After the live interview with The Daily Buzz, Tony met with the host of Gal Time – a weekly half-hour show that will be launched in two weeks on the ABC affiliate in Orlando, before stretching out to more stations across the country. Tony taped five one-minute segments featuring one drink a piece. The recipes will also be on www.wswa.org and www.galtime.com.

Following the taped segments, Tony taped a 10 minute interview with Orlando’s Thunder Country radio 102.3 WTRS, pumping up the convention and great drink ideas for spring and summer. There was also a pretty in-depth conversation about pairing whiskeys with orange liquors.

Other media coverage throughout the convention included legendary golfer Fuzzy Zoeller having a 20 minute conversation on The Golf Channel’s Morning Drive. He talked about his new Fuzzy Premium Vodka and the WSWA convention.  You can check it out here – http://www.thegolfchannel.com/golf-videos/-15710/?ref=26000.

The Captain Andy Hillstrand of Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch and investors for the Brand Name Imports plugged the WSWA convention on Orlando’s hit rock station, WJRR 101. A link is here http://www.wjrr.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?podcast=crash&selected_podcast=Andy%2520Hillstrand.mp3.

Back to Tony, The Modern Mixologist, he appeared on nearly 20 television stations and radio and Internet outlets as part of a Satellite Media Tour Monday. During that time, he plugged a number of great drink recipes and the excitement happening at the WSWA convention.

Prior to that, attendees previewed some of the hottest new product launches and had a chance to sample winners of the Wine & Spirits Tasting Competition at the Opening Night Reception/Taste of the Industry event.  Tune back in soon to find out who won.

Early this morning, the convention kicked-off a satellite media tour with Tony Abou-Ganim, the Modern Mixologist, with 25 different media markets across the country.  Tony discussed the latest and greatest trends from the convention as well as the latest summer drink recipes—all of which can be found at wswa.org.

Attendees gathered later that morning because the General Session with Daniel Okrent, author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, couldn’t be missed.  Okrent talked about the reason the United States adopted prohibition, why it failed and lessons learned.  He said he initially wanted to title his book How the Hell Did That Happen? because prohibition and slavery are the only two amendments in the U.S. Constitution trying to regulate human behavior.   Some highlights include:

• He said Americans once had a drinking problem, in the 1800s there was a point when the average person over 15 drank seven and a half gallons of pure alcohol a year.  “Americans drank constantly… from the crack of dawn to the crack of dawn,” Okrent said.
• Prohibition was enacted in 1919 and did not ban the consumption of alcohol, just the transportation and acquisition of alcohol.
• Americans could bypass prohibition laws if they were preserving fruit (which people could then turn into wine in their homes), for medicinal purposes or for religious sacrament.
• Although drinking did decrease during prohibition, crime and governmental corruption skyrocketed. The need to find a new revenue base following the Great Depression was a big motivating force for ending the ban as the government needed to tax liquor sales.

Okrent said, the lesson learned “not that we can’t legislate against morality, but you can’t legislate against the human appetite. People will get what they want.”

Next up this afternoon is the “Call for Cocktails”: Mixology Competition, the Wholesaler “Iron Mixologist” Competition, both sponsored by The Tasting Panel magazine, and the Growth Brand Awards Reception from the Beverage Information Group.

• Strengthening the sphere of influence for WSWA and encouraging members to get involved and make a difference
• Enhancing the PAC to strategically respond to issues today that affect the wholesale tier
• Supporting or at least remaining neutral about important legislative issues such as HR 1161/CARE Act

Bobby presented the Sidney Frank Award to Bill Samuels, president of Maker’s Mark Distillery.  Samuels joked that even though he retired last week, his youngest son who is taking over his duties, went on vacation and his first week of retirement was spent working 70 plus hours. 

General Stanley McChrystal, who has been referred to as one of the country’s greatest warriors, faced a logistical nightmare with a cancelled flight and lost luggage.  Ever unflappable, he took the stage sporting jeans and a donated Ritz Carlton T-shirt and blew away the attendees with his talk about Plywood Leadership.  He focused on plywood as a material that by itself is weak and breakable, but when glued together has strength.  Just like a team of people who are the much stronger than their individual parts.

He discussed how leadership is paramount in all aspects of life – education, politics, business and family – and that 9/11 happened because of a breakdown of the leadership process.  The four attributes that he gave for leaders include a relentless focus; fearlessness; the ability to embrace and harness change and trust.  These attributes lead to solving problems, implementing change, the ability to build trust-based relationships and being able to understand the landscape to make the right decisions. 

He also acknowledged Craig’s patriotism for his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in his role as a captain of the U.S. Army Reserve, JAG corps, which happened to be the original unit of McChrystal’s father.

The general session followed with the ribbon cutting ceremony with Harmelin, Craig Wolf and the Maxim models who gave a teaser about tonight’s exclusive Maxim, Skyy Spirits and WSWA after-party for convention attendees.

