Drinks With... is an Alcademics category in which I share what I've learned when meeting with industry notables. This July I had a group dinner and drinks at Tres Agaves with Gaston Martinez of Milagro Tequila. Milagro has two lines of tequila- a "core" and "select" line. I've always liked... Read more →
Drinks With... is an Alcademics category in which I share what I've learned when meeting with industry notables. Recently I went to an event for Grand Marnier hosted by Steven Olson and Andy Seymour, both of B.A.R. and akaWineGeek. I've been to a few Grand Marnier events before, but at... Read more →
Juan Contreras is the son of Don Pilar, the guy whose name is on the bottle. He's also the brand ambassador and marketing director. I met him at Zazil for some tequila. But really the story is all about Don Pilar. Contreras said his father had an agave ranch in... Read more →
Chesterfield Browne has an awesome name and a pretty awesome job as the International Brand Ambassador for Mount Gay Rum. We met up for drinks at Absinthe a few months ago. (As you can tell, I'm catching up on some long-overdue Drinks With blog posts.) Mount Gay is made by... Read more →
About two weeks after I met up with Hamish Torrie of Ardbeg, Paul Neep, Chief Executive at The Glenmorangie Company (of which Ardbeg is part) came into town to talk Glenmorangie. Unfortunately we picked the Redwood Room to do so- they only carried two of Glenmo's line and discontinued the... Read more →
This May I sat down for a quick bite of breakfast at Level III with Rob Samuels, Director of Global Brand Development for Maker's Mark bourbon. As tends to be the case in the bourbon industry, Samuels is related to someone else in the company- his father Bill Samuels Jr,... Read more →
This is the first installment of Drinks With, a new Alcademics category where I talk about what I talked about when having drinks with persons in the cocktails and spirits industry. Frequently I meet with brand ambassadors, bartenders, distillers, and other folks. I may learn a single bit of information... Read more →