Booze Business | A blog dedicated to the business of spirits and wine

Industry Matters/News, Marketing and Sales

Competitions and Ratings

March 17, 2012 No Comments

Paul Pacult, the spirits writer/columnist/publisher, is someone I have known and admired, for many years. When he and his team invited me to observe and learn about their recent Ultimate Spirits Challenge, I jumped at the opportunity.

I’ve often wondered about tasting and judging events and the resulting awards from a number of standpoints. Are they impactful? Does the trade or consumers pay attention or care? How sound is the methodology?

So, with the opportunity to get a close and upfront view of a spirits judging, I set out to address these questions.

Brooklyn Booze

March 8, 2012 No Comments

Brooklyn is known for many things – churches, the original home of the Dodgers, peculiar accents and pronunciations, the 3^rd largest city in the country (if it were a city) and my “hometown.”

It also has an interesting history in the alcohol industry particularly in
distilled spirits.

A previous posting mentioned Kings County Distillery, which claims to be New York City’s oldest operating whiskey distillery, the first since before prohibition. They produce handcrafted bourbon and moonshine and I intend to visit their operation and report back.

In doing my research about them, other distillers and the history of Brooklyn in the booze business, I came across some interesting information.

Booze News — February

March 1, 2012 1 Comment

Here’s a round up of some of the peculiar news items I’ve come across in the month of February.

My favorite retailer

Among my proudest accomplishments is the fact that I’ve never viewed an episode of Jersey Shore, the TV reality show. I know all about it but consider it to be offensive in content and serves to foster inappropriate and incorrect stereotypes. As a result, you can imagine my delight in learning that Jersey Wines & Spirits in Jersey City has apparently taken the initiative to ban two of the “actors” from the show.

Snooki and J-Woww (I could not make that name up) will be living in a home in Jersey City while filming their new spin-off. The home is next to the store.