A celebri-quote: Dave Peacock

• Dave Peacock is vice president for marketing of Anheuser-Busch, recently published by Belgian brewing giant InBev in a controversial deal. He has to market American products from Budweiser but also has to oversee the company's wine and spirits marketing efforts. Advertising Age thinks there's a problem there, and asked Peacock about it specifically.

Q: "You have been dabbling more in spirits, picking up a number of boutique brands. But in (a recent) speech ... you called wine and liquor "the enemy." You said specifically that you could not be "outromanced by wine" or "outfunned by liquor." Those didn't sound like the words of someone who wants to play in that space."

A: "We started looking at liquor and wine a long time ago because of the emerging macro trends [of wine and liquor gaining share from beer]. And we really did believe we owed it to our shareholders to do this [because of consumer trends increasingly favoring spirits].

"We tested some things in liquor. But we started making the decision back in the first quarter of this year that we were probably going to disentangle that. It didn't work really well at the wholesale level. Those brands are marketed very differently than beer. The category is much more fragmented. And, frankly, we see upside in beer. We've seen beer have a little bit of a resurgence."

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NY's 'mystery' vodka to be unveiled

Another New York distillery will unveil its first product -- a vodka whose name will be kept under wraps until then -- on Saturday, October 11.

Montezuma Winery, the Seneca Falls operation off Thruway Exit 41 that makes grape, fruit and honey wines, is expanding with its new honey-based vodka from its Hidden Marsh Distillery.

It will produce liqueurs, brandy and vodka made with honey, apples or other seasonal fruits, uses a 400-liter pot still custom-built in Germany.

The distillery's grand opening is set for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the ribbon-cutting at noon. It will feature live music, hors d'œuvres, distillery tours and store specials and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon.

Earlier this year, Long Island Spirits, located on the North Fork of Long Island, unveiled LiV -- rhymes with "5," a super-premium vodka ($38) made from Long Island potatoes.

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