If you’re familiar with Cocktails and Cordials, it’s not likely to come as a surprise to you that I’m a huge fan of G’Vine gin, particularily their “Nouaison” expression. Late last year, I added a few posts about their educational contest, the G’Vine Gin Connoisseur’s program (view the posts here and here), headed up by Philip Duff.

The competition strove to not only test gin-inclined bartenders, but also to educate on things like gin history, production, cocktails, marketing, and of course, the G’Vine brand. After the first round of education received such an overwhelming response, with more than 300 participating bartenders worldwide, the initial deadlines were extended. That gave G’Vine the opportunity to bring in one of the forth-most authorities on gin: Gary Regan.

Well, it appears that G’Vine has finished marking the first round of entries, and they’ve selected my 17 page submission as the first one to be featured! To see my submission, along with comments and critiques from Gary Regan (last page if you want to skip to it), click the following link:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27055177/Gin-Marketing-in-the-21st-Century-Defining-a-Brand-Through-Marketing-by-Nick-Nemeth-Canada-and-Comments-by-Gary-Regan

Popularity: 25% [?]

In January of 2009, Johnny Rocco’s launched the first annual Iron Chef Niagara event, pitting 8 local chefs against each other, in a series of events supporting a handful of local children’s charities. In the end, we were able to raise nearly $23,000. Based on the success of last year’s events, we thought it would only be fitting to expand the focus to the bar as well.

Iron Bartender kicked off this past Tuesday, February 23 with our first event sponsored by El Jimador tequila. Our featured bartenders were commissioned to created two El Jimador cocktails, the first featuring the spirit and any additional ingredients they wanted. The second cocktail was done blackbox style, with our bartenders limited to El Jimador and the following ingredients.

I was joined by local bartender Sonia Fillion, and in the end, a random selection of judges deemed my ‘Strawberry Passion Awareness’ (I know, I lost points on originality) cocktail — a blend of El Jimador, Galliano, Nutella, Lime, Strawberry, and simple syrup, the winner. I’m not quite sure how I feel about winning my own cocktail competition, but it was a ton of fun.

The next night, at our Iron Bartender event at Johnny Rocco’s Niagara Falls, we were joined by bartenders Troy Dowhaniuk (Jack Astor’s Hamilton) and Shawn Murphy (Artisanal Palate Catering) in an event sponsored by Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum. Same format, same group of random ingredients, but this pairing of bartenders gave us much different results, with a much more creative use of the mystery flavours. The voting was very close, but in the end, Troy’s drink was declared the winner. His cocktail, “Grandpa Jack’s Cider” combined Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Galliano, peach juice, cinnamon, and chai tea. Troy scored extra points on presentation, with his rim of cinnamon and blackberry jam.

Troy will move on to compete in the semi-finals in St. Catharines on April 27th (sponsored by Campari), and I will move on to the Niagara Falls event on the following day (sponsored by Sarpa di Poli Grappa).
The next round of competition will be March 23rd and 24th with events sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin, and Woodford Reserve bourbon, respectively.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out, and to the sponsors who have helped us make this event happen!

To see the rest of the photos, click here.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Whether you’re Canadian or not, it’s tough to ignore the Olympic craze surrounding us all. Tune into ‘The Straight Pour’, hosted by Paul and Ann Tuennermann, organizers of Tales of the Cocktail, tomorrow morning for some insight from myself and Darcy O’Neil on what impact the Olympics have had on Canadian bars and bartenders.

In addition, you’ll get a sneak peek as to what you can expect from this year’s Tales of the Cocktail event – I’ll be hosting a seminar entitled “Social Media: Creating Cocktail Legends” alongside Brian Rea and Camper English, and Darcy has a few, much more intelligent, seminars he’ll be presenting as well.

The show starts at 11AM EST, and you can tune in at http://www.wistradio.com. And yes, this mean’s that the downtime around Cocktails and Cordials is finally over.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Well folks, it’s nearly that time again – the bartender’s holiday of the year! Join us next Saturday, December 5th for the 76th celebration of the Federal Repeal of Prohibition in the United States, fully ratified on December 5, 1933.

If you’ll be anywhere close to the Washington, DC area, join Jeffrey Morgenthaler and bartending greats Todd Thrasher, Dale Degroff, Tad Carducci, and more for the Second Annual Repeal Day Ball, held by The DC Craft Bartender’s Guild (DCCBG) on December 5th, from 9PM to midnight.

Tickets are on sale now, $100 USD for general admission, $150 for VIP, with a portion of all ticket sales going to help the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans.

I don’t know yet if I’ll get a chance to make it to Washington, but I’m doing everything I can to re-arrange my schedule to let me go. Wherever it is you end up on Repeal Day, raise a glass of thanks to the right to drink legally, and celebrate all things great and inspiring about our craft.

Tickets to the Repeal Day Ball can be purchased online through the DC Craft Bartender’s Guild website at http://www.dccraftbartendersguild.org/

Popularity: 45% [?]

When I first posted about the G’Vine Gin Connoisseur Program at the beginning of the month, word had yet to extend to the majority of the bartending masses. As of this week, the once quaint competition has officially gone global, registering participants from the 24th participating country so far.

In the spirit of the recent surge in participants, G’vine has extended the deadline for the completion of their program, in order to give all of the new registrants a fair shot at competing. The new dates are below.

Deadline #1: January 15, 2010
Complete all 4 of the online multiple-choice exams, plus write and submit your Gin Marketing Essay.

Deadline #2: March 15, 2010
Write a blog entry, create a signature G’Vine cocktail, serve and sell up to 50 bottles of G’Vine Floraison or G’Vine Nouaison gin.

G’Vine not available in your market? (Just like here in Ontario) Not a problem. While the majority of the 12 finalist slots are reserved for participants from some of G’Vine’s big markets, they’ve also reserved a few slots for international “wildcards”. The course and competition will take some time to complete, so quit putting it off. Get started today.

The course focuses on providing bartenders with a better knowledge of Gin and the G’Vine brand, with huge prizes for the participants who demonstrate their knowledge the best. Care to learn more? For more information on the G’vine Gin Connoisseur’s Program, click here.

Popularity: 30% [?]