#Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year Final

[rodspurethoughts]

Master of Mixology: Santanu Chanda Crowned World Class India Bartender of the Year

NEW DELHI, June 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Diageo Reserve’s World Class India Finale, held on June 15th and 16th in Gurugram, redefined the art of mixology, shaking up the scene with some serious talent. This prestigious competition, celebrating its 15th year, brought together the nation’s top bartenders for a two-day event unlike any other. Santanu Chanda World Class India Winner India’s top…

[baliportalnews]

Rebut Kemenangan Menuju Final Global WORLD CLASS, Delapan Bartender Terbaik Indonesia Bertarung Sengit

BALIPORTALNEWS.COM, SEMINYAK - Dalam perkembangan industri hospitality ke arah yang lebih baik, DIAGEO, pemimpin global dalam industri minuman beralkohol, mengumumkan diselenggarakannya babak final kompetisi WORLD CLASS 2023 Indonesia. Kompetisi tahun ini diikuti oleh lebih dari 70 peserta dan telah melangsungkan serangkaian festival koktail. Setelah melalui proses seleksi yang ketat, delapan finalis dari bar-bar terbaik di Indonesia terpilih untuk memperebutkan gelar Bartender Terbaik Indonesia serta kesempatan untuk mewakili Indonesia di WORLD CLASS final global di São Paulo, Brasil. Pada babak final yang berlangsung di La Favela Seminyak pada Selasa (7/3/2023), para finalis ditantang untuk menampilkan keterampilan dan kreativitas membuat koktail menggunakan dua merek ikonik Diageo, The Singleton dan Don Julio. Juri akan mencari koktail yang mengutamakan rasa serta cerita dibaliknya, yang mampu membawa dewan juri menikmati pengalaman minuman tak terlupakan dan layak menjadi koktail klasik. Unsur keberlanjutan juga menjadi kriteria penjurian tahun ini, menekankan pada kreativitas penggunaan bahan-bahan campuran minuman yang ramah lingkungan. Babak final ini akan menghadirkan pertarungan epik delapan finalis yang telah terseleksi dari kumpulan bartender paling berbakat di Indonesia. Kedelapan finalis tersebut adalah Malvern Nathaniel dari The Langham Jakarta, Benedick Visantus Pramono dari Gozadera Surabaya, I Gusti Putu Giri Asta dari The St. Regis Bar Bali, Brian Jeremy Rusli dari A/A Bar Jakarta, Bayu Adithia dari TOMA Jakarta, Putra Dwi Aprianto dari Circolo Bandung, Putu Agus Sastrawan dari Canna Bali, dan Putra Galant dari Tom's by Tom Aiken Jakarta. Para bartender ini siap bersaing dengan minuman khas mereka dan penampilan yang memukau. Bulan lalu pada Kamis (26/1/2023), delapan bartender ini telah melalui babak semifinal yang digelar di A/A Bar Jakarta, mengungguli 16 finalis berbakat lainnya. "Tahun ini, DIAGEO dengan bangga membawa kompetisi WORLD CLASS kembali ke Indonesia untuk melanjutkan komitmen kami untuk terus berinovasi dalam menciptakan minuman koktail berkualitas dengan mencari bartender terampil yang mewakili kreativitas industri miksologi di Indonesia," kata Lam Chi Mun, CSW, CSS, Direktur Diageo Bar Academy Asia Pasifik yang juga salah satu juri. Juri lainnya ialah Bannie Kang, Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year 2019, Aldho Gunawan, Pemenang Diageo WORLD CLASS 2017 Indonesia dan A to Z Corporate Bar Manager, dan Agung Prabowo, Co-founder Penisilin dan Dead & Bar di Hong Kong. Sejak dimulai lebih dari dua belas tahun lalu, WORLD CLASS telah mendukung, melatih, dan menginspirasi lebih dari 400.000 bartender di 60 negara. Sejak kompetisi pertama di Indonesia pada tahun 2010, para pemenang kompetisi WORLD CLASS terus membentuk budaya dan meningkatkan standar industri. Para pemenang WORLD CLASS lainnya juga telah meninggalkan jejak mereka di industri ini dan diakui di beberapa penghargaan paling bergengsi di dunia. Pemenang WORLD CLASS Indonesia berkarir di bar yang terdaftar di 100 Bar Terbaik Asia dan World's 50 Best Discovery. Dengan memenangkan kompetisi ini, para bartender tidak hanya mendapatkan pengakuan tetapi mampu membawa karir mereka ke tingkat yang lebih tinggi.

Malvern Nathaniel dari The Langham Jakarta bersama para juri (kiri ke kanan) Aldho Gunawan, Pemenang Diageo WORLD CLASS 2017 Indonesia dan A to Z Corporate Bar Manager, Wawan Kurniawan dari Diageo Indonesia, Maren Herrmann dari Diageo Indonesia, Malvern Nathaniel, Bannie Kang, Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year 2019, Agung Prabowo, Co-founder Penisilin dan Dead & Bar di Hong Kong, dan Lam Chi Mun, CSW, CSS, Direktur Diageo Bar Academy Asia Pasifik, Selasa (7/3/2023). Sumber Foto : Istimewa "WORLD CLASS selalu menjadi bagian penting dari bisnis DIAGEO di Indonesia. Kompetisi ini menyediakan platform bagi para bartender terbaik untuk meningkatkan keterampilan mereka dan naik ke puncak industri, juga mendukung misi kami untuk inklusivitas dan keragaman. Di WORLD CLASS, setiap bartender memiliki kesempatan yang sama untuk memamerkan keterampilan mereka dan dirayakan atas pencapaian mereka, terlepas dari latar belakang mereka," kata Maren Herrmann dari Diageo Indonesia. Maren Herrmann menjelaskan, WORLD CLASS adalah cerminan dari komitmen DIAGEO untuk menciptakan industri yang bertanggung jawab bagi pelanggan, komunitas, dan individu kami yang disatukan oleh produk ikonik kami. Kami percaya bahwa melalui para bartender, kami dapat membagikan nilai-nilai yang kami percaya dan berkontribusi untuk membangun industri minuman yang lebih baik dan lebih positif dan dunia yang inklusif. Kami bangga menjadi bagian dari kompetisi ini, dan kami berharap dapat melihat dampak yang akan dibuat oleh para bartender ini di masa depan. Pemenang DIAGEO WORLD CLASS 2023 Indonesia akan diumumkan pada pukul 18:00 WITA dan akan mendapat kehormatan untuk mewakili Indonesia di final global. Komitmen berkelanjutan DIAGEO terhadap inovasi craftmanship koktail dan fine drinking yang dibangun selama kompetisi ini berlangsung, akan membuka jalan menuju new heights of excellence dalam industri bartending. Untuk cerita menarik lainnya tentang DIAGEO WORLD CLASS dan DIAGEO Indonesia, ikuti kami di Instagram @worldclass and @diageoID.(tis/bpn) Read the full article

[madforfashiondude]

Johnnie Walker Presents Its Latest Limited Edition Blenders' Batch Whiskeys

Johnnie Walker Presents Its Latest Limited Edition Blenders’ Batch Whiskeys

The leading global brand of Scotch whiskey Is Stirring With The Launch Of Three Experimental Whiskeys During The Celebration Of The Diageo World Class Johnnie Walker has launched three new experimental whiskeys from its Blenders’ Batch range for whiskey fans and cocktail lovers. The Limited edition whiskeys presented during the celebration of the Diageo World Class Bartender of the Year Final…

[earthbartender]

Dried Fruit Infused  Singleton of Glen Ord 12-Year-Old Highlands Single Malt Whisky, Newby Wild Berry Tea, Homemade Spicy Syrup, Lime, Green Chartreuse, Orange Twist.Cocktail Created at the Blue Bar, Taj Palace Hotel New Delhi in 2014 By Dilbar Rawat Singh and Joel Scholtens Lindsay.This was a Cocktail that won Dilbar Rawat Singh his first Cocktail Competition,  the 2nd Delhi Heat of the Diageo World Class in 2014, Dilbar would go on to finish 3rd in India with Gaurav Dhyani also from the Blue Bar finishing 2nd.Dilbar is the best Bartender I have ever trained, and he has made me look good for a lot of years.  In the Diageo World Class Indian National Finals in 5 appearances, Dilbar has finished 2nd twice, 3rd, 4th and 7th. A remarkable record.

