Beverage Dynamics

Beverage Dynamics - January/February 2017

Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.

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12 Beverage Dynamics • January/February 2017 www.beveragedynamics.com Spirits are graded under unusual parameters during The New York International Spirits Competition (NYISC). Judges still blind-taste entries, and receive info about style, age and geographical origin. But they also get to see the market price of each spirit, and taste entries in sets of price ranges. Judges can therefore decide whether a spirit's quality matches its retail cost. This is taken strongly into account when awarding medals. For example, a whiskey that earns silver at $75 may have gotten gold at fi fteen dollars cheaper. PROFESSIONAL TASTE NYISC judges are well suited to critique this cost-to-quality ratio. All tasters are trade professionals: retail buyers, restaurant own- ers, professional mixologists, hotel beverage directors, distributors, importers, etc. The competition does not bring in full-time writers or bloggers - only those with purchasing power. This also holds true for all other judging events held by its host organization, International Beverage Competitions. The company organizes similar competitions for beer and wine. And beyond these three annual New York events, matching competitions also take place in Berlin, Melbourne and Asia. All 12 events are judged entirely by trade professionals. "Only trade buyers know what the customers actually want, and at what price, because they're the ones interacting with the consumers," explains Adam Levy, founder of International Bever- age Competitions. NO MEDAL FACTORY Levy launched his fi rst event seven years ago, after reading how some major alcohol competitions award medals to more than 84% of entries. His judging is not as generous. "We're not a medal factory," explains Levy, who also runs the alcohol news/reviews website, Alcoholprofessor.com. Levy points out that he has no fi nancial motives with the outcomes of his competitions. He runs a tech company full-time and pursues alcohol ventures as a hobby. He owns no shares in alcohol-re- lated businesses. That's to the point. His goal is an alcohol competition that's as fair and impartial as possible. Products do not receive medals sim- ply for submitting. Of the approximately 600 spirits entered into the 2016 New York International Spirits Competition, only nine won SPIRITS JUDGED DIFFERENTLY Medals Are No Given At NYISC BY KYLE SWARTZ TRIP REPORT Judges consider spirits during the 2016 New York International Spirits Competition.

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