Molson Coors Brewing Co. posted a 38% increase in first-quarter profit amid a liability-settlement gain in Brazil, which masked the effects of lower beer-sales volume and higher marketing and other expenses.

The beer maker, whose portfolio includes Coors Light and Blue Moon, said during a conference call with analysts that sales to retailers remain weak in the current quarter, indicating the world-wide slump in the beer market isn't over yet. World-wide volume fell 3.8% from a year earlier in the first quarter.

Still, Denver-based Molson Coors said it is starting to see some pockets of improvement.

The company has tried to combat lower volume by promoting its premium product lines. That tactic has shown some success, helping Molson Coors post sales growth for the second consecutive quarter from year-earlier levels. Executives said they saw sales shift toward higher-price products in the U.K. and are implementing selective price increases in parts of Canada.

Molson Coors said its first-quarter profit rose to $104.6 million, or 56 cents a share, from $75.7 million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a gain stemming from a Brazilian tax-amnesty program and other items, per-share earnings fell to 37 cents from 53 cents amid higher marketing and other expenses, as well as lower volume.

Sales climbed 18% to $661 million.

Gross margin widened to 38.8% from 38.1%.

Separately, Molson Coors announced a $40 million investment in a new venture with Hebei Si'hai Beer Co. of China. The partnership, which will be 51%-owned by Molson Coors, will directly oversee Si'hai brewing operations.

Chinese sales have been a rare bright spot in the global beer market. Molson Coors's business in the country has been growing at 30% a year, according to Kandy Anand, president of Molson Coors International.

Canada, one of Molson Coor's key markets, saw some improvement in the first quarter, boosted in part by the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Sales to retailers rose 5% in the country, outpacing the industrywide increase of 3.8%. Molson Coors's total Canadian sales volume rose 3.3%.

The Molson Canadian brand posted growth for the first time in four years.

Still, Molson Coors is struggling in other core markets. Owned-brand volume sank 11% in the U.K., which Molson Coors attributed in part to poor weather.

Overall industry volume only fell 5% in the quarter. The cost of goods sold soared 22%, or 18% excluding a pension charge.

Also Tuesday, MillerCoors LLC-the joint venture of Molson Coors and SABMiller PLC's U.S. brewing operations-said its first-quarter profit edged up 1.3% amid lower excise taxes and other expenses, although sales declined as overall volume continued to slide.

For the first five weeks of the current quarter, sales to retailers were down in the low single digits on a percentage basis in Canada and the low double digits in the U.K. Sales to retailers were off by the low single digits in the U.S. during the first four weeks of the period.

MillerCoors, based in Chicago, said its first-quarter profit rose to $208.6 million from $206 million a year earlier. Excluding items such as severance expenses and pension costs, earnings rose to $217.2 million from $216.4 million. Net sales after excise taxes declined 0.9% to $1.7 billion, and overall volume dropped 3%.

Gross margin fell to 36.6% from 38.8%.

The company said it delivered $60 million in cost savings during the quarter, saying it was on track to cut costs by $750 million by the end of 2012.

Latour is top wine of Bordeaux 2009, says survey

Chateau Latour has beaten Margaux and Lafite to be the wine of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, according to a survey of the international wine trade.

Meanwhile, Calon-Ségur was the winner in value for money terms, and Cos d'Estournel was the most disappointing wine of the harvest, according to the poll conducted by fine wine exchange Liv-ex.

Tasters gave the vintage as a whole an average points score of 96 out of 100, narrowly ahead of 2005 (ranked 95+).

They expect release prices to be up 120% on 2008 and up 6% on 2005 in euro terms.

However, the weakening of sterling against the euro means this would equate to a 30% price increase over 2005 for UK buyers - or, if prices soar, it could be as high as 50%, according to Liv-ex.

The top ten wines of the 2009 vintage, regardless of price, were named as: Latour, Margaux, Lafite, Mouton, Ausone, Pétrus, Haut-Brion, Lafleur, Palmer and Le Pin.

Top ten in value terms (expected to release at less than £500/case) were: Calon-Ségur, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Léoville Barton, Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Gruaud-Larose, Pontet-Canet, Léoville Poyferré, Haut-Batailley, Armailhac and Langoa Barton.

And the most disappointing were: Cos d'Estournel, Pavie, Troplong Mondot, Léoville Barton, Pichon Lalande, Talbot, Lascombes, Clos Fourtet, Figeac and Léoville Las Cases.

