So the pace has been picking up in the G'Vine GCP 2010 with all the finalists announced and only a month to go before we all get together in Cognac for a week of frighteningly tough challenges. Phil Duff took a certain sadistic pleasure I'm sure, in sending out The Final Info Pack (and yes those capital letters were intended), a briefing of epic proportions that, in addition to dispelling any ideas we might have had about a relaxing holiday in the French countryside, explained in minute detail exactly how difficult this competition actually is!
The challenges are all encompassing, from the more technical side of bartending with speed and accuracy rounds through to written knowledge exams and (my personal nemesis) blind tasting and nosing! All of this leads up to the final night in Paris where we each customise and man our own Gin Bar at the inaugural G'Vine Spring Ball where the guests themselves will be the judges, determining the winner by how well they support our individual bars.
The good side however (not that drinking gin in France really has a bad side) is that no matter what happens with the competition it looks like we'll have a great time out there and learn more about Gin than any sane (or sober) person should ever know! It looks like we've got a great bunch of guys together for the finals and we've been chatting amongst ourselves with a couple of nice ideas to make the trip even more memorable.
We'll also be joined by a couple of big names such as Gary Regan, who will be our coach for the duration of the competition and the entire week will be live blogged and Tweeted by Darcy O'Neil and Jay Hepburn on their respective sites.
All in all it's shaping up to be a great week but there is much work to be done over the upcoming month...Just decided on a theme that's got me quite excited so I'm off to put some thought into that!
The Finalists of the 2010 G'Vine Gin Connoisseurs Program
Brian Mac Gregor-USA
Damien Aries-France
Mohamed Falil din Jayah-UAE
Martin Lange-Australia
Nick Nemeth-Canada
Oron Lerner-Israel
Javier Bravo-Ireland
Rob Poulter-UK
Ryan Duvenage-South Africa
Spyros Patsialos-Greece
Stefanos Paraskevoudis-Greece
Stephan Hinz-Germany
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I dunno, Im still planning onna happy vacation inbetween the various challenges!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck & be seeing you there
A couple of nice ideas ? I'd gladly listen to them ... Cheers, and get prepared !!!
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