[thewhiskyphiles]

World Class 2019 Global Finals to be held in Glasgow

World Class 2019 Global Finals to be held in Glasgow

WORLD’S BIGGEST BARTENDING COMPETITION REVEALS GLASGOW AS LOCATION FOR 2019 GLOBAL FINALS

The very brightest and best of the drinks community will next September descend on Scotland’s cultural capital, Glasgow, to see the Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year crowned.

Glasgow is a city renowned for its creatives and collaborators, and its resident musicians and comedians, actors and…

[johnboothus]

How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey

Let’s cut right to the chase. By all accounts, Nicole Austin is one of the biggest badasses in American distilling today. She’s broken new ground at every career turn — from her early days bucking industry trends at Kings County Distillery, to her adventures co-founding two craft distilling trade organizations, to winning accolades for her first release as general manager and distiller at Cascade Hollow. Now, with the muscle of Diageo behind her and a vision for putting Tennessee whiskey back on the bourbon map, Austin is hitting new strides.

“One of the things that blows my mind about Nicole’s journey is how almost perfectly her narrative reads like a tale,” says Christopher Williams, the chief distiller and blender at Coppersea in New Paltz, N.Y. “You look at it, and it almost seems like, well, naturally that was the only thing that ever could’ve happened as a result of that story.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., in 2006, Austin started off her career in environmental engineering. “I thought I was going to be the next Erin Brockovich. That was 100 percent my plan,” says Austin. “I was going to takedown evil polluters and look great in miniskirts while I did it.” It turned out that working on massive waste management infrastructure and scaled engineering projects didn’t afford her much time to find and expose polluters.

When she switched gears and moved into distilling, it was practically on a lark. Out at a bar, on a date, the bartender poured her a whiskey and started talking about how it was made. Austin became so enthralled she completely ignored her date and listened to the bartender talk about whiskey for the rest of the night. Learning about distilling was a sea change. “Suddenly,” she says, “it was completely obvious that was what I was meant to do.”

She has been blazing trails ever since.

Breaking New Ground

In 2011 at 27 years old, about a year after landing her first job in the spirits industry as Kings County Distillery’s master blender, Austin distilled a rye whiskey that later won Double Gold at the 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

“It’s rare as a distiller that you actually get to touch every part of the process,” she says. “But the first time Kings County made rye, I actually touched every part of the process.” She underscores that this was at a time when critics were questioning whether craft producers were even making anything of value and some were “really poo-pooing the use of small barrels.”

John Jeffery, Master Distiller of Bentley Heritage in Minden, Nev., and cofounder of the Good Guys, a private industry Facebook group of about 100 craft distillers, says Austin was one of first people to prove that craft distillers could put out high-quality products. “She was really a steward of quality, which I think was super important.”

From Kings County, Austin went on to work as a consultant with the legendary Dave Pickerell, which, she says, was like doing a crash course in American craft distilling. In 2016, she took a job with William Grant & Sons as the commissioning engineer at Tullamore D.E.W. in Ireland, her first industrial-scale distillery. That was when she finally truly felt successful, which, in her mind, meant she could stop worrying about paying her rent.

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Helping to Shape the American Whiskey Industry

In addition to ascending in her own career, Austin has devoted herself to raising others up within the spirits community. She helped found the New York State Distillers Guild with Coppersea’s Williams and Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distilling, and was president of the regional trade organization from 2012 through 2015. She was also a founding board member of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) and remains an affiliate member.

“Rarely have I seen someone who commits as much time and energy to promoting the industry as she does,” says Jeffery. “She convinced us that trade organizations were a way to band together and fight for the industry — that it was really the way to raise all the boats.”

Williams, who also worked with Austin on the legislative effort to establish Empire Rye as a New York State regional style, adds that Austin is a hugely collaborative person and the initiatives they worked on were designed to bring the state’s distillers together and elevate the whole lot. “We saw early on that just one of us out there is drifting in the sea, but if we’re all together, we’re an armada and can’t be ignored.”

And while her efforts to mobilize the distilling industry at the state and national levels is impressive, John McKee, the owner of Headframe Spirits in Butte, Mont., and the other cofounder of the Good Guys, says that hands-down, the most impactful thing Austin has done so far for craft distilling is to help get the federal excise tax (FET) reduced as part of the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. “How many hundreds of millions of dollars has her work saved the entire industry on the FET?” he asks.

“I’m always surprised that so few people understand how directly impactful she and Mark Shilling were in getting that thing through,” says McKee. He laughs, imagining Austin mulling over what would benefit the industry most: Driving corn prices down? Finding cheaper bottle suppliers? “She was like, no, ‘let’s get the FET carved by a fifth.’ I mean, holy crap, that level of [thinking] — it has nothing to do with mashing and distilling, or selecting barrels.” It’s the sign of a true well-rounded master distiller who understands that it’s about more than just the juice in the bottle, he says. He brings up the tattoo on Austin’s arm — the bill number for the FET reduction. “It’s just not said enough, and I can’t imagine a larger impact nationwide that anyone in the industry could really claim.”

Each year McKee and Jeffery anoint a distiller — albeit in a tongue-and-cheek way — as King of the Good Guys, a group expressly created so distillers could share information and help each other out. Last year, after whiskey that was made during Austin’s watch at Kings County won best-in-class gold at the ACSA Awards, they crowned her the group’s queen.

When she took her new role with Diageo, Austin was afraid she’d no longer be embraced by the craft side of the industry, so being named Queen of the Good Guys was momentous. “It’s just a silly thing,” says Austin. “Like, I got thrown in a pool by the previous king, but at the same time it was also really meaningful to me.”

The insider honor just goes to show that she’s exactly the kind of unicorn distiller that can keep one foot firmly planted in the craft camp even while the other is charting new territory on the commercial side with the world’s largest alcohol producer.

Austin even asked McKee how they were going to make her Queen of the Good Guys if she wasn’t “‘a craft gal anymore.’ And the whole answer to that,” he says, “was that she really still is.”

“She’s our queen,” says Jeffery, “because she’s a badass. She’s perfect for it. ”

Forging Ahead in a New Chapter

In March 2018, Austin relocated from Tullamore, Ireland to Tullahoma, Tenn., to take over operations at Cascade Hollow, where her responsibilities would span both the distillation-production side and the brand-sales side. “It’s really about one person holding accountability across the entire Cascade Hollow Distilling Company and caring about every detail,” she says.

Her first innovation at Cascade Hollow, George Dickel Bottled in Bond, a 13-year-old Tennessee whiskey, won both Whiskey of the Year from Whisky Advocate and “Best Buy” in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Spirits of 2019.

“That was beyond my wildest dreams,” she says. “When blending that whiskey, I specifically set out with the goal of trying to make the point that Cascade Hollow belongs in the pantheon of American greats — that we’re among the best whiskey producers in the U.S., and that we have an authentic claim to that heritage. For that to happen, it was like hitting a grand slam at the World Series your first year in the majors.”

Steve Rust, the president of reserve and new business commercialization at Diageo, says it’s telling. “We’re thrilled Nicole’s efforts and contributions to the industry were quickly recognized through the Whisky of the Year award,” he says. “This recognition is a great honor for Nicole and George Dickel, but also shines an important light on Tennessee whisky, reminding consumers of the exceptional offerings available within the category.”

Coppersea’s Williams also points out that what Austin is doing at Dickel is bringing craft thinking into the larger context of industrial distilling. “That decision to do bottled-in-bond,” he says, “is directly correlated with her ethos in craft distilling.”

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Innovating in Tennessee

So what is Tennessee whiskey — and what does Austin want you to know about it?

“It’s bourbon!” she exclaims. “Boy, if I could shout that far and wide.” It’s an original style of bourbon filtered through a maple charcoal mellowing process that “let’s distillers reach for big, bold, complex fruit flavors.” She laments that “this big bourbon boom happened and no one looked at Tennessee.” But she’s going to change that.

