Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL) has launched a cutting-edge direct-to-consumer digital marketplace to meet customers’ demand for quick, easy, and convenient shopping. KBL’s thebar.com is matches the global Diageo online platform ‘the bar’ (the bar.com global) following a successful test in the Kenyan market following Covid-19. It replaces Party Central, the company’s popular platform that helped alcoholic beverage consumers order KBL’s products online.
The upgraded platform connects online consumers to KBL’s products from mainstream distributors, supermarkets, stockists, and key retailers, making it the first-of-a-kind of its scale in Kenya.

​Through the site, customers will have access to well-priced, high-quality products directly from the breweries and distilleries where they are produced, personalized activations, special offers and tiered packages offers suited to their needs. The site is age-gated.
It’s part of KBL’s accelerated digital strategy to reach new audiences and enhance sales and profitability – reflecting changes in buying behaviour and increasing e-commerce awareness as a result of Covid-19.
KBL Managing Director Joseph Musunga said: “This innovation will not only help us extend the gains we made recently with Party Central in helping our consumers access our products when they need to but also leveraging technology to adopt to new consumer trends in the way we socialize in and outside of the home. By inspiring, educating, and ensuring that they have access to everything in our portfolio, we are embarking on a new journey with our customers.”

​KBL Commercial Director, Joel Kamau: Our resellers will receive a free additional route to reach their customers across the country, access to all of our brands’ items, and a one-of-a-kind opportunity to showcase their businesses using The Bar’s marketplace positioning opportunities.
Kenya’s beverage shopping is predicted to be driven by the growth of mobile internet use, an increase in smartphone usage, led by a young population, and the expansion of on-demand deliveries particularly through motorcycles (boda-boda) as the last-mile option.
Kenyans account for a sizeable number of mobile money accounts and payment solutions in Africa. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the number of newly registered motorcycles climbed by 16.2% from 2019 to 2020, securing the last mile delivery industry.

​It is not often that someone goes abroad for studies and makes a detour to winemaking. It is even more uncommon that one would do so in a part of the world where less than one percent of wineries is owned by black people. Yet it is a gamble that Chris Wachira, the founder and CEO of California-based Wachira Wines, was willing to make.
Born and raised in Kenya, Wachira went to the US in the 1990s to study nursing, staying on to undertake her Master’s in public policy and later a doctorate.
When she started Wachira Wines in Eat Bay, California, the first Kenyan-American winery in the US, in 2017, it was unexpected but a desired direction in her professional life. The entry was tough, the investment substantially high. Then there was the initial scepticism.

​After five years in the industry, the importance of branding has been one of her biggest lessons.
“People connect [with a product] visually before they taste it. If I do not like what I see, I won’t pick it up to taste it.”
There is also having a storyline that goes with the brand. “This makes it personable and relatable to people. Wine is as individualistic as the person who makes it.”
For her, telling the story of her brand is to tell the story of her Kenyan and African heritage as well. Nothing tells the story of her heritage better than the packaging that features one of the Big Five animals of Kenyan safari on each bottle.
“Each of the wines matches the characteristics of the animal depicted in its flavour profiles. The lion, for instance, which is the symbol of our sparkling wine, can start and end any party. A lion is commanding.”
She says this wine variety pairs well with lemon cake. ‘‘My mother makes lemon cake today as she has done since I was a little girl.”
Where she has failed, Wachira has taken it as part of the learning curve. Her debut production, for instance, was a disaster and never saw the market. With time, her craft has only gotten better.
On how far is she is from actualising her dream, Wachira says: “Some people have been making wine for generations. After only six years, we are still a baby that is still learning to crawl.”
Source: Daily Nation lifestyle.

​Easter is right around the corner…actually about three weeks away this year. With this simple recipe, we wanted to prepare you with a delightful mix to spark your celebrations:
Amarula Eggnog

1. 90ml Amarula
2. 1 tea spoon Vanilla
3. A pinch of Nutmeg
4. 4 cups of milk
5. A pinch of Cinnamon
6. Grated Nutmeg for garnishing
7. 7 Eggs
8. 1/4 sugar cup
9. 30 ml Van Ryn’s Distillers Reserve 12 Year Old Brandy

Method
Crack the eggs and pour contents in a bowl. Add the sugar and beat the mixture until the sugar completely dissolves.
Add the milk and mix thoroughly and then heat the mixture on a somewhat small flame, the mix should start to thicken at this point. If the mixture begins to boil, take off the heat immediately. Add the nutmeg and cinnamon and mix again and then place in the fridge to cool. Once the mixture has cooled down, mix the amarula and Van Run and garnish with grated nutmeg.
Amarula is a cream liquor you can find in leading supermarkets such as Chandarana, Naivas and Quickmart. Be sure to check with any leading liquor store near your area.

