Brands Briefs

Booker goes for Pinot Grigio

Malt House Vintners, Booker's range of beers, wines and spirits, has extended its Caifornian River Wild brand to include Pinot Grigio. Pinot Grigio is currently the fastest-growing grape variety in the UK.

Newkie Brown sponsorship

Newcastle Brown Ale is hoping to reinforce its long association with sport in the North East in a new partnership with the region's evening newspaper. The beer is sponsoring the sports page of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle with adverts featuring quotes from famous pundits, including Terry Venables, Sam Torrance and Gerry Francis, alongside the strapline, "Newcastle Brown Ale: Speaks for itself. Thankfully."

Wanis chases Dragon market

Wholesaler Wanis is introducing the UK to a Jamaican-brewed stout. Jamaican Dragon Stout has an abv of 7.5% and comes in a 284ml bottle. The drink was first brewed in Jamaica in 1920 by Desnoes & Geddes. Managing director Sanjay Wadhwani said: "Dragon is a truly great brand - Dragon Stout appeals to both the core ethnic base as well as consumers from other backgrounds."

Burn Stewart promotions

Burn Stewart Distillers is launching two new promotions for its Black Bottle Original Blended Scotch Whisky. The Black Bottle pub golf promotion is an electronic game that sits on the bottle on the back bar. With every measure sold, an electronic device is activated - if a whole in one is achieved, the consumer wins a free measure. The second unit is a miniature spirit safe designed to sit among the beer fonts at the front of the bar. The safe displays an interpretation of the distillation process.

Caliterra sports new look

Chilean wine brand Caliterra is being rebranded. The Reserva range will be renamed as Varietal and Tribute and bottled under screwcaps for all whites and varietal red wines. The bottles sport a new-look

split-label design, where the upper part highlights the Caliterra name riding on a wave of copper - chosen to represent the minerals within the Chilean soils.