Blues legend B.B. King and Votto Vines Importing Inc. have released the B.B. King Signature Collection of wines, including a red blend and a white wine sourced from the Bodega Santa Cruz Winery in Almansa, Spain.

Vision Wine & Spirits LLC launched Wines for Dummies, a new line of wines named after the “For Dummies” reference book series.

Bōnfun Spirits LLC launched a line of handcrafted blends of premium cognac and young wine, aged together for five years in 100-year-old Limousin oak barrels.

Sports drinks, sodas, beers, spirits, waters, premixed drinks and the deluge of newly packaged summer offerings that flood marketing channels into the distribution straits and onto retail shelves can all be quite overwhelming — especially leading up to summertime.

Wine sales in the United States from all production sources increased 2 percent from the previous year to a new record of 360.1 million 9-liter cases with an estimated retail value of $34.6 billion, according to Wine Industry Consultant Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, Woodside, Calif. Of this total, almost two-thirds or 207.7 million cases of California wine account for a 58 percent share of U.S. wine sales with an estimated retail value of $22 billion, he says. Including exports, California wine shipments to all markets in the United States and abroad reached 250.2 million cases in 2012, he says.

Beginning April 1, the opening day of Major League Baseball, select stadiums will offer wine in single-serve plastic glasses for fans.

Naperville, Ill.-based World Packaging Organization (WPO) signed an agreement with Italy-based Ipack-Ima S.p.A. to support and promote the exhibitions at East Afripack, which will take place Sept. 9-12, 2014, in Kenya, and Ipack-Ima, which will take place May 19-23, 2015, in Italy. In return, WPO will have an institutional booth at both shows and will appoint a representative in the Steering Committee of East Afripack 2014. The WPO also will host the WorldStar Ceremony at Ipack-Ima.

After three years in Nashville, Tenn., Delirium Wine & Spirits is well established as a regional beverage distributor. How that happened so quickly is largely attributable to two things: exceptional customer service — every order is filled within 24 hours without fail — and its eclectic beverage selection.

Designs by Lolita Inc., known for its hand-painted wine glasses, launched a collection of Italian wines under the Wines by Lolita name.

“It can be intimidating to walk down that wine aisle,” says Danny Brager, vice president of beverage alcohol for Nielsen, New York. “There are so many items, sometimes it’s difficult to navigate down the aisle because you just see this sea of bottles.”