2010 was a big year for the wine and spirits industry as it began to emerge from the haze of the recession. Not only were wholesalers and suppliers making deals, but the regulatory environment faced a number of changes. The consensus among execs is that they are seeing signs of improvement in premiumization and on-premise sales. This, of course, is good news, and we expect that to continue, as the outlook for 2011 is much brighter. Here is what we consider to be the biggest stories of the year along with some predictions for 2011. If you have anything to add, ping us at [email protected]

Brown-Forman has confirmed the news that that “it is exploring strategic alternatives for its Hopland, California-based wine assets, including a possible sale.” The strategic review includes the Fetzer winery, bottling facility, and vineyards, as well as the Fetzer brand and other Hopland, California-based brands. The strategic review does not include Sonoma-Cutrer or the company’s long-term agency relationship with Korbel California Champagnes.

Foster’s Group just announced the future heads of the wine and beer units if and when the demerger is completed. David Dearie has been named ceo of Treasury Wine Estates, assuming the demerger goes ahead as planned. John Pollaers was named ceo of Foster’s, the company’s future beer division. The company said, “Work on the potential demerger continues to progress well and if a demerger proceeds it is expected to be implemented in the first half of calendar 2011.”

Although it’s the Tuesday before Christmas, some of the biggest stories of the year broke yesterday. Firstly, Remy Cointreau confirmed what sources had been telling us for weeks: Remy Cointreau USA chief Tom Jensen has stepped down. Then news broke from the Wall Street Journal that Brown-Forman has put its wine business up for sale, according to their sources. Constellation is also in the process of selling its non-US assets to an “unknown buyer,” according to the report. So let’s break it down.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Brown-Forman has put its wine business up for sale, according to their sources. B-F has reportedly hired Rothschild to run the auction process. “Private-equity firms and other global wine and spirits companies are expected to take a look at the business, which is unlikely to fetch much more than a few hundred million dollars,” says the Journal.

WSD has learned that Suriya Parksuwan will serve as the new ceo of Remy Cointreau USA, replacing Tom Jensen. A number of sources told WSD that Tom left the company earlier this month, and now it has been confirmed.

“We do not think Beam Global will remain independent in the medium term,” said Bernstein Research’s Trevor Stirling in a note to clients, “and we believe the recent decision to break up the business at Fortune Brands has attracted interest from major liquor houses.” Of course he’s referring to Fortune’s announcement last week that it will remain an independent spirits company and spin off its other business units (home and golf). He views Diageo and Bacardi as front-runners “either independently or combined.”

Rumors are circulating in the Australian press that Cerberus – yes, the same American private equity group that made a bid as high as $2.5 billion for Foster’s wine unit – is considering making a bid for Constellation Brands or just the Australian business. This was first reported by the Australian Financial Review. An unconfirmed report today said a private equity group has made an offer for over $30 a share. Recall Constellation ended talks with Australian Vintage to combine its Australian and UK operations in April.

Diageo’s North American president and chairman of the Asia-Pacific region told investors this morning that he is starting to see some encouraging signs in the US. “The fiscal 2011 situation remains unsettled, but we see signs of recovery. There is still high unemployment and low consumer confidence, but there are emerging, positive signs of life in fall retail sales,” said Ivan Menezes, as reported by Dow Jones.

After two years of very little activity in the wholesaler tier, 2010 saw some rather big changes. Perhaps the single biggest thing to happen was the entrance of Warren Buffett. Also in the past year Southern Wine & Spirits entered 3 new markets, and RNDC set up shop in Indiana. For years people in the industry have predicted that we are moving to a two-distributor market, and it seems there is more evidence of that today than ever.

While growth for Brown-Forman was solid internationally, sales of Jack Daniel’s and Southern Comfort were soft in the US, which took a toll on US results for the 6-months ended October 31. Execs are chalking it up to increased competition from new brand entrants and line extensions, particularly flavored whiskeys. CFO Don Berg noted that Jack and SoCo showed “modest improvement in the [second] quarter” but are “underperforming our expectations.”

Glazer’s Distributors announced that Pete Carr is appointed evp, overseeing Diageo and Moet Hennessy USA, effective January 1, 2011. Pete will report directly to Glazer’s chief Shelly Stein, and will oversee a corporate team dedicated to Diageo and MH, as well as Glazer’s in-market Diageo and MH teams.

Sources are telling WSJ’s David Kesmodel that Fortune Brand’s board has approved a plan in principle to keep its spirits business and “remain an independent, publicly traded company focused on liquor brands.” Meanwhile, Fortune “intends to spin off its home and security unit to shareholders in a tax-free transaction, and to either sell or spin off its golf division,” says the article. An announcement could be made as early as tomorrow (Dec 8).

Spirits are taking volume share from beer, according to a new report from Deutsche Bank’s Marc Greenberg. The report’s main focus was on Brown-Forman (and we’ll get to that in a minute) but he also had some interesting things to say about the spirits and beer businesses in general. “While the spirits category is still weighed down by weak US consumer spending,” said Marc, “[volume] growth has been healthier than beer and is eating into share of drinkers.” He expects this trend to continue “as major US brewers remain myopically focused on pricing.”

The head of consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission, at a private meeting with representatives of beverage alcohol suppliers at the FTC building in Washington, DC in October, asked the industry to move from a 70% threshold to a 75% threshold for legal drinking age advertising standards, WSD has learned. You’ll no doubt recall that currently the self-imposed industry standard is that alcohol advertisements can only be placed in media where 70% of the audience is over the legal drinking age.