Loxton Lager

The Italian Job with wine. Biggest ever wine heist worth 5.2 million US Dollar . thedrinksbusiness.com/2026/1…

On the 3rd of October 1526, a clerk at the Arsenal of Venice wrote out a receipt. 296 ducats for 185 arquebus barrels. Paid to a gun-barrel maker in a valley above Brescia, one Bartolomeo Beretta. That scrap of paper is still in the Venetian archives. Last Saturday, five hundred years to the day, the company it started turned 500. Most family firms don't survive the third generation. Beretta is on the fifteenth, and the sixteenth is already at work. Today, the company is run by Pietro and Franco Gussalli Beretta. Same surname. Same valley. And they still make the guns where Bartolomeo lit the forge. Think about what that receipt, and the company, has outlived: The Republic of Venice. The Spanish Empire. Napoleon. The British Empire. Two world wars. The Soviet Union. No other industrial family, they say, has run a business for five centuries without a break. And this year, some limited-edition anniversary guns are numbered 1,526, the year on the receipt. What it boils down to is this: a man took an order, did the work, and taught his son. Then his son did the same. Fifteen times. Now that's a family legacy! To the Berettas 🥂

A sober appraisal — why raising alcohol taxes protects SA’s health and wealth dailymaverick.co.za/opinioni…

No, I am resting in the KAROO, making food, away from the problems of the world.

New newsletter: THE END OF BOOZE I like wine and cocktails. I also really like being alive. So I’m very motivated to understand the empirical relationship between moderate drinking and lifetime mortality. Fear of moderate drinking is surging among young people and some health influencers. No one should delude themselves into thinking alcohol is medicine. But the evidence that <8 drinks a week is a known danger has been dramatically oversold by health influencers. It is often based on mis-reading research conclusions and over-interpreting bad research with embarrassingly confidence intervals. open.substack.com/pub/derekt…

We’re back

Love this graphic for the knock-outs.

The Karoo and Kalahari are among the most beautiful regions of South Africa. We also have awesome agricultural activities here that aren’t often highlighted. The area is vast, about 44.5 million hectares (more than two-thirds of SA land). It is here that extensive livestock production takes place (mutton, lamb, wool, mohair and cattle – largely in the Kalahari).

The company behind Guinness, Smirnoff, and Johnnie Walker has lost more than half its value since 2022. One reason: the weight-loss shots everyone's on, like Ozempic, also curb the urge to drink. Start with demand. Americans are now drinking less than at almost any point in nearly 90 years. Just 54% of adults drink at all, Gallup found, down from 62% two years ago. People who still drink average under three a week. In 2003 it was five. Most now say even a daily drink or two is bad for them, a first in Gallup's tracking. Then there is the Ozempic effect. About one in eight US adults is now on a drug like it. In one large study, people who started these drugs were roughly half as likely to develop a drinking problem over the next year. In a trial of heavy drinkers, the amount they drank fell more than 70% in six months. Stock analysts now list these drugs, right next to younger people drinking less, as a reason the booze business is shrinking. The money simply moved somewhere else. Alcohol-free spirits are the fastest-growing corner of the entire US drinks aisle, and most people buying them still buy regular booze too, so for the makers it is mostly extra money on top. On the fitness side, HYROX, the gym race the original post mentions, went from 650 people at its first event in 2017 to more than a million a year now, on around $110 million in sales. A run club is free. The shoes, the coaching, and the flights to race weekends are where the money goes. So the post-alcohol economy the original post calls a future category is already showing up in the numbers. More than half the value gone from the world's biggest spirits maker, and a single gym race that grew from 650 people to over a million.

The bar tab from George Washington’s 1787 farewell celebration still survives today, revealing just how heavily the Founding Fathers partied. Among only 55 guests, they reportedly consumed 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of porter, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 bottles of beer, and 7 large bowls of alcoholic punch.

The Most Popular Beer Brands in The World  What's your favourite? Source: businessfinancing.co.uk/popu…

I see a lot of you are complaining about not seeing your township or village on the list 😄🍺 So I have now expanded the research and listed 50 townships & areas across South Africa with some of the highest beer consumption rates, categorised by province. The rankings were compiled using: Tavern & shebeen density Beer sales volume indicators Township trade activity Nightlife & entertainment economies Market research & consumer behaviour trends Sources: Stats SA | SAB Industry Reports | IWSR | Euromonitor | NielsenIQ | Brand Owners | Industry Publications | Market Research Firms

Joburg people are unbeatable ❤️ At the other end of the spectrum to our Benoni steak last night, we are walking to Marble shortly...

A tiny Karoo town is about to become South Africa’s next billion-rand export story. Prieska. Population ~14,000. The middle of nowhere. In the 90s, the IDC poured R130 million into pistachios there. Climate was perfect. Vision was huge. By 2011 they called it a failure, sold the equipment, and walked away. Two farmers refused to quit. The Mullers spent 15 brutal years mastering what institutions couldn’t: pollination, varieties, processing. They built Karoo Pistachios and the Desert Emerald brand. Last year: 20 tons. Next decade target: 60,000 tons. South Africa now chasing 5-8% of the global market. Selling at R613/kg, and rising fast as Iran stumbles. Lesson for every deep-pocketed investor: The biggest opportunities aren’t where capital flows. They’re where capital gave up. Conviction beats committees. Every. Single. Time. The Mullers didn’t invent pistachios. They just refused to bury a dream everyone else abandoned.

Catholic monks used to survive Lent on beer alone. In the 17th century, Paulaner monks of Munich subsisted only on this for 40 days — they brewed an exceptionally malty, calorie-rich beer packed with carbs and nutrients. It was known as "liquid bread." It was originally brewed on the feast day of their order's founder, St. Francis of Paola, known as Sankt Vater Bier ("Holy Father Beer"). After the secularisation of the monastery in 1799, the recipe passed into private hands and was later given the name Salvator ("The Saviour"), in honour of its life-giving role during the monks' Lenten penance. That same beer is still brewed according to the old tradition today.

The lottery gives you a 1 in a million chance of not going to work tomorrow. Beer gives you 1 in 5. I go with beer.

The Times says a strategy of publishing “fewer, better stories” has led to three consecutive months of record-breaking global audience growth - including Google traffic increases The Times has gone from publishing more than 200 stories a day to about 150 – a 25% cut

STUDY - SA IS DRINKING LESS ALCOHOL South Africans are increasingly cutting back on alcohol, with new data from Worldpanel by Numerator showing that 30% of consumers plan to reduce intake, far above the global average. The shift is being driven largely by younger people and growing health concerns, including stress and wellbeing. While the country remains a high alcohol consumer by global standards, behaviour is changing towards more mindful and selective drinking. This trend is opening opportunities for non-alcoholic and health-focused beverages, even as the alcohol industry, a major contributor to the economy, faces evolving demand patterns and long-term disruption. Full details - ln.run/nC0OD

Is honey good for you? Can it speed recovery if you’re sick or injured? dailymaverick.co.za/article/…