his own start-up. He also talks about money, mission and avoiding the sunk cost fallacy trap.
2024-11-0652 minDrinks InsiderEp 15: The Future of Wine is in the Box: Amy Troutmiller on Unlocking 417% GrowthAmy 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 expectations, the core consumer base for Really Good Boxed Wine is over 55, demonstrating the demand for premium options in this demographic.
The brand's success is largely driven by word-of-mouth marketing, highlighting the power of...
2024-10-2353 minDrinks InsiderEp 14: Conquering the US Market: How Lisa King's AF Drinks Scored Shelf Space in Sprouts, Target, and WalmartHow 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 beverage company that is rapidly gaining traction in the US and Australia.
In this episode she talks about how she formulated a non-alc cocktail that experienced tasters identified as al...
2024-10-161h 00
Drinks InsiderEp 4: Is Moderate Drinking a Myth? Professor Tim Stockwell and the J-Curve ControversyProfessor 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 correction on alcohol.”
The J-Curve hypothesis claims that people who drink light to moderate amounts of alcohol have lower all-cause mortality rates than those who drink heavily or not at all. Professor Stoc...
2024-10-091h 14Drinks InsiderEp 13: The Future of On-Premise Drinking: Trends and Predictions From Union's Gary RossWho 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 rise of tequila to the enduring power of celebrity brands, Gary dissects the forces shaping what we drink and how we drink it.
More importantly, he explains the inner workings o...
2024-10-021h 03
Drinks InsiderEp 3: The Commercial Determinants of Health With Christopher SnowdownWhy 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 covered include:
The history of the modern anti-alcohol movement and how it rose from the ashes of Prohibition;
The system of grants that sustains it;
The Total Consumption Model of alcohol, which suggests that the only...
2024-09-251h 01Drinks InsiderEp 12: Why Don St Pierre Is Excited About Both the Wine Business and the Chinese Wine MarketWhile 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, “all of these folks had to drink and eat something.”
Before long, the St Pierres were distributing Beringer and Bollinger, among other fine wines. They pretty much...
2024-09-1858 minDrinks InsiderEp 11: How Marian Leitner-Waldman Built Archer Roose Into a Canned Wine EmpireEntrepreneur 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 transparency, and plenty of data.
In this fascinating episode, Marian talks about:
How wine-loving investors failed to see the market opportunity sitting right in front of them.
How Archer Roose launched without institutional fu...
2024-09-1256 min
Drinks InsiderEp 2: Wine Additives: What They Are And How They're Used With Creina Stockley PhDWhy 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, and explains how they’re developed, why winemakers use them, and what it takes to get them through the regulatory process.
Health policy
Creina has also had...
2024-09-0459 minDrinks InsiderEp 10: Ben Gibson Reveals How WineHub for Shopify Is Driving Exponential Sales GrowthIncreased 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 how wineries can use the tool to increase their average order value and maintain customer relationships. Ben also discusses the importance of having a loyalty programme and how...
2024-08-2950 min
Drinks InsiderEp 1: National Drinking Guidelines. A Discussion With David ClementThere 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 Affairs Manager for Canada’s Consumer Choice Center, based in Ontario, saw the exact same fight play out, involving some of the same scientists. At the time, he wrote ab...
2024-08-1449 min
Drinks InsiderEp 9: All the Fun of Alcohol But None of the Downsides, With David NuttWhat 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 discusses the work he’s doing on a molecule called Alcarelle, which is currently going through regulatory testing. In the meantime, he’s introduced a vermouth-like drink called Sentia to mar...
2024-08-1445 minDrinks InsiderEp 8: Navigating the Future of the Wine Industry with Lulie Halstead, IWSRAlcohol 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 research tactics, offering valuable advice for wine enterprises of all sizes.
Projected decline in wine consumption
Impact of generational shifts
Premiumization trends
Market orientation over product orientation:
Distinctiveness versus differentiation
Diverse consumer preferences
Leveraging market research
...
2024-08-0756 minDrinks InsiderEp 7: Engaging Younger Audiences and Navigating Global Markets with Justin Noland from TWEHow 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 Crimes and some luxury brands.
Justin is an acknowledged expert in all things digital, and in this wide-ranging conversation he talks about everything from wine as entertainment, to wh...
2024-07-2558 minDrinks InsiderEp 6: Higher Sales Through Better Targeting, With Katerina Axelsson of TastryHow 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 all of this exists and it’s been developed by a California company called Tastry, founded by Katerin...
2024-07-1951 minDrinks InsiderEp 5: How Great Design Leads to Higher Sales With Drinks Specialist Rowena CurlewisRowena Curlewis is the woman behind some of the most iconic designs in the drinks space — not only has she worked on brands like Penfolds and 19 Crimes, but she recently created the labels for Dolly Wines, the first wines released by legend Dolly Parton.