These days, Austin thinks about innovation in two different ways. “Now that I’m working with a brand like George Dickel that has 150 years of history, I think about what kind of things I can do that’ll bring respect to it. That’s what Bottled in Bond was all about.” On the flipside, resurrecting the historic Cascade Hollow Distilling Company name was done precisely so that Austin would have the freedom to experiment. She’s excited to be tapping into the creative thinking processes she used when she was distilling craft spirits, and asking, “What completely new and weird different thing can I do here that has nothing to do with George Dickel?”

This sentiment is echoed by Nic Smieszek, Cascade Hollow’s special projects lead. Working with Austin has taught him about the importance of understanding the history of a whiskey and how to remain loyal to it while seeking opportunities for innovation. “And those opportunities,” he says, “are how crazy can we go, how off the wall? It’s a cross between staying true to who [we] are and learning how to take our whiskey to the next level.”

Smieszek has also collaborated with Austin on launching an internship program that brings bartenders and other industry professionals into the distillery for a full day of hands-on work where they learn about the distilling process by actually doing it. So far they’ve had about 60 people from the mid-Tennessee area participate, and they’re hoping to eventually open the program up to invite others from across the country.

“It’s been really cool,” says Smieszek, “to put this together and see how it’s turning people that liked George Dickel before into these self-proclaimed brand enthusiast spokespeople who are running around Nashville saying, ‘Have you been to George Dickel? Have you met Nicole Austin?’”

What’s Ahead?

Community, collaboration and sustainability are top of mind for Austin. She spends a lot of time thinking about how she can showcase local farmers, suppliers, and distillers. “To me,” she says, “trying to source well has been a really big part of ethics and sustainability.”

She’s also taking Dickel’s existing production methods and implementing more eco-friendly operations. “We’ve got a lot of pretty aggressive sustainability initiatives,” she says. She’s evaluating materials and space, changing up the maturation process and starting to use some smaller barrels. She’s also thinking strategically about water usage and — not surprisingly — waste management.

The biggest news on the horizon is Austin’s Liquid Innovations project, which involves everything from new mash bills and yeasts to new spirits. She’s experimenting with a range of fermentation, distillation, and production methods, with not using maple charcoal mellowing, and with using it on different spirits to see what it brings to them. She’s also very interested in exploring what Cascade Hollow might be capable of producing besides Tennessee whiskey.

In addition, Austin has a number of small-scale experiments in the works, driven mainly by things she loves like apples and white whiskey. (She knows she’s out on a limb with the latter.) There may be some upcoming collaborations with brewers and other producers, too.

“It’s pretty exciting to have so much whiskey to work with,” says Austin. “Never in my years as a craft producer have I ever had that experience, with thousands and thousands and thousands of barrels that were all mine to do what I wanted with them. I’m like a kid in a candy store.”

The article How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/distiller-nicole-austin-reinventing-tennessee-whiskey/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/how-groundbreaking-distiller-nicole-austin-is-reinventing-tennessee-whiskey

[isaiahrippinus]

How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey

Let’s cut right to the chase. By all accounts, Nicole Austin is one of the biggest badasses in American distilling today. She’s broken new ground at every career turn — from her early days bucking industry trends at Kings County Distillery, to her adventures co-founding two craft distilling trade organizations, to winning accolades for her first release as general manager and distiller at Cascade Hollow. Now, with the muscle of Diageo behind her and a vision for putting Tennessee whiskey back on the bourbon map, Austin is hitting new strides.

“One of the things that blows my mind about Nicole’s journey is how almost perfectly her narrative reads like a tale,” says Christopher Williams, the chief distiller and blender at Coppersea in New Paltz, N.Y. “You look at it, and it almost seems like, well, naturally that was the only thing that ever could’ve happened as a result of that story.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., in 2006, Austin started off her career in environmental engineering. “I thought I was going to be the next Erin Brockovich. That was 100 percent my plan,” says Austin. “I was going to takedown evil polluters and look great in miniskirts while I did it.” It turned out that working on massive waste management infrastructure and scaled engineering projects didn’t afford her much time to find and expose polluters.

When she switched gears and moved into distilling, it was practically on a lark. Out at a bar, on a date, the bartender poured her a whiskey and started talking about how it was made. Austin became so enthralled she completely ignored her date and listened to the bartender talk about whiskey for the rest of the night. Learning about distilling was a sea change. “Suddenly,” she says, “it was completely obvious that was what I was meant to do.”

She has been blazing trails ever since.

Breaking New Ground

In 2011 at 27 years old, about a year after landing her first job in the spirits industry as Kings County Distillery’s master blender, Austin distilled a rye whiskey that later won Double Gold at the 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

“It’s rare as a distiller that you actually get to touch every part of the process,” she says. “But the first time Kings County made rye, I actually touched every part of the process.” She underscores that this was at a time when critics were questioning whether craft producers were even making anything of value and some were “really poo-pooing the use of small barrels.”

John Jeffery, Master Distiller of Bentley Heritage in Minden, Nev., and cofounder of the Good Guys, a private industry Facebook group of about 100 craft distillers, says Austin was one of first people to prove that craft distillers could put out high-quality products. “She was really a steward of quality, which I think was super important.”

From Kings County, Austin went on to work as a consultant with the legendary Dave Pickerell, which, she says, was like doing a crash course in American craft distilling. In 2016, she took a job with William Grant & Sons as the commissioning engineer at Tullamore D.E.W. in Ireland, her first industrial-scale distillery. That was when she finally truly felt successful, which, in her mind, meant she could stop worrying about paying her rent.

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Helping to Shape the American Whiskey Industry

In addition to ascending in her own career, Austin has devoted herself to raising others up within the spirits community. She helped found the New York State Distillers Guild with Coppersea’s Williams and Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distilling, and was president of the regional trade organization from 2012 through 2015. She was also a founding board member of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) and remains an affiliate member.

“Rarely have I seen someone who commits as much time and energy to promoting the industry as she does,” says Jeffery. “She convinced us that trade organizations were a way to band together and fight for the industry — that it was really the way to raise all the boats.”

Williams, who also worked with Austin on the legislative effort to establish Empire Rye as a New York State regional style, adds that Austin is a hugely collaborative person and the initiatives they worked on were designed to bring the state’s distillers together and elevate the whole lot. “We saw early on that just one of us out there is drifting in the sea, but if we’re all together, we’re an armada and can’t be ignored.”

And while her efforts to mobilize the distilling industry at the state and national levels is impressive, John McKee, the owner of Headframe Spirits in Butte, Mont., and the other cofounder of the Good Guys, says that hands-down, the most impactful thing Austin has done so far for craft distilling is to help get the federal excise tax (FET) reduced as part of the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. “How many hundreds of millions of dollars has her work saved the entire industry on the FET?” he asks.

“I’m always surprised that so few people understand how directly impactful she and Mark Shilling were in getting that thing through,” says McKee. He laughs, imagining Austin mulling over what would benefit the industry most: Driving corn prices down? Finding cheaper bottle suppliers? “She was like, no, ‘let’s get the FET carved by a fifth.’ I mean, holy crap, that level of [thinking] — it has nothing to do with mashing and distilling, or selecting barrels.” It’s the sign of a true well-rounded master distiller who understands that it’s about more than just the juice in the bottle, he says. He brings up the tattoo on Austin’s arm — the bill number for the FET reduction. “It’s just not said enough, and I can’t imagine a larger impact nationwide that anyone in the industry could really claim.”

Each year McKee and Jeffery anoint a distiller — albeit in a tongue-and-cheek way — as King of the Good Guys, a group expressly created so distillers could share information and help each other out. Last year, after whiskey that was made during Austin’s watch at Kings County won best-in-class gold at the ACSA Awards, they crowned her the group’s queen.

When she took her new role with Diageo, Austin was afraid she’d no longer be embraced by the craft side of the industry, so being named Queen of the Good Guys was momentous. “It’s just a silly thing,” says Austin. “Like, I got thrown in a pool by the previous king, but at the same time it was also really meaningful to me.”

