Gegham Ghazaryan Wins the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 Competition

Last night was the grand finale, the Summer Ball, for the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals. For the contest the bartenders had to set up and decorate a bar, serve a cocktail all night, and win both the approval of the crowd and the judges. 

The cocktails were judged by Phil Duff, Audrey Fort of G'Vine, and Gaz Regan. The attendees of the ball were given 5 tokens each, which they could give to the bartenders with the best drinks at the event. 

Gegham Ghazaryan from the bar Xandom in Alicante, Spain, won not only the most tokens of the night but the competition overall. 

His drink was: 

Coupage Floral by Gegham Kazarian, Xandom, Alicante

1½ shots G'Vine Floraison
¾ shot June liqueur
¾ shot pink grapefruit juice
½ shot lime juice
½ shot cardamom and ginger syrup
¼ shot blueberry reduction (that had cardomom and many other ingredients in it)

Method:Shake everything except the reduction with ice. Strain into a crushed-ice-filled old fashioned glass. Dash the reduction on top. Garnishwith blueberry, ginger, cardamom, cassia, lime and grapefruit peel flambéd withFloraison and June.

For those of you who've been paying attention to the competition overall, here are the top winners for all the individual competitions.

Make Your Own Gin: David Wolowidnyk, Jeff Bell, Gegham Ghazaryan & Guillaume Ferroni

Speed Drink-Making: Torsten Spuhn, Solomon Siegel, David Wolowidnyk & Guillaume Ferroni & Javier Ruiz Vera

Free Pouring: Terry Cashman, Michael Pazdon, Jill Saunders

Aroma Exam: Gegham Ghazaryan & David Gonzalez, Jeff, David Wolowidnyk & Guillaume Ferroni

Written Exam: Michael Pazdon, Torsten Spuhn, Guillaume Ferroni

Summer Ball Cocktail (Judges): Gegham Ghazaryan, Jill Saunders, David Wolowidnyk

Summer Ball Cocktail (Crowd): Gegham Ghazaryan, David Gonzalez, David Wolowidnyk

So there were a great representation of people winning different challenges and honestly I had no clue who was going to win overall until it was announced. 

It's been a great week and a pleasure hanging out with these awesome bartenders. This was a tough competition to win, so a huge congratulations to Gegham Ghazaryan!

See more photos on the Alcademics Facebook Page.