This saying may be true especially when you observe some historic wine-producing regions and countries – France, Spain, Argentina, and more. However, when we reflect on the new-age wine regions such as America’s California or Australia – major decisions that determine the grapes, methods and styles of the wine is often influenced by individual entrepreneurial and commercial interests. In most cases there is limited community involvement and the culture is therefore difficult to trace or, if need be, preserve.
The internet and more so, social media have connected people around the world bringing them closer together. In the wine world, this has also created new wine cultures especially when we see growers and producers who were formerly isolated in the fields now finding their way on YouTube to educate people on terroir and wine making basics.

​These online communities offer the most value because the contributors are able to share thoughts, ideas and ask questions. They can discuss solutions regardless of how far apart they might be in the world. A syrah producer in New Zealand can get together ideas and cover various issues they face in a weekly podcast and also talk business with friends in Napa Valley. The opportunities are limitless.
What is really gained by all this communication? well, answers to questions, guidance are exchanged in real time which may result certain elements of improvements being seen almost twice as fast. Like-minded cultural groups form in this way directly influencing the types of wines made. An important thins to note is that the element of culture is the most significant difference between Old World and New World winemaking regions. Although old world winemaking still influences the new form its most basic ways, the distinctive line between them may be growing thinner with the cultural influences of the internet and rising need to consider commercial interests of winemakers in general.

​Diageo Kenya has officially launched the World Class Bartender of the Year competition. The globally distinguished competition will have more than 100 bartenders battling it out to win the coveted World Class Bartender of the Year award. The ultimate winner will have the chance to compete in the global finals two be held in Sydney, Australia in September 2022.
Participants will go through a series of training programmes dubbed World Class Studios, that seek to push boundaries, educate and inspire bartenders around the globe on how to create exquisite cocktails. The studios will be a hybrid of physical and virtual sessions to accommodate all participants. The launch took place at the Heroes Restaurant at the Trademark hotel that produced the 2021 winner, Kelvin Thairu currently stationed in Dubai.

This year’s World Class studios will center around the following main facets:

1. The Johnnie walker first draft: This will deep dive into the history of Scotch drinks, how to elevate your highball and closed loop practices with Johnnie Walker
2. The Tanqueray magical modifiers: This will dive into the world of gin, including the fundamentals of modifiers and the importance of flavor and theatre in the drinks industry.
3. The Ketel one community brew: Focusing on the history and varieties of tea and coffee, the local community impact, and how they can be incorporated into serves in a sustainable way.
4. The Singleton and Talisker cocktail cratography: Touches on the whisky experience, including rituals and traditions, impact of landscape on flavors and stories behind scotch whiskies.

​Source: Hapa Kenya (Press Release Distribution)

It may be obvious but sweetness is a perception – and also subjective. A common guess would be that the sugar present in the grapes causes this however sometimes that’s not the case. At this point of the conversation, we have some new information to share.
The sweetness in wine is mostly a characteristic determined by the winemaker’s style. Some actually add some form of sugar while fermenting it, which can result in sweeter wines, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. This method of adding sugar while fermenting is called ‘Chaptalization’ and is used to increase the total alcohol level of the wine when using underripe grapes. This method is commonly opted in France and Germany.
If your wine smells sweet or fruity at low levels, it actually denotes a fault called “Volatile Acidity”, which happens when the wine is oxidized along with microbial spoilage such as ‘Acetobacter’.

from a technical standpoint, the higher the acidity the less amount sugar would be in it, leading to residual sugar.
During the winemaking process, the yeast used for fermenting wine typically converts all the sugar into alcohol which leads to a dry wine. However, during the fermentation process, sometimes all the sugar is not fermented leading to some leftover sweetness in the wine.
Measured in grams per litre, it is the natural grape sugar leftover in a wine that is obtained after the alcohol fermentation process. It can vary from wine to wine and goes unnoticeable while buying.
Typically, the wines that have no sugar in them are technically called ‘dry wine’, however, the next time you get your favourite pinot noir, look for details at the back of the bottle and you will see that there is about 8-10 gms of RS/litre in it. But, if you look at the sweeter wines, the RS can go from 35-120 gms per litre.
Now you have learned a little bit more about wine and the sugar that’s inside it right?

A special team spent about five days (25th -31st December) delicately constructing a wine glass tower at Atlantis, The Palm, in Dubai. The pyramid featured a whopping 54,740 champagne glasses and stood over 8.23 metres (27 ft) tall.
The spectacle was organised by Moët & Chandon, as part of its ‘Effervescence’ event series with Guinness World Records officials also present to adjudicate. Luuk Broos Events (an events company based in the Netherlands) built the amazing pyramid that left invited UAE celebrities and VIPs startled. The guests were invited to sip champagne throughout the night on the sandy shores of WHITE Beach club as well as experience various scores of entertainment. 

