As with all cocktail competitions abroad, this year’s Gin Connoisseur Program started out with 15 people standing around a hotel lobby, looking a bit shy, sizing up their competition. Strangers from all corners of the world with two things in common – 1) they all tend bar and 2) they’ve all won passage to Cognac as global finalists in G’Vine gin’s annual competition. By the end of the week, they will have forged friendships for life.EuroWineGate owns G’Vine gin, and their French marketing team has spent the last several months buried in logistics of getting this group together once they’ve been named the regional winners in their country or region. Philip Duff created numerous challenges for the contestants to test their knowledge and skills, as well as learn new things in the process. Day 1 looked something like this:
Blind Tasting: The blind tasting consisted of 10 glasses of varying colored liquid. The finalists had to nose (smell) each one and write down what they thought was in the glass. The next step was to taste them all, and compare notes with their initial reactions from smell alone. There was only one catch… they were all grape-based spirits from around the world.There were the obvious liquids – G’Vine Floraison, G’Vine Nouaison, Ciroc vodka and one of the piscos. However, some of the other ones threw me for a loop… in particular glass #6 which was amber in color, had a sort of sour smell (Dale DeGroff described it as “dirty baby diaper”). Those of us who were not finalists discussed amongst ourselves and still remained undecided. This list is pretty tough – do you think you could blind taste and name them?
- #1 eau de vie
- #2 Armagnac
- #3 Spanish grape-based gin
- #4 grappa
- #5 pisco
- #6 Marc from champagne
- #7 G’Vine Floraison gin
- #8 cognac
- #9 G’Vine Nouaison gin
- #10 Borovicka a Slovak juniper brandy
Picnic in Grand Champagne: The G’Vine distillery is in Cognac so, of course, we wanted the finalists to experience the beauty of the surrounding area. What more beautiful way to do that than with a picnic in the middle of the Grand Champagne vineyards? Fois gras, cheese, wine, and other French delights were the perfect welcome for our guests. Brand Ambassador Seminar: The theme for this year’s GCP is Brand Ambassadorship, the dream job of many bartenders. So, who better to speak about the duties, realities and goals of a great Brand Ambassador than an "international mystery guest" who was named Best Global Brand Ambassador at the Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail . The finalists had an opportunity to hear about this person’s career from his first bar job to his current position, as well as ask him questions. The talk was honest, entertaining and informative. And, the opportunity of a lifetime to ask one of the world’s best.
Distillery Tour: Artisanal spirits distilleries are the most interesting to visit because, unlike the huge million-cases-per-year products, the stills in small distilleries have everything to do with the final liquid. Just as with a small winery, where the winemaker babies the grapes and oversees every step of the process, the master distiller working in a craft distillery is intimately connected with his or her ingredients and tools.Each still in the EuroWineGate distillery has a name and a pin up girl on the still itself to personify the product. The G’Vine still is named Lilly Fleur and is of the most beautiful pieces of functional art I’ve seen. The bartenders got to see where the magic begins. 
Gin Making Challenge: As bartenders, we work with spirits every day. So, of course, following the distillery tour, the finalists had an opportunity to try their hand at creating their own. EuroWineGate provided juniper, a range of botanicals as well as grape-based distillate and Ugni Blanc flower distillat, which are the distinguishing ingredients in G'Vine gin. 
Champagne Reception and Dinner: Any celebratory event must include some bubbly. The finalists were treated to hors d’oeuvres and sparkling cocktails featuring June liqueur. June is EuroWineGate’s grape-based liqueur macerated with Ugni Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet flowers made in a Florentine still named Flo. The perfect start to the first fabulous gourmet dinner of the week.After dinner, everyone had one last nightcap at the hotel bar and prepared for Day 2…