The insider honor just goes to show that she’s exactly the kind of unicorn distiller that can keep one foot firmly planted in the craft camp even while the other is charting new territory on the commercial side with the world’s largest alcohol producer.

Austin even asked McKee how they were going to make her Queen of the Good Guys if she wasn’t “‘a craft gal anymore.’ And the whole answer to that,” he says, “was that she really still is.”

“She’s our queen,” says Jeffery, “because she’s a badass. She’s perfect for it. ”

Forging Ahead in a New Chapter

In March 2018, Austin relocated from Tullamore, Ireland to Tullahoma, Tenn., to take over operations at Cascade Hollow, where her responsibilities would span both the distillation-production side and the brand-sales side. “It’s really about one person holding accountability across the entire Cascade Hollow Distilling Company and caring about every detail,” she says.

Her first innovation at Cascade Hollow, George Dickel Bottled in Bond, a 13-year-old Tennessee whiskey, won both Whiskey of the Year from Whisky Advocate and “Best Buy” in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Spirits of 2019.

“That was beyond my wildest dreams,” she says. “When blending that whiskey, I specifically set out with the goal of trying to make the point that Cascade Hollow belongs in the pantheon of American greats — that we’re among the best whiskey producers in the U.S., and that we have an authentic claim to that heritage. For that to happen, it was like hitting a grand slam at the World Series your first year in the majors.”

Steve Rust, the president of reserve and new business commercialization at Diageo, says it’s telling. “We’re thrilled Nicole’s efforts and contributions to the industry were quickly recognized through the Whisky of the Year award,” he says. “This recognition is a great honor for Nicole and George Dickel, but also shines an important light on Tennessee whisky, reminding consumers of the exceptional offerings available within the category.”

Coppersea’s Williams also points out that what Austin is doing at Dickel is bringing craft thinking into the larger context of industrial distilling. “That decision to do bottled-in-bond,” he says, “is directly correlated with her ethos in craft distilling.”

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Innovating in Tennessee

So what is Tennessee whiskey — and what does Austin want you to know about it?

“It’s bourbon!” she exclaims. “Boy, if I could shout that far and wide.” It’s an original style of bourbon filtered through a maple charcoal mellowing process that “let’s distillers reach for big, bold, complex fruit flavors.” She laments that “this big bourbon boom happened and no one looked at Tennessee.” But she’s going to change that.

These days, Austin thinks about innovation in two different ways. “Now that I’m working with a brand like George Dickel that has 150 years of history, I think about what kind of things I can do that’ll bring respect to it. That’s what Bottled in Bond was all about.” On the flipside, resurrecting the historic Cascade Hollow Distilling Company name was done precisely so that Austin would have the freedom to experiment. She’s excited to be tapping into the creative thinking processes she used when she was distilling craft spirits, and asking, “What completely new and weird different thing can I do here that has nothing to do with George Dickel?”

This sentiment is echoed by Nic Smieszek, Cascade Hollow’s special projects lead. Working with Austin has taught him about the importance of understanding the history of a whiskey and how to remain loyal to it while seeking opportunities for innovation. “And those opportunities,” he says, “are how crazy can we go, how off the wall? It’s a cross between staying true to who [we] are and learning how to take our whiskey to the next level.”

Smieszek has also collaborated with Austin on launching an internship program that brings bartenders and other industry professionals into the distillery for a full day of hands-on work where they learn about the distilling process by actually doing it. So far they’ve had about 60 people from the mid-Tennessee area participate, and they’re hoping to eventually open the program up to invite others from across the country.

“It’s been really cool,” says Smieszek, “to put this together and see how it’s turning people that liked George Dickel before into these self-proclaimed brand enthusiast spokespeople who are running around Nashville saying, ‘Have you been to George Dickel? Have you met Nicole Austin?’”

What’s Ahead?

Community, collaboration and sustainability are top of mind for Austin. She spends a lot of time thinking about how she can showcase local farmers, suppliers, and distillers. “To me,” she says, “trying to source well has been a really big part of ethics and sustainability.”

She’s also taking Dickel’s existing production methods and implementing more eco-friendly operations. “We’ve got a lot of pretty aggressive sustainability initiatives,” she says. She’s evaluating materials and space, changing up the maturation process and starting to use some smaller barrels. She’s also thinking strategically about water usage and — not surprisingly — waste management.

The biggest news on the horizon is Austin’s Liquid Innovations project, which involves everything from new mash bills and yeasts to new spirits. She’s experimenting with a range of fermentation, distillation, and production methods, with not using maple charcoal mellowing, and with using it on different spirits to see what it brings to them. She’s also very interested in exploring what Cascade Hollow might be capable of producing besides Tennessee whiskey.

In addition, Austin has a number of small-scale experiments in the works, driven mainly by things she loves like apples and white whiskey. (She knows she’s out on a limb with the latter.) There may be some upcoming collaborations with brewers and other producers, too.

“It’s pretty exciting to have so much whiskey to work with,” says Austin. “Never in my years as a craft producer have I ever had that experience, with thousands and thousands and thousands of barrels that were all mine to do what I wanted with them. I’m like a kid in a candy store.”

The article How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/distiller-nicole-austin-reinventing-tennessee-whiskey/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/616837542707396608

[wineanddinosaur]

How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey

Let’s cut right to the chase. By all accounts, Nicole Austin is one of the biggest badasses in American distilling today. She’s broken new ground at every career turn — from her early days bucking industry trends at Kings County Distillery, to her adventures co-founding two craft distilling trade organizations, to winning accolades for her first release as general manager and distiller at Cascade Hollow. Now, with the muscle of Diageo behind her and a vision for putting Tennessee whiskey back on the bourbon map, Austin is hitting new strides.

“One of the things that blows my mind about Nicole’s journey is how almost perfectly her narrative reads like a tale,” says Christopher Williams, the chief distiller and blender at Coppersea in New Paltz, N.Y. “You look at it, and it almost seems like, well, naturally that was the only thing that ever could’ve happened as a result of that story.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College in Riverdale, N.Y., in 2006, Austin started off her career in environmental engineering. “I thought I was going to be the next Erin Brockovich. That was 100 percent my plan,” says Austin. “I was going to takedown evil polluters and look great in miniskirts while I did it.” It turned out that working on massive waste management infrastructure and scaled engineering projects didn’t afford her much time to find and expose polluters.

When she switched gears and moved into distilling, it was practically on a lark. Out at a bar, on a date, the bartender poured her a whiskey and started talking about how it was made. Austin became so enthralled she completely ignored her date and listened to the bartender talk about whiskey for the rest of the night. Learning about distilling was a sea change. “Suddenly,” she says, “it was completely obvious that was what I was meant to do.”

She has been blazing trails ever since.

Breaking New Ground

In 2011 at 27 years old, about a year after landing her first job in the spirits industry as Kings County Distillery’s master blender, Austin distilled a rye whiskey that later won Double Gold at the 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

“It’s rare as a distiller that you actually get to touch every part of the process,” she says. “But the first time Kings County made rye, I actually touched every part of the process.” She underscores that this was at a time when critics were questioning whether craft producers were even making anything of value and some were “really poo-pooing the use of small barrels.”

John Jeffery, Master Distiller of Bentley Heritage in Minden, Nev., and cofounder of the Good Guys, a private industry Facebook group of about 100 craft distillers, says Austin was one of first people to prove that craft distillers could put out high-quality products. “She was really a steward of quality, which I think was super important.”

From Kings County, Austin went on to work as a consultant with the legendary Dave Pickerell, which, she says, was like doing a crash course in American craft distilling. In 2016, she took a job with William Grant & Sons as the commissioning engineer at Tullamore D.E.W. in Ireland, her first industrial-scale distillery. That was when she finally truly felt successful, which, in her mind, meant she could stop worrying about paying her rent.

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Helping to Shape the American Whiskey Industry

In addition to ascending in her own career, Austin has devoted herself to raising others up within the spirits community. She helped found the New York State Distillers Guild with Coppersea’s Williams and Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distilling, and was president of the regional trade organization from 2012 through 2015. She was also a founding board member of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) and remains an affiliate member.