Asked to rank 2000, 2005 and 2009 in terms of quality, 53% put 2009 at the top of the pile, followed by 2005 and 2000.

Many described the vintage as 'excellent', but a number voiced concerns about consistency, particularly on the Right Bank, where some wines were judged too alcoholic and over-extracted.

Radico in talks with Diageo to cut JV stake

India's second-largest liquor manufacturer, Radico Khaitan, today said that it is talking to UK-based Diageo Plc to reduce its stake in their joint venture Diageo Radico Distilleries.

"Things are moving and at an appropriate time we will discuss it out. At this point of time all I can say is that talks are going on," Dilip K Banthiya, chief financial officer told Reuters.

The world's largest alcoholic drinks maker and Radico have an equal JV to make and sell liquor products in India.

In January, the Indian firm had declined to comment on whether it would be willing to reduce stake in the joint venture.

Late last year, Diageo had received approval from India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board to raise its stake in the joint venture to 100 per cent.

Radico, which has brands such as 8 p.m. Whiskey, Magic Moments, Contessa Rum and Old Admiral Brandy in its portfolio, in its four-year old joint venture with Diageo has so far produced the premium whiskey brand, Masterstroke, launched about three years back.

The firm has raised Rs 340 crore recently via a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) and has used the proceeds to reduce debt.

The firm's current debt on the books is at Rs 420 crore from Rs 770 crore before the QIP, Banthiya said.

NEW LAUNCHES

In the current fiscal the firm plans to launch two more whiskey brands in India.

"We are planning to launch two more whiskeys from Radico in the premium space and on that you will hear very soon... the launch will be this fiscal," Banthiya said.

The Indian liquor maker also said it expects a huge boost to its performance in this fiscal as it targets a more than two-fold jump in sales in its premium brandy 'Morpheus'.

"Morpheus is doing very well and we have done 80,000 cases in the first year itself and going forward we are targetting a substantial growth of about 240,000-270,000 cases," Banthiya said.

"The product is at a high price point so it should give our margins a significant boost," he added.

Radico, which saw overall volume sales of 14.62 million cases in FY10, a growth of 13.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, expects a volume growth of 15-17 per cent in FY11.

The firm is expecting a topline growth of 20-22 per cent and expects operating profits to climb 27-30 per cent in FY11. It has also outlined a capital expenditure of 150-200 million rupees for the current fiscal.

"The capex is just for some normal maintenance requirements and we dont have any capacity expansion this year," Banthiya said.

The firm which did exceptionally well this year saw its net profit for the twelve months ended March 31 surge to Rs 41.54 crore from Rs 6.53 crore in FY10 and saw a sales jump 23 per cent in the same period to Rs 1,150 crore.

"Price increases and lower raw material prices helped us achieve such good numbers..we expect to continue this performance with good volume growth and as molasses prices in the past month have corrected by 18-20 per cent," he said.

"If it stays at current levels also our operating margins will improve by 100-150 basis points," Banthiya said.

Shares of the firm ended up 1.08 per cent at Rs 126.45 in a strong Mumbai market today.

The English invented sparkling wine in the 17th century, but failed to profit from it because their cold, dank summers yielded crummy grapes. Three decades later, a French monk named Dom Pérignon adapted the idea and devised a winning tipple, Champagne.

The Brits are starting to claw back some ground. In January, a little-known bubbly from the U.K's Nyetimber Estate was crowned "world's best sparkling wine" at a prestigious taste-off in Italy, defeating a dozen Champagnes, including Roederer, Bollinger and Pommery. Last year, when Britain hosted the G-20 meeting, another effervescent Nyetimber was served to President Barack Obama, Germany's Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

English bubbly is on the rise partly due to better winemaking techniques. But some vintners say they're being helped by another, unexpected factor: a warming climate.

Official data indicate that the past 10 years were the warmest on record globally. In England, this led to plumper and riper grapes most seasons, especially for sparkling wines. The number of vineyards in the U.K. jumped to 416 in 2008 from 363 in 2000, according the trade group English Wine Producers.

"Just 20 years ago, it was really difficult to make good wine in cooler climate areas," says Gregory Jones, who studies the effect of climate change on the global wine industry at Southern Oregon University. "Now it's not such a challenge."

