On just-drinks last week:

• Early doors on Monday, Remy Cointreau was first out of the gate, announcing that it has started talks with Bruichladdich to acquire the Scotch whisky producer. While many people – myself and regular spirits commentator Patience Gould – got a little carried away with the news, we used the announcement as the hook to run our two-part interview with Patrick Piana, CEO of Remy Cointreau's Cognac division, Remy Martin.
• Later the same day, the CEO of Central European Distribution Corp, Bill Carey, announced that he is stepping down from the role. The company's tie-up with Russian Standard, which was affirmed last week, will see the founder of Russian Standard, Roustam Tariko, become chairman of CEDC.
• Still on the HR front, the departure of Diageo's vodka marketing director for Western Europe less than a year after he assumed the position sparked our interest, if only for Diageo's reluctance to provide us with full details behind the move.
• Our big exclusive last week came when we exposed reports of a Coca-Cola plastic bag roll-out as fake. That wasn't before several news outlets fell for the story.
• Britvic will be a company that wishes that its coverage last week was fake: the UK recall of its Robinsons Fruit Shoot and Fruit Shoot Hydropacks brands in the UK – announced earlier this month – now looks like it will hit the firm's profits to the tune of around GBP25m (US$38.9m). Sadly, the reports are all true.