Welcome in, today is Friday, November thirteenth, and we begin with the Scotch still sitting at India's ports, per Outlook India. Following our earlier report on the bulk Scotch held in India, the dispute has narrowed to a tariff line. Per Outlook India, more than eighty containers imported by Pernod Ricard and Diageo are still at port, with both companies declining to pay the higher duty while classification is unsettled. That account sets out the split: the industry places qualifying bulk Scotch under the whisky tariff heading, while investigators weigh a food preparations heading. The same reporting adds that the Scotch Whisky Association told a UK parliamentary committee that the tariff line carrying most bulk exports was not liberalised as far as the Scotch-specific codes, which is where the exposure actually sits. Global Trade Magazine puts UK whisky exports to India at two hundred eighty five million pounds last year, with bulk accounting for eighty percent of that, and carries William Bain of the British Chambers of Commerce saying the deal was never meant to separate bulk from bottled. Britain's business department told that outlet it is working with India so exporters can ship at the agreed rates. Some in the trade read the lower duty tier as pricing pressure on domestic premium producers rather than purely a win for importers. Also today, low-calorie wine is still finding volume in a flat US market. Low-calorie brands passed three million cases last year on double-digit growth, according to Impact Databank, carried by Shanken News Daily. Alcohol-removed wines hold under one percent of the US wine market, but the same data puts them up twelve percent by volume and seventeen percent by dollars in NielsenIQ channels for the fifty two weeks to October third. Trinchero's Fre leads de-alcoholized, with stablemate Seaglass growing fast since entering the segment in twenty twenty four. Opici's Giesen zero percent has more than quadrupled in four years, per that reporting, and has added a spritz range in bottles and cans. Delicato's Bota Box Breeze leads light wines, while Avaline is the fastest grower there, up about forty percent on a national retail push into Kroger, Target and Whole Foods. For brand teams rebuilding plans around a shrinking core, that is where the open shelf is. Separately, JPMorgan has cut Molson Coors to underweight from neutral, the brewer's second underweight rating. Per Investing.com, analyst Drew Levine made the call on Monday and lowered his price target to thirty seven dollars from forty one. The argument is that US beer softness, a competitive UK market and cost pressures running ahead of savings leave little room in further marketing and overhead cuts, with that read putting twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty eight earnings estimates about ten percent below consensus. EconoTimes reports the downgrade followed third-quarter net sales of two point nine three billion dollars, down one point six percent, and underlying earnings per share of one dollar forty six, down twelve point six percent. Wells Fargo had already moved to underweight. Staying with beer, Clipper City Brewing, parent of Heavy Seas, has filed for Chapter eleven, Brewbound reports, and its founder is retiring. The same report describes Maryland's largest craft brewery as setting course, in its words, toward a sustainable path forward. An independent of that size and vintage reorganizing is the clearest read distributors get on how flat craft volumes are landing, and on who takes the shelf space if brands come out of the portfolio. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Heineken Malaysia's third-quarter revenue fell eighteen percent to five hundred thirty nine million ringgit, with net profit down thirty nine percent, per The Edge Malaysia. AdVini and InVivo have proposed acquiring the Bonne Nouvelle and Mythique brands, extending their existing partnership, per AdVini. The deal is proposed, not closed. Almave has launched non-alcoholic ready-to-drink cocktails at Target, which Just Drinks reports the agave brand calls an important first step in a broader push. And finally, Drinks International weighs how well mid-strength spirits are landing with consumers as Diageo and others extend major brands into them, with that read putting the answer as unsettled.