With the help of warmer summers, "some of the risk of making sparkling wine here is gone," says Mike Roberts, founder and chief winemaker of the Ridgeview estate here, 45 miles south of London. "We have everything going for us to out-Champagne Champagne."

Last year, the fifth-hottest on record, Ridgeview's grapes ripened two weeks earlier than usual, allowing for the harvest to be brought in before the onset of wet October weather. Mr. Roberts and other English winemakers say 2009 was one of the best growing seasons they've seen.

Most connoisseurs insist that no sparkling wine can match the range, finesse and flavor of Champagne, made only in the Champagne region of northeastern France. Yet English fizz is bursting a bit of France's bubble.

Mr. Roberts' wines have won dozens of prizes, including a gold and silver medal at Effervescents du Monde, an international competition held in France. Another Ridgeview sparkler, blanc de blanc, was served at a 2004 bash to mark Queen Elizabeth's 80th birthday.

Many English still wines, including white and rosé varieties, have been considered thin and acidic. As the climate has warmed, they've benefited as well, becoming less acidic and more fruity. English reds still struggle, partly because those grapes need a much hotter climate to ripen well.

Sparkling wines have improved most, because England's warmer, drier summers now yield juicier grapes with more flavors-while still remaining cool enough to create the racy acidity so vital to a fizzy wine.

The Romans introduced winemaking to England after invading in 43 A.D. In the mid-1600s, English scientist Christopher Merret discovered that adding sugar to finished wine led to a second fermentation and yielded a fizzy wine. Later, Dom Pérignon came up with the idea of making sparkling wine with bubbles by blending grapes from different vineyards-a key development that gave French makers the sparkling advantage.

France's annual output of Champagne, some 320 million bottles, is much larger than the 1.4 million bottles of fizz England makes each year. Still, representatives of big Champagne houses such as Louis Roederer (maker of Cristal), Pol Roger and Duval-LeRoy have toured England, scoping out vineyard sites-and their smaller new rivals.

Roger Begault, export director of Champagne house Duval-LeRoy, founded in 1859, acknowledges that several English sparkling wines are "pleasant and well made." A few years ago, a Duval-LeRoy envoy surveyed southern England to consider starting up vineyards there. Still, he insists, "Champagne only comes from Champagne!"

Rising temperatures have helped France's Champagne makers, too. But if the trend continues, lower-end bubbly could be challenged, at least on price. English bottles today can cost anywhere from $27 to $37, roughly the same as non-vintage Champagne, and far less than the special vintages bottled in outstanding years.

The U.K. is the biggest importer of Champagne in the world, and today demand for domestic fizz is picking up. Of the 3.1 million bottles of U.K. wine produced in 2009, about 45% were of the sparkling variety, according to an estimate by English Wine Producers. In 2005, only 20% of domestic bottles produced were bubbly.

Waitrose, the grocery store chain that commands a 61% market share for English wines, has its own vineyard. A separate vine-growing project has sprung up just 12 miles from London. One local grower is planning a tiny vineyard in the heart of the city, outside Kings Cross Station.

The Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) today urged the Obama Administration to mark Alcohol Awareness Month by passing new alcohol labeling requirements to include basic dietary information on the labels of all beverage alcohol products.

For more than six years, numerous public health and consumer groups -- including the Consumer Federation of America, MADD, Dr. C. Everett Koop's Shape Up America!, the American Medical Women's Association, and the National Consumers League -- have been calling for the Federal government's Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to require a standardized Serving Facts label on all beer, wine and distilled spirits products that list the serving size, calories per serving, alcohol content per serving, and the definition of a "standard drink."

"The existing labeling rules for beer, wine and spirits are inconsistent and do not include basic information on all labels that would assist consumers in measuring and moderating their drinking," said Peter Cressy, President of the Distilled Spirits Council.

"Any final label should serve consumer and public health objectives. The federal government's current proposal fails this test."

Cressy pointed out that under TTB's current proposed Serving Facts label, companies would not be required to disclose the amount of alcohol per serving. The proposal would also prohibit a company from including on the label how much alcohol is in a standard drink, as defined by the U.S. Government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the basis for nutrition policy in the United States.

This standard drink information is used by federal and state agencies, including the Office of the Surgeon General, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in state driver's manuals.

According to Multi-Sponsor Surveys, a majority of adults polled agree that adding standard drink information and the amount of alcohol per serving on all beer, wine and spirits labels will help them follow the Dietary Guidelines on alcohol.