“Rarely have I seen someone who commits as much time and energy to promoting the industry as she does,” says Jeffery. “She convinced us that trade organizations were a way to band together and fight for the industry — that it was really the way to raise all the boats.”

Williams, who also worked with Austin on the legislative effort to establish Empire Rye as a New York State regional style, adds that Austin is a hugely collaborative person and the initiatives they worked on were designed to bring the state’s distillers together and elevate the whole lot. “We saw early on that just one of us out there is drifting in the sea, but if we’re all together, we’re an armada and can’t be ignored.”

And while her efforts to mobilize the distilling industry at the state and national levels is impressive, John McKee, the owner of Headframe Spirits in Butte, Mont., and the other cofounder of the Good Guys, says that hands-down, the most impactful thing Austin has done so far for craft distilling is to help get the federal excise tax (FET) reduced as part of the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act. “How many hundreds of millions of dollars has her work saved the entire industry on the FET?” he asks.

“I’m always surprised that so few people understand how directly impactful she and Mark Shilling were in getting that thing through,” says McKee. He laughs, imagining Austin mulling over what would benefit the industry most: Driving corn prices down? Finding cheaper bottle suppliers? “She was like, no, ‘let’s get the FET carved by a fifth.’ I mean, holy crap, that level of [thinking] — it has nothing to do with mashing and distilling, or selecting barrels.” It’s the sign of a true well-rounded master distiller who understands that it’s about more than just the juice in the bottle, he says. He brings up the tattoo on Austin’s arm — the bill number for the FET reduction. “It’s just not said enough, and I can’t imagine a larger impact nationwide that anyone in the industry could really claim.”

Each year McKee and Jeffery anoint a distiller — albeit in a tongue-and-cheek way — as King of the Good Guys, a group expressly created so distillers could share information and help each other out. Last year, after whiskey that was made during Austin’s watch at Kings County won best-in-class gold at the ACSA Awards, they crowned her the group’s queen.

When she took her new role with Diageo, Austin was afraid she’d no longer be embraced by the craft side of the industry, so being named Queen of the Good Guys was momentous. “It’s just a silly thing,” says Austin. “Like, I got thrown in a pool by the previous king, but at the same time it was also really meaningful to me.”

The insider honor just goes to show that she’s exactly the kind of unicorn distiller that can keep one foot firmly planted in the craft camp even while the other is charting new territory on the commercial side with the world’s largest alcohol producer.

Austin even asked McKee how they were going to make her Queen of the Good Guys if she wasn’t “‘a craft gal anymore.’ And the whole answer to that,” he says, “was that she really still is.”

“She’s our queen,” says Jeffery, “because she’s a badass. She’s perfect for it. ”

Forging Ahead in a New Chapter

In March 2018, Austin relocated from Tullamore, Ireland to Tullahoma, Tenn., to take over operations at Cascade Hollow, where her responsibilities would span both the distillation-production side and the brand-sales side. “It’s really about one person holding accountability across the entire Cascade Hollow Distilling Company and caring about every detail,” she says.

Her first innovation at Cascade Hollow, George Dickel Bottled in Bond, a 13-year-old Tennessee whiskey, won both Whiskey of the Year from Whisky Advocate and “Best Buy” in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Spirits of 2019.

“That was beyond my wildest dreams,” she says. “When blending that whiskey, I specifically set out with the goal of trying to make the point that Cascade Hollow belongs in the pantheon of American greats — that we’re among the best whiskey producers in the U.S., and that we have an authentic claim to that heritage. For that to happen, it was like hitting a grand slam at the World Series your first year in the majors.”

Steve Rust, the president of reserve and new business commercialization at Diageo, says it’s telling. “We’re thrilled Nicole’s efforts and contributions to the industry were quickly recognized through the Whisky of the Year award,” he says. “This recognition is a great honor for Nicole and George Dickel, but also shines an important light on Tennessee whisky, reminding consumers of the exceptional offerings available within the category.”

Coppersea’s Williams also points out that what Austin is doing at Dickel is bringing craft thinking into the larger context of industrial distilling. “That decision to do bottled-in-bond,” he says, “is directly correlated with her ethos in craft distilling.”

Courtesy of Cascade Hollow Distilling Company

Innovating in Tennessee

So what is Tennessee whiskey — and what does Austin want you to know about it?

“It’s bourbon!” she exclaims. “Boy, if I could shout that far and wide.” It’s an original style of bourbon filtered through a maple charcoal mellowing process that “let’s distillers reach for big, bold, complex fruit flavors.” She laments that “this big bourbon boom happened and no one looked at Tennessee.” But she’s going to change that.

These days, Austin thinks about innovation in two different ways. “Now that I’m working with a brand like George Dickel that has 150 years of history, I think about what kind of things I can do that’ll bring respect to it. That’s what Bottled in Bond was all about.” On the flipside, resurrecting the historic Cascade Hollow Distilling Company name was done precisely so that Austin would have the freedom to experiment. She’s excited to be tapping into the creative thinking processes she used when she was distilling craft spirits, and asking, “What completely new and weird different thing can I do here that has nothing to do with George Dickel?”

This sentiment is echoed by Nic Smieszek, Cascade Hollow’s special projects lead. Working with Austin has taught him about the importance of understanding the history of a whiskey and how to remain loyal to it while seeking opportunities for innovation. “And those opportunities,” he says, “are how crazy can we go, how off the wall? It’s a cross between staying true to who [we] are and learning how to take our whiskey to the next level.”

Smieszek has also collaborated with Austin on launching an internship program that brings bartenders and other industry professionals into the distillery for a full day of hands-on work where they learn about the distilling process by actually doing it. So far they’ve had about 60 people from the mid-Tennessee area participate, and they’re hoping to eventually open the program up to invite others from across the country.

“It’s been really cool,” says Smieszek, “to put this together and see how it’s turning people that liked George Dickel before into these self-proclaimed brand enthusiast spokespeople who are running around Nashville saying, ‘Have you been to George Dickel? Have you met Nicole Austin?’”

What’s Ahead?

Community, collaboration and sustainability are top of mind for Austin. She spends a lot of time thinking about how she can showcase local farmers, suppliers, and distillers. “To me,” she says, “trying to source well has been a really big part of ethics and sustainability.”

She’s also taking Dickel’s existing production methods and implementing more eco-friendly operations. “We’ve got a lot of pretty aggressive sustainability initiatives,” she says. She’s evaluating materials and space, changing up the maturation process and starting to use some smaller barrels. She’s also thinking strategically about water usage and — not surprisingly — waste management.

The biggest news on the horizon is Austin’s Liquid Innovations project, which involves everything from new mash bills and yeasts to new spirits. She’s experimenting with a range of fermentation, distillation, and production methods, with not using maple charcoal mellowing, and with using it on different spirits to see what it brings to them. She’s also very interested in exploring what Cascade Hollow might be capable of producing besides Tennessee whiskey.

In addition, Austin has a number of small-scale experiments in the works, driven mainly by things she loves like apples and white whiskey. (She knows she’s out on a limb with the latter.) There may be some upcoming collaborations with brewers and other producers, too.

“It’s pretty exciting to have so much whiskey to work with,” says Austin. “Never in my years as a craft producer have I ever had that experience, with thousands and thousands and thousands of barrels that were all mine to do what I wanted with them. I’m like a kid in a candy store.”

