Liquor

Athens Mayor Haris Doukas on Wednesday recommended the permanent closure of a nightclub on central Vouliagmenis Avenue for serving alcohol to minors.

The club's management has been accused of serving bootleg liquor to minors during a school party last Saturday, during which eight students aged 14 to 17 had to be hospitalized with alcohol poisoning. 

Fifteen words are roiling the global alcohol industry.

Beginning in 2026, containers of beer, wine and liquor sold in Ireland will be required by law to bear a label in red capital letters with two warnings: "There Is a Direct Link Between Alcohol and Fatal Cancers" and "Drinking Alcohol Causes Liver Disease."

Two Cretan producers of traditional tsikoudia, a clear spirit made by distilling grape pomace that is also known as raki, face hundreds of thousands of euros in fines after being caught without the proper permits.

More ouzo, tsipouro and raki produced by Greek distilleries than ever before went to consumers outside Greece in 2022, as a historic record was set in exports of Greek alcoholic beverages.

Exports were higher in value and quantity not only compared to 2021 but also to 2019, the last year before the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Greek distillery industry is brimming with optimism as Greek beverages are gaining an increasing foothold domestically and abroad. From 2019 to 2022, exports rose 22%, spearheaded by ouzo.

Over 126 tons of bootleg alcohol were seized in 54 operations in Istanbul in 2022.

Istanbul police carried out a total of 54 operations, two of which were against the organized smuggling structure, between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2022, in an effort to prevent the production and sale of bootleg alcohol.

A prosecutor demanded up to 25 years in jail for a man who sold methyl alcohol that led to the death of a 36-year-old lawyer in Istanbul's Kartal district last year.

The death toll from bootleg alcohol has risen to 12 in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ's Çorlu district, while seven people are still being treated in intensive care unit for alcohol poisoning.

Two more men, named Vedat Bektaş and Ahmet Ataman, died on July 5 of alcohol poisoning in Çorlu, an industrial town that has been hit by a string of deaths linked to bootleg liquor.

The death toll from bootleg alcohol has risen to at least six in the Çorlu district of the northwestern province of Tekirdağ while more people are going to hospitals for alcohol poisoning.