Swedish restaurant winners tour Delicata

Last weekend Swedish entrepreneur Bodvar Hofstram visited Delicata together with his Sales Manager Marcus Ekman and two winning restaurateurs from Stockholm.

Gabriella and Fredrik Rumenius were in Malta on a prized long week-end, courtesy of the entrepreneurs own label sparkling rose wine ‘Bodvar of Sweden'. They were here representing the Strandbryggan restaurant, which won a competition that ran throughout Sweden to recognise the restaurant selling the most bottles of the prestigious ‘lifestyle rose' wine brand.

Bodvar of Sweden is an own label export version of Delicata's Gellewza Rose Frizzante that has been produced exclusively for Bodvar Hafstrom by Delicata for over five years. The wine is sold throughout Sweden's V.I.P. lounge bar and restaurant sector and has become one of the capitals leading premium sparkling rose wine brands.

The winning restaurant, Strandbryggan is a Sea Club on the waters edge on Strandvagskajen in Stockholm, which has been successfully selling the rose Gellewza wine for a few years now.

The winner's trip to Malta was coordinated to coincide with the tasting and approval of the new 2010 vintage Gellewza rose wine, which will go into next year's production. A tasting took place at the Delicata winery on Paola waterfront by the group, which was then followed by a tour of the company's new state-of-the-art fermentation hall and grape receiving area.

STARBUCKS - MAKE MINE A WINE ESPRESSO!

The colossal coffee chain Starbucks is trialing serving wine, beer and cheese in some of its American stores, as the 40-year-old company prepares to evolve its brand.

The testing ground for this revolution are Starbucks outlets in downtown Seattle. These very different, new looking Starbucks however, are reportedly ‘more like neighbourhood café's rather than the chain coffee house it is at present.

Based on a report by USA Today, Starbucks will be serving regional wine and beer as well as locally made cheeses, all served on china plates. Even the interiors have been redesigned so that customers can opt to sit close to the barista bar which has been redesigned to give customers a closer look at their coffee, wine and beers and where they can also select from locally made cheese and cured meats. The focus however is definitely on ‘regionality' as even the tables and chairs are to be made by local furniture makers.

Arthur Rubinfeld, global development chief at Starbucks told USA Today "It's the biggest undertaking of design of any retailer in the world" whilst former Starbucks marketing chief Scott Bedbury also told USA Today that it was critical for Starbucks to evolve."Brands have to evolve or die, it's a tall order. But if anyone can pull it off, it will be Starbucks."

However, the new setup once rolled out globally could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, based on the fact that Starbucks has 16,000 stores.

NEW ENGLISH & WELSH LABELLING

The United Kingdom Vineyards Association (UKVA) has unveiled new wine labelling schemes for English and Welsh still wines. They fall in line with the new EU wine labelling regime and will now carry the terms Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI).

However, wine producers who decide not to put their wines through the scheme may still use the term English (or Welsh) Wine on their labels but other information will be restricted. The term Table wine has now disappeared.

This new labelling system aims at assuring the customer that their wine is of good quality and is made from grapes grown exclusively in England or Wales and reflects the specific characteristics attributable to the wine's geographical origin. A new scheme for sparkling wines will be introduced later this year.