The article How Groundbreaking Distiller Nicole Austin Is Reinventing Tennessee Whiskey appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/distiller-nicole-austin-reinventing-tennessee-whiskey/

[philmax2018]

World class bartender

Choi Won-woo, the winner of the 2019 Diageo World Class Bartender Korea, raises his trophy at Diageo Korea headquarters, Tuesday. He will represent Korea at the global finals of Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year competition, which will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in September. / Courtesy of Diageo Korea from Korea Times News https://ift.tt/2RRSbNs via IFTTTDiigo Blogger Tumblr Evernote

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

Gin Gross sales Are Booming Due to Rising Plant Craze

http://tinyurl.com/yy7xumo5 In 2018, world consumption of gin grew quicker than every other beverage alcohol class. Brandy Rand thinks she is aware of why, and he or she calls it her “plant concept.” “In the event you have a look at consumption developments over the previous few years, there’s a excessive progress charge in individuals consuming extra crops. We’ve been informed it’s higher for the atmosphere and for our diets,” says Rand, chief working officer for the Americas for world alcohol-industry tracker IWSR. The facility of crops is altering consumption habits throughout many meals and beverage classes: There are plant-based burgers, rooster, seafood, and milk merchandise—and even hashish is hovering in recognition. All this discuss of crops could also be giving gin a elevate too. With a botanical base, gin has an herbaceous vibe that matches neatly into the plant craze. Gin makers are experimenting with shocking flavors like basil, rhubarb, orange, and cinnamon, and within the course of they’re bringing new drinkers into the fold. The development towards these pure elements has grow to be so buzzy that vodka model Ketel One final yr launched a botanicals line that’s gin-ish. Whereas technically a vodka, Ketel One Botanical Peach & Orange Blossom leans into gin influences. Ketel One Globally, gross sales of gin jumped 8.3% final yr versus 2017, IWSR data shows, bolstered partly by fashionable pink gins, to elevate the spirit’s gross sales to greater than 72 million nine-liter circumstances. Progress has been explosive in European markets like the UK and Spain, the place a lot of the innovation is happening. IWSR forecasts gin will hit 88 million circumstances by 2023. Bartenders are embracing gin in funky cocktails that shine on—you guessed it—Instagram. And even the tonic facet of the equation is seeing innovation. Stateside, manufacturers like Fever-Tree, Navy Hill, and Fentimans are giving gin drinkers new methods to experiment. “Gin is an fascinating drink,” says Ed Pilkington, liquor large Diageo’s North America chief advertising officer. “The completely different taste sorts that exist in gin align with our meals tradition.” Pilkington says the gin renaissance in Europe has unfolded as a result of it was a drink as soon as most well-liked by people who find themselves older however is now consumed by all authorized age teams and extra evenly by each genders. Diageo has targeted on innovation throughout the class, launching Gordon’s Pink and hitting over 1 million circumstances only a yr after that gin’s debut. In 2018, Diageo launched an orange-flavored variant of Tanqueray known as Flor de Sevilla. It’s bringing the spirit stateside for the primary time with a restricted launch in Florida. And simply final month, Diageo debuted a brand new super-premium Italian gin known as Villa Ascenti, which it is going to promote in 14 European nations. The world’s largest spirits makers are additionally putting bets on gin with acquisitions. Previously few years, Gruppo Campari bought Bulldog London Dry Gin, Pernod Ricard scooped up Italian Malfy and Germany’s Monkey 47, and Corona maker Constellation Brands bought a stake in craft spirits maker Black Button Distilling, which sells lilac- and citrus-forward gins. Gin is so fashionable that even actor Ryan Reynolds bought Pacific Northwest–primarily based craft model Aviation Gin. “Opponents are investing in gin, and that’s good for the class,” says Pilkington. In America, gin hasn’t but emerged as a famous person. Final yr, the spirit’s quantity dipped 1.1% as progress for the priciest gins couldn’t totally offset declines for the most cost effective stuff, in response to information from the Distilled Spirits Council. To place issues additional in perspective: Gin quantity soared 52% within the U.Okay. versus a slim 1.5% acquire in America for the 52-week interval ending February 23, 2019, in response to Nielsen. Malfy Gin is a model of gin bottled in Italy, distilled by Torino Distillati, and distributed by Biggar & Leith. Malfy A part of what has held gin again within the U.S. is the misunderstanding that gin should all the time have a juniper style, and that’s as a result of many London-style gins function that taste profile. And since the preferred cocktail was a gin and tonic, many drinkers discover the floral notes overpowering. Gin isn’t alone in keeping off such misinterpretations. Rum typically will get pegged as being too candy, Scotch as having an excessive amount of peat, and mezcal as too smoky. All of these spirits manufacturers and their makers must work on educating bartenders and customers about their unappreciated versatility. Widespread cocktails just like the Negroni have helped introduce gin to extra Individuals in a extra delicate method. Craft gin manufacturers are amongst these aiming to deliver new flavors to the market. Ohio-based Watershed Distillery is promoting gins with notes like rose petals and citrus, and even a gin that sits in a bourbon barrel for a yr. “Lots of people had a foul expertise with gin in faculty,” says Greg Lehman, Watershed’s founder. “However gin isn’t a one-note class. And there’s a new gin shopper that’s open to new flavors.” Watershed Bourbon Barrel Gin Watershed On the fashionable facet, Beefeater Pink got here to the U.S. final yr, a pink-hued gin that balances juniper with strawberry and citrus. Hendrick’s Gin, in the meantime, will get numerous credit score for elevating the gin expertise within the U.S., although different manufacturers are including pleasure. Monkey 47, for instance, has traditional botanicals like juniper and coriander but additionally lingonberries and spruce. Pernod Ricard says that it has invested behind Monkey 47 within the U.S. and has been rewarded with exponential progress. “In the event you begin from the concept American spirits customers have all the time and can all the time search for flavorful experiences, and also you layer on the development of authenticity, craftsmanship, and well being and wellness—it units the stage for the reemergence of gin,” says Jeff Agdern, senior vp of New Model Ventures at Pernod Ricard. “Gin choices right now are wildly completely different than what was accessible 20 years in the past.” “I’m not certain if we’re able to name gin the subsequent massive class [in the U.S.],” provides Agdern. “However extra manufacturers are coming in, and there’s extra retail and shopper curiosity. We’re betting on it.” Extra must-read tales from Fortune: —Alcohol-free bars caught on within the U.S. and U.Okay. However can they go world? —The wine country tasting room is dead. However lengthy dwell wine nation —Know what to search for to find a great rosé —The 6 most interesting new whiskies try to be consuming proper now —Hearken to our new audio briefing, Fortune 500 Daily Follow Fortune on Flipboard to remain up-to-date on the newest information and evaluation. Source link

[greatdrams]

DIAGEO RESERVE’S WORLD CLASS PREMIERES NEW TRAVEL DOCUMENTARY SERIES

WORLD CLASS LIST – ON AMAZON PRIME

It’s a tough job, but someone had to do it.

A new travel series, World Class List, follows the adventures of aspiring musician and drinks enthusiast Carey Watkins, 27, as he journeys to some of the world’s most dynamic cities where he is guided by the world’s best bartenders to learn about each city’s cocktail culture and to curate his ultimate drinks list.

The series champions the rise of global cocktail culture and seeks to inspire people to drink better and create unforgettable experiences in the process and is created by World Class, the organisers of the world’s biggest bartending competition. World Class is an initiative created by leading spirits company Diageo, the makers of Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky, Tanqueray no. TEN Gin and Ketel One Vodka amongst others.

Carey, who lives in LA, was selected from hundreds to become the host of the new travel series, to be released on Amazon Prime in selected markets from next week and available to watch now on http://ift.tt/2q4lGxn.

During the five-part series, Carey explores the best of what to see, do, eat and drink in five of the world’s most exciting cities - Sydney, Taipei, Barcelona, San Francisco and Mexico. Led on his journey by the world’s best bartenders, the result is a travel series with a twist - and the creation of the ultimate drinks list.

The five renowned World Class bartenders share their inside knowledge of their city and passion for better drinking and the craft of bartending with Carey, presenting their cocktail inspired by their experiences to feature on the World Class List.

2012 World Class Bartender of the Year Tim Philips of Australia appears on the show, as well as four national champions from the World Class Bartender of the Year 2016 Global Final: Andrew Meltzer of the USA, Nick Wu of Taiwan, Spanish bartender Adriana Chia and Nica Rousseau of Mexico.

Among the drinks that Carey experiences is a smooth digestif from Tim Philips made with Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky and freshly brewed coffee with notes of heather, honey and vanilla, and a brunch-time alternative to the Bloody Mary using Ketel One Vodka, carrot juice and notes of fennel from Andrew Meltzer.

