Liquor Industry

Thirteen years after he appeared in a Dewar's Profile ad, ("Wildlife conservationist; International Airline Pilot"), David O. Hill said friends still introduce him by saying: "He was a Dewar's guy." Eleven years after his profile ran, Les Payne ("Journalist") has a copy hanging on his office wall with other memorabilia: a picture of him and Jimmy Carter, his Pulitzer Prize plaque, a picture of Payne on "Meet the Press."

The people running the nation's large liquor companies may need a few stiff drinks right about now. Typically this is the best season for the industry as we toast another year of accomplishments and look ahead to the next with a vodka martini or a fifth of Scotch. Consumption of alcoholic beverages typically kicks up from Thanksgiving through Jan. 1 as households and companies entertain more. But this year the business has been plagued by a slump in the bar and restaurant trade, frugal consumers who are trading down to less expensive brands and stiff price-cutting to boost sales.

Under pressure from the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, alcoholic beverage interests agreed Thursday to revise their political advertisements so they disclose that their major backers are beer, wine and liquor interests. Lawyers for the industry said the radio and television ads opposing Proposition 134 and supporting Proposition 126 will be re-edited to include the financing interests.

The airwaves are getting more grown-up, and it's not just the shows. The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night's Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations. Also crowding the airwaves during heavy viewing hours are infomercials once reserved for the middle of the night and ads touting extramarital affairs and the intimate uses of K-Y Jelly.

Trying to beat back a stiff alcohol tax increase on Tuesday's state ballot, alcoholic beverage interests have poured $28 million into initiative campaigns, the largest amount by a single industry since the insurance measure wars of the last election. Business and agricultural interests have contributed a total of $57 million in the battle over a variety of propositions for increasing their taxes and regulating the environment.

The Fair Political Practices Commission, the state's political watchdog, notified the alcoholic beverage industry Wednesday that it cannot continue to air political advertisements that do not disclose who is paying for them. The commission said its opinion was prompted by industry advertisements urging voters to approve Proposition 126, an industry-backed measure, and defeat Proposition 134, an initiative supported by health, law enforcement and public-interest groups.

Marketers of hard liquor are chasing after Generation X. Hoping to reverse two decades of steep sales decline, the liquor industry is trying to woo young adults with lighter tasting spirits and a trendier image. Distilled spirits marketers are throwing liquor-tasting parties in bars and are sponsoring rock concerts and sporting events in an effort to bring into the '90s drinks synonymous with boring business lunches of 20 years ago.

The black consumer has provided something of a silver lining to the clouds that have gathered over the liquor industry in the 1980s. Over the last decade, annual liquor sales have dropped 8.5% to $55 billion nationally as heightened concerns about health and drunken driving have persuaded many consumers to give up spirits for low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages. Industry experts say, however, that black drinkers have defied the trend.

Kudos to the liquor industry! It proved more astute than politicians in totally outmaneuvering two usually allied groups of respected professionals--public school educators and physical and mental health practitioners. Both wanted and needed money; both got none. Prop. 134 was drafted to raise funds via taxes on alcohol products in order to pay for medical and mental health treatment of liquor damaged people. Fair enough! Now comes the liquor industry with the perspicacity of a Solomon.

The Deukmejian Administration, in a move that would help the liquor industry to avoid putting warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers, is proposing instead that signs be posted in liquor stores, bars and restaurants to warn that drinking during pregnancy can cause birth defects.

THE HALF-DOZEN visitors gathered in Ballast Point Brewing's tasting room bar are sipping Wahoo Wheat and Black Marlin Porter and dunking pretzels into a crock of bubbling house-made beer cheese. Jack White, the 41-year-old owner of the San Diego brewery, refills the pretzel bowl and nods toward a large rectangular window behind the bar. He smiles like a proud father and offers a closer look at the new 600-square-foot distillery tucked inside the brewery.

Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, might be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license. Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled. "Punish the person, not the whiskey," protested Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel's drinker from British Columbia.

SACRAMENTO -- A group of California teenagers working to curb underage drinking scored a victory Tuesday when state officials voted to impose a steep new tax on sweet alcohol drinks, such as Smirnoff Ice, Seagram's Coolers, Bacardi Silver and Mike's Hard Lemonade. The state Board of Equalization decided to treat flavored malt beverages as distilled spirits rather than as beer, a move that will boost the tax on a six-pack of the drinks by nearly $2.

Bacardi Ltd. said Wednesday that it would defend itself vigorously against a lawsuit by Pernod Ricard for the U.S. rights to the Havana Club rum brand, the subject of a 10-year legal battle. Pernod, the Paris-based maker of Stolichnaya vodka, said Aug. 8 that it would appeal a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruling barring the company from selling the rum in the U.S. Bacardi said in a statement Wednesday that it had applied to register the brand in its own name.

Organic ales, lagers and pilsners are increasingly squeezing their way into retail coolers alongside non-organic beers. When Jon Cadoux launched his line of ales under the Peak Organic label this spring, he figured making them organic would distinguish them from the multitude of other beers on the market. At the same time, he wanted to put out a product that he believes is healthier for people and the planet. Cadoux, founder of Peak Organic Brewing Co.

Beer sales had gone flat, while wine was flying off the shelves. So beer makers decided to steal a page from wine's marketing manual and create new packaging, flavors and drinks. Now beer is coming back. The major brewers "blended, became the same," said Nick Lake, beer expert at ACNielsen, the marketing information company.

The people running the nation's large liquor companies may need a few stiff drinks right about now. Typically this is the best season for the industry as we toast another year of accomplishments and look ahead to the next with a vodka martini or a fifth of Scotch. Consumption of alcoholic beverages typically kicks up from Thanksgiving through Jan. 1 as households and companies entertain more. But this year the business has been plagued by a slump in the bar and restaurant trade, frugal consumers who are trading down to less expensive brands and stiff price-cutting to boost sales.

A coalition of consumer and health organizations called on the Deukmejian Administration on Tuesday to require under Proposition 65 that alcoholic beverage containers carry warning labels for pregnant women.

First, there was the art; now, there is the tequila. The heirs of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo have launched a line of high-end spirits using the name and likeness of the style icon, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of expensive liquor in fancy packaging. "Tequila was her favorite drink and she drank a lot of it," said Mara Romeo Pinedo Kahlo, a grandniece who was an infant when Kahlo died in 1954.

Close your eyes and the dusty ballroom of Hadira Shalal seems to come alive with the sounds of Iraqi folk music and the scent of booze and cologne. The scattered wooden chairs of the deserted nightclub become the swirling figures of happy-go-lucky revelers flirting and line-dancing. Juicy kebabs and bottles of liquor appear on the bare tables, now piled up in the corners.