Welcome in, today is Monday, August third, and we start with the control-state numbers, where a strong June still leaves spirits essentially flat for the year, per Shanken News Daily. Spirits volume in control states ran five percent ahead of last year in June, but the year-to-date line is essentially flat, up one tenth of one percent, according to Shanken News Daily. That account frames it as a solid month that still leaves the category only barely in positive territory on a rolling basis. Just Drinks, citing NABCA data, attributes the June lift to extra selling days, and reports the twelve-month picture is less positive. That makes this the cleanest available read on whether the category's slowdown is stabilising or simply pausing. Industry commentary tends to treat the flat headline as masking a split within the category, with several observers pointing to ready-to-drink canned cocktails as the one segment posting double-digit growth in control states while most others slide, framed by some as a shelf-space and portfolio signal rather than a niche curiosity. Also today, India's food safety regulator has barred the sale of certain whisky and rum products made by Diageo's India unit, United Spirits, and by Inbrew Beverages. Reuters reports the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India acted on Sunday, after tests found flavour additives that could mislead consumers. Per that reporting, the affected products are Antiquity Blue and Royal Challenge whiskies from United Spirits, and Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky and Old Cask Deluxe XXX Rum from Inbrew, all produced in Madhya Pradesh. Neither company responded to a request for comment outside business hours, the same account says. The objection, per that reporting, is to adding external flavouring that recreates the aroma and taste of a standard category instead of developing it through raw materials and maturation. India's health ministry, in a statement carried by ANI, said such products should be sold as rum-flavoured or whisky-flavoured spirit, with disclosure on the front of pack. The ministry also said an investigation found a seven-year age claim on one rum variant whose blend was less than five percent matured spirit. Two manufacturers that appealed were cleared to sell existing stock under revised labelling. Flavour compliance, and the SKUs riding on it, is now an immediate agenda item for anyone carrying India volume. Following our earlier report on Campari's first half, where Aperol grew three point three percent, the Financial Times reports the aperitif occasion is being contested. Demand for Bacardi's St-Germain in the United States rose forty percent over the past three months, per NielsenIQ figures in that account, while Aperol fell four percent, as the Hugo elderflower spritz takes hold with American drinkers. Aperol is more than a quarter of group sales, so a summer share swing carries weight. Scale still sits with Campari, though: eight point eight million cases of Aperol sold globally last year against four hundred thirty-five thousand cases of St-Germain, per Jefferies in the same reporting. Chief executive Simon Hunt told the paper he does not see much of a battle, arguing the Hugo is an unbranded serve. Industry reaction leans toward treating the surge as a US-specific swing rather than a structural threat, with some reading it as drinkers adding occasions rather than defecting. Separately, an oversupply correction in California wine is now showing up in the acreage. The Boston Globe reports growers pulled out roughly thirty-eight thousand acres of wine grapes across the state in twenty twenty-five, about seven percent of all plantings, per the California Association of Winegrape Growers, with more than five hundred thousand tons left unpicked on industry estimates. Winemakers produced less wine last year than at any point in the past quarter century, that account says, with pinot noir production down thirty percent since twenty twenty-one and growers switching to white varieties such as fiano and grüner veltliner. The same reporting expects hundreds more wineries to close within two years, citing industry experts, which reads through to grape contracts, sourcing costs and bulk availability well beyond the growers themselves. A recurring pushback in the trade is that clearing decades-old blocks is routine end-of-life practice, though others read the sale of still-productive acreage as the more meaningful signal. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Staying with Circana's monthly numbers, Constellation Brands was the only top-five beer vendor in growth over the latest four weeks, Brewbound reports. Southern Glazer's has closed its acquisition of Eagle Rock Distributing's Colorado operations, per BevNET, and named two leadership appointments alongside the deal. A new report from NIQ examines vodka's aging, lighter-drinking buyer base and points to new formats as recruitment tools, according to Brewbound. And finally, Michigan has signed a bill capping the liquor control commission's delivery fees, a move The Spirits Business reports will have what it calls a long-lasting impact on the spirits sector.