In his search, Carey experiences some unforgettable moments, including an energetic introduction to Mexican wrestling, spearfishing his own seafood to pair with Tanqueray gin and grapefruit in Sydney and celebrating New Year’s Eve drinking cocktails under fireworks on a boat in San Francisco Bay.

World Class Global Director Johanna Dalley said: “We’re delighted to launch our new digital travel series which celebrates incredible bartender talent around the world. World Class List is a reflection of the growing demand by inquisitive consumers eager to step up their drinking and move with the trend of rising cocktail culture. Carey’s journey is that of the viewer - learning more about drinking culture around the world at the same time as picking up some really simple tips on how to make great cocktails himself. We want to inspire consumers to get out into the industry and try the amazing drinks on offer in bars all over the world, or to up their game and have a go at making them at home.”

Carey Watkins said: “When I found out I’d be the host, I was just really overwhelmed. I definitely didn’t comprehend the fact that I was about to travel around the world for six weeks, and by no means did I realise just how good this job was. The whole thing was incredible, and I got to do things I would never normally do.

“The trip very quickly became unbelievable, and nine times out of ten I was doing something I hadn’t done before – and would never have done. I do love to travel, but more than anything I love to meet people, to talk to people and form relationships. To combine that with travelling around the world – and learning how these bartenders hone their craft while tasting their unbelievable drinks – literally is the dream job .I was truly blown away by all five of those drinks – everything from the colours, to the smells, to the taste – they were unbelievably good.”

Click here to view the World Class List trailer

    ‘THE ULTIMATE DRINKS’ FROM WORLD CLASS LIST

Dead End

Created by Tim Philips @ Bulletin Place, Sydney, Australia

“The Dead End summarises everything that makes Sydney special – from the smoky taste of hazy summer nights to a coffee kick, pulled together with local ingredients. If an Espresso Martini is your drink of choice, or a twist on the Old Fashioned takes your fancy, this is the drink for you.”

Ingredients:

20ml Artificer cold brew coffee

20ml Regal Rogue Rosso Vermouth

20ml Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Scotch Whisky

5ml vanilla cardamom syrup

5ml Italian aperitif

Grapefruit peel to garnish

Method:

1.     Add the cold brew coffee, vermouth, Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Scotch Whisky, vanilla cardamom syrup and Italian aperitif to an ice-filled mixing glass

2.     Stir to dilute and chill, and then strain into a chilled, rocks glass over a single large lump of ice

3.     Garnish with a slice of fresh grapefruit peel, spritzing over the glass to release the oils.

  Formosa

Created by Nick Wu @ East End Bar, Taipei, Taiwan

“Taipei is an experience for all the senses, and it’s the aromatic additions that help this drink capture the spirit of the city. Taiwanese tea syrup, local honey and farm-grown marigold leaves represent the fragrance of Taipei’s countryside, and work together to create a one-of-a-kind drink.”

Ingredients:

50ml Cîroc Vodka

20ml fresh lemon juice

25ml Tieguanyin tea syrup

5ml Taiwan honey

2 lemon-mint marigold leaves

Crystal pear

Method:

1.     Chill a coupe glass

2.     Add the Cîroc Vodka, Tieguanyin tea syrup, Taiwan honey, crystal pear juice, fresh lemon juice and lemon-mint marigold leaves to a shaker (smack the leaves first to release the flavour) with ice

3.     Shake until chilled and double strain into the chilled coupe glass

4.     Garnish with a cinnamon stick and lemon-mint marigold leaves.

  Ciudad Condal

Created by Adriana Chia @ Solange, Barcelona, Spain

“From sunrise to sunset, Barcelona is an ever-changing cultural hub, and this evolving drink really captures the essence of the city. With delicate flavours of local sherry, fresh tangerine and olive oil, its changing tones make it a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds.”

Ingredients:

50ml Tanqueray no. Ten Gin

30ml Fino sherry wine

30ml chamomila syrup

15ml fresh tangerine juice

4 drops of olive oil

Saffron ice ball

Method:

1.     Add the Tanqueray No. Ten gin, sherry wine, chamomila syrup, and fresh tangerine juice to a shaker with ice

2.     Double strain into a coupe glass

3.     Add a saffron ice ball, and top with four drops of olive oil and a few strands of saffron.

  Queen Anne’s Lace

Created by Andrew Meltzer @ 15 Romolo, San Francisco, USA

“Created with San Francisco’s local produce and creative spirit in mind, Queen Anne’s Lace is an eccentric mix of ingredients inspired by Northern Californian cuisine. The clean, crisp taste and understated sweetness make this delicious drink a great brunch-time swap for a standard Bloody Mary.”

Ingredients:

45ml Ketel One Vodka

22ml carrot juice

7.5ml lemon juice

7.5ml fennel syrup

7.5ml floral liqueur (Iris or St Germain)

Dash of absinthe

Fennel frond (or thyme sprig, edible flowers) to garnish

Method:

1.     Chill a stemmed glass

2.     Add the lemon juice, absinthe, fennel syrup, carrot juice, floral liqueur and Ketel One Vodka to a shaker and stir

3.     Add ice, and then shake until chilled

4.     Double strain into the chilled glass

5.     Spritz with lemon oil from a slice of fresh peel

6.     Garnish with lion peel and a fennel frond.

Hot Primavera

Created by Mica Rousseau @ Four Seasons Hotel, Mexico City

“The Hot Primavera is a complex cocktail that reflects the unique character of Mexico city perfectly. A base of tequila is mixed with an assortment of syrups, and marinated slices of fresh guava to create a flavourful nod to Mexico’s customs. And while most drinks are served over ice, the Hot Primavera bucks the trend by being served over heated stones for a comforting, warming drink.”

Ingredients:

50ml Don Julio Reposado tequila

15ml vanilla syrup

15ml nutmeg syrup

15ml Chile ancho licor

40ml hot chamomile and rooibos tea

4 guava slices, caramelised in sugar, bitters and Don Julio Reposado

2 slices of orange peel

4 dashes of avocado leaf bitters

Method:

1.     Add the Don Julio Reposado tequila, Chile ancho licor, vanilla syrup, nutmeg syrup and guava slices to an earthenware cup

2.     Spritz the orange peel over the drink, and then add to the cup along with the hot chamomile and rooibos tea

3.     Add hot river stones and stir to combine

  [gallery type="rectangular" link="file" ids="24273,24272,24274"]

The post DIAGEO RESERVE’S WORLD CLASS PREMIERES NEW TRAVEL DOCUMENTARY SERIES appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://ift.tt/2qznmyO Greg

[epchapman89]

A Coffee Competitor Behind The Cocktail Bar

The US Coffee Competitions season is kicking off this weekend in Knoxville, which means we’re buzzing here at Sprudge HQ. You can follow the action all season long over at our sister site, Sprudge Live, but today we want to interpolate a different mode of being. Did you know, dear reader, that there is all manner of beverage competitions out there in this great wide world of ours? Ay, tis true, and some of the most stirring stuff happens amongst the cocktail folk, a plucky and typically gregarious bunch with a strong subculture of competition coursing amongst the highest levels of the discipline.

Narrow is the path betwixt the two, but it’s a path walked by Brandon Paul Weaver, a Seattle-based coffee and cocktail professional currently balancing a full slate of competitions in both fields. As a coffee competitor he’s a regional champion and national finalist, plus an established coach, and as a cocktailer he came within a hair’s breadth of winning a recent Bacardi Legacy event in Seattle. Weaver is part of a vanguard of the new coffee + cocktail professional, and he’s not alone—more and more beverage pros are blurring the lines behind bars and showing that the two worlds may not be as different as they seem.

On the eve of the 2017 US Coffee Champs season, we bring you this interview with Brandon Paul Weaver, discussing the glaring differences and certain damnable similarities between the worlds of competitive coffee and cocktails. Behold, and drink well.

Hey, Brandon—give us a little introduction to what you do up there in Seattle, working in both coffee and cocktail worlds.

