Liquor Sales

As the economy turns down, Americans are cutting back on their liquor -- with a major exception: whiskey. Sales of bourbons such as Jack Daniels and Maker's Mark are bucking a slump in demand for distilled spirits that set in during the final months of last year, according to industry officials.

The distilled spirits industry expects its U.S. revenue to increase 4.6% in 2008, down from last year's growth rate, a trade group said Friday, as the weaker economy forces people to tighten their budgets for going out. The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. expects spirits makers to post $19 billion in revenue in 2008. Revenue rose 5.6% to $18.2 billion in 2007. Sales by volume are expected to go up 1.9% in 2008, the trade group said, reaching 185 million cases. Volume sales advanced 2.

The makers call it a "party in a pouch." Critics say it's more like an alcoholic candy bar. ShotPak is a line of alcoholic beverages that come in shot-sized, laminated-foil plastic pouches that are reminiscent of the drinks children pack in school lunches. Purple Hooter is one of the drinks, which sell for 99 cents to $1.50 in liquor stores and for more in some nightclubs.

U.S. prosecutors are probing possible counterfeit wine sales, auction houses Christie's International and Sotheby's said Tuesday. The New York office of Christie's said it had received a subpoena requesting information on wine sales and had been cooperating with authorities. The London-based auction house sold $58.6 million of wine last year. "We have been cooperating with officials and will continue to do so," spokesman Toby Usnik said.

It's Thursday night, the end of the Iraqi workweek, and Fami Ameen is scrambling in his crowded Assassin's Gate liquor store as customers clamor for everything from beer and whiskey to ouzo and arak, the popular local alcohol. Call Ameen an unexpected beneficiary of the "surge." For decades, Iraq had a reputation as a modern, secular society that liked to drink and knew how to party, from wild hotel discotheques to genteel members-only social clubs.

Stepping up its campaign to curb excessive drinking by students, California State University issued an order that eventually will bar its campuses from selling alcoholic beverages during intercollegiate sports contests played in facilities owned or operated by the university. Cal State officials said six to eight campuses would be affected when contracts with vendors expire over coming years.

The call to boycott French wine in retaliation for France's opposition to the war in Iraq put a cork in demand that may have cost millions in sales, researchers said Tuesday. Two Stanford University economists found that weekly sales of French wine dropped an estimated 26% at the peak of the boycott and resulted in a 13% slip for the six months or so that it lasted.

With both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve falling on a Sunday this year, revelers in many states will have to stock up a day early if they want to celebrate at home by raising a glass of champagne or some well-aged Scotch. Many states still have "blue laws" that restrict the sale of alcohol on Sunday at liquor stores and supermarkets. Georgia, Connecticut and Indiana ban the Sunday sale of any alcohol for off-premises consumption.

The Halo lounge is a vision of Space Age chic, with midcentury-modern lounge chairs, a 40-foot bar made of white onyx, and a custom sound system thumping sinuous dance music. It's the kind of "stimulating" nightspot city officials describe in Atlanta's latest marketing campaign, the one with the slogan "Every day is an opening day."

A vote on a California Senate bill that would force supermarkets to route all alcohol sales through live cashiers, who could ensure that buyers are sober and of legal drinking age, was delayed after the author pulled the proposed legislation. Proponents of the bill say it is too easy for minors and the inebriated to buy alcohol illicitly by using the self-check machines rather than regular lines overseen by a grocery clerk. The delay is a procedural move that will allow the bill, AB 1060, to be considered at the start of the new legislative session in January without having to make its way past all the legislative committees again.