Friendly reminder: The early bird registration for WSWA’s 68th Annual Convention & Exposition in Orlando, April 10-13, 2011, ends on Friday, Jan. 7. Register now to take advantage of the early bird discounted registration fees and ensure availability of discounted hotel accommodations.

NEW THIS YEAR:

WSWA’s Annual Convention & Exposition offers a variety of opportunities for distributor and supplier interaction. In addition to the traditional convention elements, we have added a number of new exciting events and programs to the 2011 convention including:

• Wholesaler “Iron Mixologist” Competition
• A re-created and combined Opening Night Reception/Taste of the Industry event
• General Sessions each morning
• Expanded educational offerings
• Increased lifestyle and trade media presence

For a preliminary schedule of events, information on hospitality suites and/or to reserve an exhibit space click here to be directed to our convention webpage.  

Register before January 7, 2011 to take advantage of the early bird discounted registration fees, and to ensure availability of discounted hotel accommodations. For a preliminary schedule of events, information on hospitality suites and/or to reserve an exhibit space click here to be directed to our convention webpage.  

Register before January 7, 2011 to take advantage of the early bird discounted registration fees, and to ensure availability of discounted hotel accommodations.

In my last post, I talked about the three tier system in the US and what goes on at the WSWA convention in La Vegas. Now I want to mention how the convention is changing.

This was the first year that they invited consumer press (I write for both consumer and trade) to attend, so it was a pleasure to bump into Wayne Curtis who also shared his thoughts on the show.

(perhaps the clutziest brand name in the industry, but I like this Irish whisky)

Last year was the first year they had a spirits tasting competition at the show, which I hope signals a shift in attention from ‘brands that look the most marketable’ to ‘brands that taste good.’ This wasn’t an all-out-thousand-bottle tasting competition like the SF World Spirits comp but a smaller one for brands at the show. Here are this years’ winners:

Best Cognac in Show
Bache-Gabrielsen Classic VSOP 8 Years France

Best White Spirit In Show
Chairman’s Reserve Rum  St. Lucia

Best Single Malt Scotch in Show
Best Brown Spirit in Show
Highland Park Single Malt Scotch, 18 years, Orkney, Scotland

Best Herbal/Botanical Liqueur in Show
Best Liqueur in Show
Pagès Parfait Amour  France

Best American Whiskey in Show
Rittenhouse Straight Rye Whiskey 25 Year Old  USA

Best Agave Distillite in Show
Scorpion Mezcal Anejo 1 year, Oaxaca, Mexico

Best Crème Liqueur in Show
Tres Leches Creme Liqueur  USA

This year they added a cocktail competition, judged by a group of bartenders and hosted by Tony Abou-Ganim. This was not a bartending competition, but one to showcase products. The brands submitted the recipes, rather than bartenders, so judges said that the entries ranged from simplistic and terrible cocktails like the ones you most often find on brand websites to delicious drinks created by consultant mixologists for the brands.

The winner of this contest was the delicious Brazillionaire cocktail, created by Tobin Ellis for Leblon cachaca.

THE LEBLON BRAZILLIONAIRE

2 speared Marasca Cherries
1.5 oz Leblon Cachaca
3/4 oz Cherry Heering (a Danish cherry liqueur)
1 oz Passion Fruit Puree (The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley)
1 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Sour (3:2 ratio of Lime to simple syrup)
8-10 fresh cilantro leaves
2 drops Sriracha Sauce

Combine ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.

The top three cocktail recipes can be found at this link (PDF file).

Furthermore, WSWA President and CEO Craig Wolf said in his keynote speech that he hopes the convention will continue to change. He said in a few years he’d like to see it become something more like the Consumer Electronics Show, where all the brands announce their new products for the year at once. From a journalist standpoint, that would be wonderful.

Why are events like WSWA Annual Convention & Exposition important to exclusive brands like Highland Park?

Daraz: It takes lots of dedicated and passionate people from many different companies  -  The Edrington Group, Remy Cointreau and all of our wonderful distributors to get the whiskies into consumers’ hearts and minds. Attending WSWA connects everyone in that supply chain.  Our single malts travel from the remote island of Orkney to every state in America , and it’s very important that when they do arrive nothing is lost in translation, so to speak!

What do you think the key has been to your success in promoting the Highland Park brand and image?

Daraz: I think it begins with the quality of our whiskies first and foremost, our liquid has been called “the best spirit in the world” (Highland Park 18, F.Paul Pacult, Spirits Journal 2005, 2009) We insist on maturing our spirit in expensive sherry oak casks from Spain. We hand cut our peat and floor malt our barley.  I’d like to think the entire Highland Park team focuses on communicating the committed and uncompromising nature of our production processes and that authenticity appeals to our consumers. 

From your perspective, what do you see as the future of successful beverage branding?

Daraz: I think the most important thing is to be as consistent as possible and maintain our face to face relationships with our partners, accounts and consumers even in the digital age. We want to continue making the best whisky we possibly can so we can share it with the world.