Hey, Jordan! I currently bartend at Liberty Bar, which we are in the process of converting into a worker-owned co-op, and do a little coffee consulting (and even a little roasting these days…but that’s on the down low…for now).

Brandon Paul Weaver competes in the 2015 United States Barista Championship (Photo via SprudgeLive / Zachary Carlsen)

What is your background in coffee competitions?

I have competed in three seasons, winning the NW Brewers Cup, making US Brewers Cup finals and Barista semi-finals once each. Last year I coached Maxwell Mooney (Barista) and Chelsey Walker-Watson (Brewers Cup) who both qualified for the national US competition.

Talk to us about the cocktail competitions—how did you get involved? Was this your first season competing?

There are a ton of different cocktail competitions. The vast majority of them are sponsored by a specific brand and one is invited to apply online. The sponsor picks (semi)finalists and those folks compete in person. This more or less is the first year I’ve thrown my hat in the ring of bartending competitions.

For folks who are unfamiliar, how does the national/international structure of these cocktail competitions work? Are there multiple competing ones, like in coffee—and if so, what made you choose the one you did? Do regional events feed up to national events and a world tournament?

Competition format and scope vary just like in coffee. There are some more informal ones (like a TNT, for example) that brand representatives might organize in a local sales region. Liberty’s Morgan Marchant recently made it into the finals for one of these held by Jameson Irish Whiskey. In round one you replicated the cocktail you applied with, then there was a speed round and a final that asked the bartenders to make the most interesting/ delicious Jameson Manhattan (Morgan made a version of a Tipperary that was delicious). The prizes for these competitions are often money or bar gear (again like a TNT).

Then there are the bigger competitions organized through the United States Bartenders Guild (USBG) and sponsored by larger international companies like Bacardi, Bombay, and Diageo. These are more similar in scope and rigor to the Coffee Champs and just as diverse in terms of structure. Taking Bombay Sapphire’s “Most Imaginative Bartender” as an example, folks apply regionally with a unique cocktail (using “imaginative” ingredients, techniques, presentation, etc.) and a select few are chosen in each region to demonstrate their creation in front of a panel of judges. The winners of these go on to a national competition where any number of unique challenges are thrown at them.

My partner in swag hospitality, Nik Virrey, won the Northwest competition a couple years ago and Bombay flew the two of us out to Vegas. In the first round he was matched against three others and the challenge was to create a delicious and compelling cocktail utilizing a strange ingredient and specific technique revealed to them just seconds beforehand. It was gnarly. In one round folks had to chisel down a 3′ X 3′ block of ice to use in their cocktail and three of the four competitors cut themselves. The 6 finalists were given a budget of $1000 and an entire day to gather ingredients and supplies to construct mind blowing cocktail which they would present to a group of national and international cocktail luminaries. The winner receives lots of money, fame, and a feature in GQ!

Structurally what are you asked to do as a cocktail competitor? How is the stage time structured?

What we are asked to do definitely depends on the structure of the specific competition. For a Monkey Shoulder scotch competition, we had to take a 100 question test, free pour specific amount of liquid accurately, take orders and serve drinks to an eight person table under time pressure and estimate inventory cost.

For Diageo’s World Class competition (basically the bar version of Coffee Masters), the application requires you to create a cocktail menu with a specific theme and to explain why it is a world class menu. The folks chosen to represent their regions are flown to a larger competition where they demonstrate a cocktail from the menu and participate in several more challenges. The infamous speed round involves making 8-12 inventive and delicious drinks in 10 minutes while simultaneously explaining what you’re doing and generally exuding charm. The standard for technical precision and hospitality is extremely high in these competitions. Participation is panic inducing to be sure.

Signature beverages. (Photo via SprudgeLive / Zachary Carlsen)

Thank you for correctly using the word “infamous.” I’m curious, what drinks did you create for your most recent cocktail competition appearance?

I recently competed in the Bacardi Legacy competition wherein the idea is to make a drink that could become a classic and stand the test of time. Part of the way people win is to offer a compelling story behind the drink. I made a riff on Audrey Saunders’ cocktail, the Old Cuban, using Bacardi 8, lemon juice, Peychaud’s bitters, soda water, basil and cascara syrup. My idea was that the drink plays into Cuba’s coffee history as much as it does mine. My other major point was that this style of rum is made from molasses, which was a waste product of the sugar industry before people got wise and made rum from it. I claimed that cascara is in a similar state as a waste product and that we should follow suit by crafting it into delicious beverages. I tied for first and lost in a daiquiri-off to the admirable Cameron George, who is also our newly crowned Washington State USBG President.

What do you think is the biggest difference between the cocktail competitions and the coffee competitions? 

Funding. The cocktail competitions come with a lot more sponsorship than the coffee competitions. It is standard practice in the cocktail world for even the regional competitors to be offered a travel stipend, making the barrier for entry more about merit than money. By way of comparison, imagine a world where folks fill out a lengthy application to Coffee Champs, the SCAA chooses the top 10% of applicants and then flies everyone to the venue, all expenses paid. I don’t know if that would be better or worse, but that is how many cocktail competitions work.

That said, the bigger coffee competitions are certainly more evenly judged. It’s no secret, the selection for the finalists in cocktail competitions are made by people with agendas. Since it’s their money that makes the competition possible, they prefer winners who will represent their brand positively and they are the sole judge of that. Conversely, the rules and regulations for Coffee Champs are far more specific and thorough than anything I have seen from cocktail competitions.

What do you think is the biggest similarity between the two? Is there an open exchange of skills or nah?

The biggest similarity is that the vast majority of competitors (and consequently, winners) look a lot like each other. White dudes. This isn’t something that I should be worried about since I’m one of them (and I am certainly trying to win) but I think it’s imperative that an industry based on hospitality show empathy for its own members. There are real career benefits to be gained from competing so, if a sizable segment of our co-workers are not receiving these rewards, we should be as concerned as any well functioning, empathetic human would be.

I hear folks say that if women or people of color want to win they should enter more competitions. While low turnout is certainly part of the issue, I want to suggest that it might be a symptom of a larger problem which is a bit more nuanced. It can be intensely taxing to compete but for many, the opportunity to win makes the effort worth it. Conversely, if no one like you has won, the work of competition might seem like a futile, Sisyphean process.

Let me be clear, I’m not trying to speak for anyone else by saying this, but I am trying to imagine how someone different from me might feel. I mean, I would have a hard time entering a competition under those circumstances. This is obviously a larger issue and one that we aren’t going to solve today, but the good news is that we don’t have to wallow in negativity or assign blame. Both industries could do a better job of hiring, encouraging, and rewarding folks who maybe haven’t seen themselves as someone who could do well in these competitions.

In fact, let’s do this now: if you work in coffee or cocktails and are reading this, go tell someone that you think they should compete. Chances are you have a coworker whom you respect and, if you thought about it, would do really well in competition. Go tell them! Tell them they are more than deserving of the prizes, accolades, and glory and what’s more, you think they have the qualities to do really well! Hearing that one’s peers think highly of you can make all the difference.

Is there a similar coaching / mentoring structure in the cocktail world as there is in coffee? This is something we’ve watched really grow and develop over the last few seasons in coffee, and I know you’ve worked as a coach yourself, so I’m curious if that’s in the cocktail world too.

From what I can tell there is not really a similar structure for coaching. The Coffee Champs tend to be pretty consistent in terms of the types of things they reward, meaning that specific experience in competitions can make someone a good coach. Cocktail competitions might change wildly year to year so it can be hard to coach for. Plus, there is somewhat less need for a coach in the cocktail world as bartenders are generally surrounded with people (coworkers, chefs) who do the work of the coach. Also, a great bartender is typically already good at public speaking, so the presentation aspect comes more naturally than it may to baristas. Basically bar competitions tend to be a lot more like bartending than the coffee competitions are like working a barista shift.

Will you continue to compete in cocktails? Will you continue to compete in coffee?

Most definitely. There are few things in this industry as rewarding as competing and the relationships made with fellow competitors. I’m currently in the midst of several competitions as we speak. Stay tuned!

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

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