The Council joined the public health community in urging TTB to revise its current proposal so that:

1.) Serving sizes are 1.5 fluid ounces for 80-proof distilled spirits, 12 fluid ounces for regular beer, 5 fluid ounces of wine

2.) The amount of alcohol per serving is required to be disclosed in the "Serving Facts" panel; and

3.) The text in the panel states "a standard drink contains 0.6 fluid ounces of alcohol."

"Knowing how much alcohol is in a standard drink of beer, wine or distilled spirits is key to making responsible drinking decisions," said Cressy.

Jasper Newton Danielle

The attitude of the US Bordeaux merchants is an odd mixture of defensiveness and truculence, with little consensus on what consumers' buying patterns will look like.

On the one hand there is a definite feeling that they want to buy this vintage - and will snap up the first tranche of First Growths at almost any price.

But at the same time they are keen to send out warnings that Bordeaux has to work hard to woo back US buyers after several disastrously-priced vintages.

Premier Cru in Emeryville, California, receives calls every day for First Growth reservations.

Its owner John Fox expects high prices because 'the vintage has been hyped up so much that, historically, the chateaux take advantage of that. I feel bad that the chateaux are going to do what they are going to do, but that is the reality of the market.'

Fox expects to sell a certain amount of first tranche wines 'at almost any price - we have a certain group of customers who would buy at the opening tranche price whatever it may be.'

After that, he added, with price rises with each subsequent tranche, 'it would require a lot more thinking'.

Simon Lambert of the Chicago Wine Company has the same attitude, refusing to name a 'threshold price'.

'We are not ready to spend an unlimited amount. I am not going to announce [my threshhold price]. I do not want to give them [the Bordeaux negociants] an opportunity to think that they can get away with more than they can.'

Others are resigned to stratospheric prices. 'When it comes to big vintages anything is possible,' said Shaun Bishop of JJ Buckley in California.

'You can never say never. What you actually thought could not happen, might happen,' he said, but added that the economic climate in 2010 is very different to that of 2006 when the 2005 prices came out - 'the last time Bordeaux futures generated such excitement in the United States'.

In the current climate, 'Restaurants are not buying like they used to and the general health of the wine buying segment is not the same,' Bishop said.

There is by no means consensus on what consumers are interested in this year. If merchants think the First Growths will be snapped up, others are less sanguine.

Mark Wessels of MacArthur Liqueurs in Washington DC, said his clients would be 'very sensitive' to pricing and he sees less demand for First Growths and other top wines.

'Customers will not choose wines like Angélus, Léoville Las Cases and Palmer' which were among the most expensive non-First Growths from the 2005 campaign.

'They will buy the best wines at the best prices. Money no longer grows on trees.'

And then there is the inevitable warning note, struck by Simon Lambert.

'Bordeaux proprietors have to consider that they lost a lot of following with US consumers over the last couple of vintages. Whether that has a bearing on prices, I don't know, but it would be great if they won a few friends again.'

 Charles Wilfred Van Dorn

A Scottish microbrewery that has received intense criticism for marketing products with an alcohol content far exceeding popular brands is shipping one of its beers to select retailers in California and New York City, Time magazine reported April 10.

BrewDog co-founder Jim Watt's interest in the U.S. market stems from the fact that about half of the orders on his company's website come from American customers. "We're keen to push the envelope and challenge people's perceptions of how beer can be enjoyed," Watt said.

The beer being shipped to the U.S. market, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin, contains 32 percent alcohol by volume, more than six times what is found in typical domestic beers.

BrewDog's marketing tactics have gotten the company in trouble on numerous occasions in Europe. Last December, British alcohol regulators ordered stores to stop selling its 18.2 percent alcohol beer. Jack Law, chief executive of the group Alcohol Focus Scotland, has referred to BrewDog's products as "irresponsible" as his nation deals with significant alcohol problems.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin isn't even BrewDog's highest-alcohol beer. In response to a German brewer's release of a 40 percent alcohol beer, BrewDog created a 41 percent brew.

Some observers say the extremely high cost of these products (Tactical Nuclear Penguin costs around $53 a bottle) is likely to keep them out of the hands of most young drinkers.

 

Gudrun Baccus at work!