​The event organizers admitted that over half of its team are actually real surgeons due to the level of focus required, especially for the last few metres.
The resort said the tower remained in place until 1 January, but that glasses used would be recycled and turned into glassware for Atlantis, The Palm’s which has 1,548 rooms and suites.

According to Eurostat, cumulative exports of sparkling wines from the European Union (EU) fell last year (2021) for the first time in a decade. The reduction was largely because of a massive drop in champagne sales, though prosecco and cava sold well.
As we would have it, Covid-19 pandemic dampened wine trade globally in 2020, the latest year for which data are available, as restaurants and bars remained closed for long periods.
Champagne was hit the hardest. Sales outside the EU of the famed French sparkling wine fell over 20 per cent by volume to 66 million litres in 2020 from nearly 84 million litres the previous year.

Significant drop
EU exports fell from a peak of 528 million litres in 2019 to 494 million litres in 2020 – still nearly twice the level recorded in 2010.
Of the three main categories of sparkling wine exported from the EU, only champagne recorded a significant drop by volume. Prosecco (native to Italy) , which is by far the most exported, recorded sales outside the EU of 205 million litres in 2020, compared to nearly 207 million litres in 2019.

Total champagne sales, including in the EU, fell 18 per cent last year by volume, producers’ group CIVC has estimated. Despite this drop, vintage champagnes have proven a lucrative draw for investors this year, outperforming all major financial markets, even crypto currencies.
On the contrary, Cava (native to Spain) increased its exports by more than 10 per cent to 58 million litres in 2020, getting closer to replacing champagne as the second most sold European Union sparkling wine product outside the 27-nation bloc.

​It’s indeed a bit queer that there can be anything trendy about wine – a drink that has been with us for centuries long before any of us writing were even born. However, this doesn’t stop us from reflecting on the current state of the industry and what is pushing players in the trade to go beyond the norm?
Remember, trends come and go, but movements shape our future. With input from wine professionals locally and across the world, our list of the best wine trends right now showcases a handful of both.
​
More rosé wine please…

​This millennial pink-hued wine has surged in popularity over the recent years. With most of the rose’ blends coming from Grenache grapes (others being Syrah, Cinsault, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignan), rosé resembles a profile of a light red wine, but with brighter and crisper tasting notes. This has many of its fans describing it as the drink of the future – a little bit of celery, melon, flowers, citrus and strawberry.
​
Solo Wine Brands

In the future, you don’t really have to own an entire vineyard to produce stunning wines. A new maverick winemaker is coming our way, one who uses grapes from their small cottage farm or a combination of grapes from different farms to produce their own private label in small batches. This may be an experimental idea for domestic use offering something unique and exciting to home wine drinkers.
​
Lets go Local…

​In the aftermath of the pandemic, there may be a return in focus to everything local as a collective move to boost local consumption and trade. This is obviously easier said than done.
With the existence of our very own vineyards in Kenya for instance (Leleshwa winery) and some aggressive publicity, people will begin to appreciate the gems right on our doorstep. All it takes is a renewed appreciation for local enterprises or at least the need to expose them a little more.
Other exciting trends we can list out include:

• Alcohol-free wine
• Canned wine (Especially in Kenya check this article out).
• Virtual wine tastings
• Wine picnics
• Experimenting other sparkling wine categories e.g. Cap Classique (South Africa), Prosecco (Italy), Cava (Spain).

The global wine fraternity is mourning the death of Andrea Franchetti (Age 72yrs), a renowned winemaker with estates in Tuscany and Mount Etna. Mr. Franchetti was battling cancer before he met his fate. He was considered a visionary who inspired many winemakers following the success of his prestigious estates – Tenuta di Trinoro in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia and Passopisciaro on Etna’s northern slopes.
Before becoming a winemaker, Franchetti owned a restaurant in Rome, where he grew up. The son of an American mother and an Italian father, he moved to the United States in the early 1980s and distributed fine Italian wines in New York.

​

The charismatic wine producer was memorable for his accuracy and attention to detail. An attest to this was his detailed vintage reports that helped him devise clever ideas to produce classic wines. His wines expressed as much complexity as possible from their terroir.
Franchetti was one of the first viticulturists to bet on Cabernet Franc under the Tuscan sun, and in 2001 he was one of the pioneers of the rediscovery of Nerello Mascalese in Etna with his estate Passopisciaro. He also produced a great Tuscan white based on Sémillon; a rare sight.