Rowena is, with Margaret Nolan, the co-founder of Denomination Design, a brand design agency headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco and London.
In this conversation, she covers everything from current trends, to collaborations with fashion designers, to how to make a bottle stand out:
1. Connect through storytelling...
2024-07-0556 min
Italian Wine PodcastFelicity Carter | Masterclass US Wine Market With Juliana ColangeloWelcome to Episode 1992 on Italian Wine Podcast, Masterclass US Wine Market With Juliana Colangelo Today she interviews Felicity Carter. The discussion focuses on the Neo-prohibitionism movement happening around the world today. More about today’s guest:Felicity Carter is co-founder of the “Business of Drinks” podcast and content studio. She is Editorial Director of Areni Global in London and Editorial Consultant to an array of private clients. Previously, she was Founding Executive Editor of The Drop at Pix, Editorial Consultant for Liv-ex, and Editor in Chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International, which she...
2024-07-0120 minDrinks InsiderEp 2: How Tyson Branz Reinvented A Liqueur Category and Conquered Export MarketsHow do you break into a category that’s completely dominated by one major, very cashed-up player?
If you’re Tyson Branz Destileria Barako Corp, you test the local market and build up a fan base who spread the word wherever they go, helping to do the marketing for you.
In this episode, Tyson explains how he and his team developed Ube Cream Liqueur, and how they turned it into an export dynamo by turning locals into true fans. He covers:
1. Why entering competitions is a good strategy
The power of a me...
2024-06-2643 minDrinks InsiderEp 3: Gino Colangelo Explains How to Put Your Brand in Front of the MediaWhat’s better than marketing your brand yourself? Getting other people to talk about your brand. The more (positive) attention you get, the easier it is to get people to try your product, and to convince distributors, retailers and the off-trade to stock it.
The man who knows more about this than just about anybody else in the US is Gino Colangeo, founder of Colangelo & Partners, which has a huge team dedicated to promoting wine and spirits and offices in New York, San Francisco and Miami.
He’s also a great storytelling and in this live...
2024-06-2642 minDrinks InsiderEp 4: Why Neha Kumar Is Investing Big In Wine DTC CompaniesNeha Kumar knows a lot about money and finance. As well as a background in banking, and plenty of corporate experience, she also lectures at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and collaborates with the Women’s Abundance Collective, teaching high-net-worth women the ins and outs of investing and deal-making.
And, at a time when wine sales are wobbling, she’s raised $14 million to invest in her company, Full Glass Wine, which is on a mission to build the next wave of direct-to-consumer brands in the space. Acquisitions include Winc, Bright Cellars and Wine Insiders.
In this...
2024-06-2655 min
Drinks InsiderEp 1: An Overview of the US Beverage Market With Kaleigh Theriault, NielsenIQThe U.S. beverage market is the most lucrative in the world — if your product is a hit, your money worries will (mostly) be over. But the post-pandemic market is undergoing a structural shift, with beverage alcohol declining and consumers wanting new flavors on a regular basis.
In this episode, Kaleigh Theirault of NielsenIQ tracks the changes, from the rise of canned cocktails to the emergence of new categories:
1. Why and how consumers are moving to the off-premise
At-home consumption of wine, beer, spirits and other drinks is rising. Is this just because pe...
2024-06-1945 min
Business of Drinks10: Where Have All the Young Drinkers Gone? - Business of DrinksEveryone who works beverage alcohol right now is asking just one question:
“Where have all the young drinkers gone?”
Not only are young people, both GenZs and Millennials, drinking less alcohol, but a significant number aren’t drinking any alcohol at all. According to Google, 41% of GenZers don’t touch alcohol, while the number of college-aged Americans who are teetotal has risen to a whopping 28%.
What’s going on? Is this a generational blip — or a permanent change?
This season on Business of Drinks, hosts Erica Duecy and Felicity Carter explore these questi...
2024-04-1640 min
Wine for Normal PeopleFelicity Carter Exposes the Jaw-dropping Truth of Who is Guiding Global Wine & Health PolicyMy guest Felicity Carter is probably the most brilliant journalist in wine, and certainly one of the only ones doing vital investigative work in the field of wine, health, and the neo prohibitionist movement. From 2008 to 2021, she was editor-in-chief of Meininger's Wine Business International, a global, English-language magazine, one of Germany's oldest publishing houses. She reported from 22 countries in that position. She writes for Decanter, The Guardian, and pretty much every major prestigious wine publication out there. Photo: Felicity Carter. Credit: https://felicitycarter.com.au/miscellaneous/ Felicity is the foremost authority on...