United Kingdom: Drink linked to Scottish crime problems

Scotland's chronic problems with alcohol abuse have left it lagging well behind England and Wales in the fight against crime, a study claims on Monday.

Overall crime in Scotland is at the same level now as it was in 1999 when the country was given its own parliament, according to an analysis of UK crime surveys by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank.

During a similar period, crime rates fell 11.2 percentage points in England and Wales and 9.2 percentage points in Northern Ireland.

Assault and vandalism are a particular problem for the Scots, according to the study. The number of incidents has increased over the past decade even as they have fallen in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Rick Muir, author of the IPPR report, said it was impossible to be certain why Scottish crime had not fallen in line with the rest of the UK, but that "booze is something that stands out".

Scots have been ranked as the eighth biggest drinkers of alcohol in the world per head of population.

"The fact that Scotland has a bigger problem with vandalism and assault than burglary or vehicle theft shows alcohol is likely to play an important role," Mr Muir said. In the most recent Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, 58 per cent of the victims of violence said their attacker had been drinking, compared with 47 per cent in England and Wales.

The study will be embarrassing for Holyrood because overall crime has fallen across Europe over the past 15 years, largely as a result of people becoming more prosperous.

Scottish government officials stressed on Sunday that the number of criminal offences recorded by police was at a 30-year low.

However, statisticians and criminologists prefer surveys of the general public - as used by the IPPR - rather than police figures because many people do not report crimes.

The Scottish government said: "While figures suggest crime levels in Scotland have generally remained more static than in England and Wales, they are still lower - 20 per cent of adults in Scotland have been the victim of at least one crime in Scotland compared to 23 per cent in England and Wales."

The ruling Scottish National party is seeking to clamp down on the drinks industry in an attempt to get to grips with the alcohol problem. A bill being debated by the Scottish parliament would set a minimum price for a unit of alcohol to stop drink being sold cheaply. The measure is opposed by the drinks industry, which says it will penalise hard-up but sensible drinkers.

Jasper Newton Danielle Shout'in Out to y'all

Uruguay is wine world's rising star

Argentina has its Malbec. Chile has its Carmenere. Now Uruguay, not to be out-muscled by its more famous wine-producing neighbors, is taking the world of viticulture by storm, with its distinctive Tannat wines.

Uruguay, the fourth most important wine-producing country in South America, grows a variety of grapes, but none more celebrated than Tannat, which is fueling this tiny country's rise to prominence in the wine world.

Over the years Tannat has come to be seen as the quintessential Uruguayan grape and wine, representing about 40 percent of the country's entire wine production.

Now bold and full-bodied Tannat wines are putting upstart Uruguay on the map, and winning prizes against competition fronted by more established regional rivals.

"Tannat is opening doors for us," winegrower Virginia Stagnari proudly told AFP. Her Italian immigrant family founded the Antigua Bodega Stagnari, some 20 kilometers north of Montevideo, one of this countries leading vineyards.

Although Uruguay's wines are just beginning to gain a global foothold, it has a long history of viticulture, dating back some 250 years when French and Spanish immigrants brought the vine to the New World.

The hardy Tannat grape, originally from southeastern France, was introduced to Uruguay in 1870 by the Basque Frenchman Pascual Harriague, an immigrant who was looking for a varietal that would thrive in Uruguay's soil and climate.

Since the 1990s, Uruguay has been exporting high-quality wine throughout Latin America, the United States and even in the countries of the Gulf.

This tiny country of some 3.4 million inhabitants, dwarfed by its larger neighbors Brazil and Argentina, now enjoys a growing reputation as a producer of superlative wines for a reasonable price.

Some 8,200 hectares of vineyards have been cultivated by some 1,800 wine producers.

Stagnari said her family's vineyard was established in 1929 by her maternal grandfather, an immigrant from Italy, and today produces 140,000 liters of various types of wine, exporting every fifth bottle out of the country to destinations like Brazil, Mexico, Belgium and Sweden.

Another highly regarded label here, Bouza, although barely a decade old, produces what are generally deemed to be some of this country's most exquisite wines including not only Tannats but varietals as Albarino, Chardonnay and Merlot.

To obtain top quality wines "we have to expend a lot of man-hours," said the company's resident eonologist, Eduard Boido.

The quest for memorable wines also means "maintaining the biodiversity of the vineyard," Boido said, as well as cultivating the grapes "in parcels of land no larger than a half-hectare in size."

