Who 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 market works. Plus, Heidi has great insights into the on-trade market generally.

The 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 fledgling company, which is now a research house as well as a media outlet.

In this episode, Natalie explains the unique challenges and opportunities of the Chinese wine market, highlighting its significant contraction since 2020 and the shift from a gifting and banquet-driven market to one with a growing base of younger consumers interested in categories like off-dry Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. She discusses the decline in Bordeaux sales and a rise in interest in Chinese domestic wines.

The episode further explores emerging wine markets in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand. Altogether the conversation is a comprehensive overview of the Asian wine market from an insider’s perspective.

Morten 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 every social occasion, with or without alcohol.

He discusses how he developed non-alc spirits that mimic the taste and experience of their alcoholic counterparts, and what it takes to get that first export order, including the need to get to the airport fast. He reveals what he’s got in his warehouse, and why knowing someone who is handy with carpentry is a must for start-ups. He also reveals how he secured those initial supermarket deals to pioneering marketing activations with car companies and music festivals.

And, finally, he reveals what it is that makes Denmark such a creative powerhouse for beverages.

Drinks Insider comes out every two weeks. If you can't wait that long between episodes, check out my other bi-weekly podcast, A Question of Drinks. My co-host Lulie Halstead and I explore a drinks question each week. Think of us as the Freakonomics of drinks.

Jonathan 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 profitability by embracing efficiency, flexibility, and data-driven decision-making — by using what already exists.

[00:01:55] The beginning of BevSuite and its mission.

[00:07:53] Working at WineSearcher and the creation of its wine database.

[00:12:04] Data disconnectedness: Why this is such a significant issue and how it hinders smooth information flor from winery to customer.

[00:25:02] Value-based selling and why data’s value should determine its price.

[00:34:09] Concierge email marketing and how it’s done.

[00:46:11] BevSuite's seven pillars: Sourcing, receiving, managing, marketing, selling, shipping, and customer analytics

[00:55:10] Profitability tips: Efficiency, calm decision-making, and flexibility

https://www.bevsuite.com/about

Everybody 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, and she brings her relentless focus on social media and community building to Whiny Baby, along with a completely new way of looking at packaging.

If you need some inspiration, this is the episode for you. Jess shows that there’s a new consumer group out there who is not just open to wine — they’re waiting to hear more.

[2:08] Jess discusses the brand lessons she learned at Red Bull.

[5:10] The impetus for Whiny Baby and how she developed the brand.

[10:54] Early experiences, mistakes and reversals.

[14:13] Jess explains how she got her strategic partnership with the McBride sisters.

[28:58] Jess talks about her experience on Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars and that quarter of a million dollars. 

[52:07] How to build a social community who’ve got your back and will help you develop your brand.

Your Host, Felicity Carter

Based in Europe, Felicity Carter is a well-known journalist, editor and researcher. Among other roles, she is currently Editorial Director of Areni Global, the fine wine think tank headquartered 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, which she built into the world’s premier business publication, with subscribers in 38 countries. Her work has appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers in Australia, and in The Guardian US, among many others. 

She was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly.

And her other podcast is A Question of Drinks with the fabulous Lulie Halstead. It’s like the Freakonomics of Drinks. Check it out!

The 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 wine for at least another generation.

In this episode of Drinks Insider we discuss:

[00:10:00] Premiumization, a term coined around 2010-2012. It’s the idea that Americans wanted to drink 'better' wine, leading to a focus on more expensive bottles, which increased margins for wineries, growers and retailers, but pushed out affordable options.

[00:14:09] The wine market has become very brand-focused and consumers are now brand loyal. But as the big brands become more homogenous and take up more shelf space, consumer choice is being narrowed.

[00:21:58] The restaurant industry's focus on high-priced wine to make up for costs has also hurt the industry, with many restaurants now selling poor-quality wine at high prices, with little appeal to consumers.

[00:28:21] How the wine trade can woo back entry-level wine drinkers.

[00:31:59] Despite a current grape glut, the moment for another "Two Buck Chuck" style wine is gone because the wine business has changed. 

[00:41:08] Jeff knows exactly when the temperance movement re-emerged and why.

Sounds like fun? It is! It’s a lively conversation with someone who knows what they’re talking about and who can point the way forward.

And don’t miss the next episode, with Jess Druey, founder of Whiny Baby, who is living proof that a different approach can bring a whole new audience to wine.

A short announcement about a new initiative.

Prohibition 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 research, particularly the attempt to undermine J-curve research, that associates moderate drinking with lower mortality.

This episode explores the unintended consequences of prohibitionist policies, both historically and in contemporary contexts such as Australia's tobacco control measures. The conversation does a deep dive into the question of how to balance public health concerns with individual liberty.

Want 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, ready to be grasped. This led him to create High & Dry Studio, the foresight agency that helps businesses understand the future of non-alcoholic and functional drinks. He believes that the market will evolve past simple alcohol replacements towards new flavour experiences that incorporate adaptogens and nootropic — which means bars will become places that sell moods, not just alcohol.

https://highanddry.live/

Want 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.

The episode also touches on the rise of flavored Canadian whiskey, the continued growth of RTDs, the shift to day drinking, and the impact of multi-generational living. Finally, we turn to the topic of cannabis.

To get more great insights from Bryan, go to https://www.sightlines.news/sign-up and type INSIDER on the signup page, for a free month of Sightlines.