2024-02-1452 min
BC's CornerAn Actor's Life For Me with Adria DawnBryan hosts Emmy nominated multi-hyphenate, Adria Dawn to discuss the day to day life of working artist, the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, and the social impact of progressive creative development. Adria Dawn is an Emmy nominated multi hyphenate who grew up in the Midwest, and broke into Hollywood working as a Levi's model. She is a filmmaker, actor, educator, and proud mama to an amazing fourteen year old.As a filmmaker, Adria is most known for her award-winning films for social change. Her series, Kids Matter, deals with contemporary issues o...
2023-10-0653 min
ARENI Global: In ConversationUnderstanding Japan's Latest Trends - In Conversation With Ned Goodwin MWWelcome to the Areni Global in Conversation podcast. In today’s episode Understanding Japan's Latest Trends: In Conversation With Ned Goodwin MW Felicity Carter takes the reins. She talks to Ned Goodwin MW about Japan’s fine wine market, as there is sometimes no better way to understand a market than to ask an outsider, because they may have the ability to stand back and observe in a way that insiders can’t.
An Australian wine expert and critic, Ned first encountered Japan when he went on a school exchange in his teens. After falling in love with t...
2023-09-0733 min
ARENI Global: In ConversationUnderstanding the Fine Wine Consumer: Market Insights - France - In Conversation with Pauline Vicard & Felicity CarterWelcome to the Areni Global podcast. In today’s episode, “Understanding the Fine Wine Consumer: Market Insights - France, In Conversation with Pauline Vicard & Felicity Carter” we are changing things up. Normally Pauline Vicard of Areni Global acts as host, but today we have Felicity Carter taking the reins as she talks to Pauline all about Areni Globals upcoming market research data.
Market research is a huge part of Areni Global’s ethos. There are six “country profiles” Areni is going to focus on this year. Today we are speaking about France. Home of many fine wine collectors. L...
2023-04-2042 min
ARENI Global: In ConversationWhat does authenticity and typicity mean for fine wine? In Conversation with Felicity Carter and Pauline VicardIn this special episode, journalist Felicity Carter and ARENI's executive director Pauline Vicard explore the concepts of authenticity and typicity, looking at what the concepts mean in different cultures.
Diving deep into history and social science, they explore how these concepts arose and how they're being disrupted by a new emphasis on individuality, versus the collective visions of previous generations.
2021-12-1552 min
Unreserved Wine TalkBottle of the Sexist: Marketing Wine to Women with Felicity CarterWhat do fortune-telling and wine writing have in common? How does wine culture change when women are part of its founding? Should you believe the health claims about clean wines? Are they really better for you? What are the fairy tales we tell about wine? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with wine writer, Felicity Carter who is the Executive Editor at Pix.wine, a global wine discovery platform based in California. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks. Watch Party
2021-10-1359 min
The Vinimark PodcastWomen of Wine (WOW) Series: Felicity CarterAs part of Women’s Month, Jono sits down with Felicity Carter to discuss everything from the structure of the female brain - and the dangers of genetic determinism - through to the fine wine scene in China, and how it offers a glimmer of hope for female wine lovers. Felicity is an enormously experienced wine journalist who has been writing on wine around the world for over twenty years. Her wealth of experience delivers superb insights into some of the challenges surrounding marketing wine to women, and how the emerging generation of female estate owners may ju...
2021-08-1328 min
ARENI Global: In ConversationHow Much Is Enough? In Conversation with Felicity Carter and Jordan SaleIn this episode, we share a conversation that took place in the 2021 edition of the Batonnage Forum.
Bâtonnage is a US-based initiative stirring up the conversation on Women and Wine. Its annual forum brings together wine professionals as well as wine industry supporters to discuss and act on the unique challenges and opportunities that women in wine have faced both historically and present-day.
On the 23rd of June 2021, ARENI invited Felicity Carter, Editor-in-Chief at Pix and Jordan Sale, CEO and founder of 81 cents, to talk pay gaps, negotiation skills, globalization of the work place an...
2021-07-1442 min
Interpreting Wine PodcastEp 345: Felicity Carter, Meininger's Wine Business International, Wine2Wine 2019 Series (4 of 8)If you know someone who would enjoy this episode please share the direct link: www.interpretingwine.com/345 If you really enjoyed it please leave the episode an iTunes review on the same link. Thanks! 👌👌 Episode outline: Origin Story Meininger's Wine Business International overview The Wine Competition “The Future is Voice” Buying wine with voice Looking ahead Guest contact details: https://www.drinks-today.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/meininger-verlag https://twitter.com/meiningeronline https...
2019-11-2624 min