Small scale viticulture allows for quality control and ensures the "traceability" of each bottle -- something that Uruguay's industry overseers INAVI, the national institute of wine culture, insists upon.

According to INAVI Uruguay exported 1.2 million liters of wine in 2004, with a value of some 3.3 million dollars. In 2008, it sold 13.4 million liters valued at 10.6 million dollars.

But viniculture in Uruguay was dealt a major setback by the global financial crisis. In 2009, it succeeded in selling only two million liters, worth about six million dollars.

Uruguay expects to make up lost ground quickly now that the economic recovery is underway, especially given its position as a purveyor as one of the best values to be had in any wine store.

But even the most avid oenophiles agree that Uruguay's wine industry will rise and fall on the quality of each individual bottle of ruby red Tannat.

And they say downing a glass as much of an art form as producing one.

First uncork a bottle pour it into a glass and allow it to sit for a half-hour.

Then swirl it in a slow, circular motion. Next, close your eyes, inhale deeply into the wine glass.

Finally they say, sip the Tannat, holding the contents in your mouth a few second before swallowing, in order to fully savor the full bouquet of Uruguay's most treasured export.

Charles always hunting for top choice !

More people also drank at home instead of at pricier bars, restaurants

Americans' love affair with top-shelf booze cooled last year as the recession took a toll on high-priced tipples.

A new report by an industry group shows people drank more but turned to cheaper brands. They also drank more at home and less in pricier bars and restaurants.
Industry growth slowed in 2009, with the amount of liquor sold by suppliers up 1.4 percent. That's the smallest increase since 2001 and below the 10-year average of 2.6 percent.
Last year, the lowest-priced segment, with brands such as Popov vodka that can go for less than $10 for a 750 ml bottle, grew the fastest, with volume rising 5.5 percent, after edging up 0.6 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the most expensive price range, roughly $30 or more for a 750 ml bottle (like Grey Goose, owned by Bacardi), fell the most, tumbling 5.1 percent.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said in its report Tuesday that liquor suppliers reported flat total revenue of $18.7 billion last year.
Kenneth Jolly of Milwaukee has been swapping his favorite, pricier liquors such Patron tequila, for cheaper brands such as Jose Cuervo to stay on top of his budget. For him, it's simple math.
"If you consume a lot on a regular basis and you have people come to your house, you have to adjust," said Jolly, a 27-year-old network technician in Milwaukee who buys liquor every other week. "If your body can take it, you might as well buy the cheaper liquor."

Sales in stores - which make up three-quarters of liquor sales - rose about 2.1 percent, while sales in restaurants fell 3 percent.
"People still want to entertain themselves, they still want to get together with family and friends, so a lot of people will move from a restaurant to their living room," council President Peter Cressy said.
Vodka remained Americans' favorite liquor, accounting for almost a third of all spirits sold and sales of $4.56 billion.

Sales volume for the cheapest versions of tequila rose 21 percent, the fastest of any type of spirit. That's most likely because entertainers are using pre-made margarita mixes to serve at home, said David Ozgo, the council's chief economist. Plus you can mix it before guests arrive, so they don't know what brand you use, said Joan Holleran, director of research at research firm Mintel.
Cressy said the fact that people were still drinking more spirits bodes well for the industry, still recovering from a long decline from the 1980s through the mid-'90s, when liquor sales fell by a third as drinkers turned to beer. Since then, an ever-increasing array of expensive liquors have fueled rapid growth.

The industry's goal to keep people drinking spirits - no matter the price - and it can then get them to pay for higher-priced drinks when the economy recovers. Most major liquor manufacturers make brands in a variety of price ranges. For example, industry giant Diageo plc, based in London, makes vodka brand ranging from cheap Popov to midpriced Smirnoff to expensive Ketel One and Ciroc.Mintel's Holleran expects people to start going out more this year, as they get bored staying home and want to treat themselves to little luxuries - like a night out. "You want to go out and have someone do all the work for you," Holleran said.

Of course, switching brands isn't the only way to economize.
Matt McCluskey, a 28-year-old researcher in California, started buying most of his alcohol at Costco, trying to save money by buying bigger bottles. Now he spends $36 for 1.75 liters of Maker's Mark bourbon, rather than $25 for less than half that at his local liquor store.

"It's a lot harder to pour. That's the only drawback," he said.