____________________________________ FOR SIX YEARS David Cordoba was the international face of Bacardi, but he didn’t always live a high-profile, glamorous life. He once lived in Bolton, a northern English city, famous for thick accents, a plucky football team and not eating garlic bread (Youtube: Peter Kay). It’s about the last place you’d expect to find the sophisticated Argentinian spending a day,…

IN NAIROBI, KENYA, THE BARS THAT opened after 1964 and Kenyan independence were mostly serving beer and whisky. There were no cocktails until the late ’90s when the resurgence of nightlife saw them become part of the guest experience. Restaurants such as the Carnivore popularised the now famous Dawa, an amazing and authentic local cocktail. Traditional serves such as G&T helped make way for…

New co-chairs Gary Solomon Jr of the local philanthropic Solomon Family and Cure’s Neal Bodenheimer finalised the purchase from co-founders Anne and Paul Tuennerman, who in 2017 were embroiled in a race row and faced questions as to the legitimacy of Tales’ charity status. Tales of the Cocktail will now transition to becoming a non-profit organisation. The new board has appointed Caroline Nabors Rosen as…

___________________________________________ ALLEN SMITH IS NOT an open book, which makes trying to read him that bit more interesting. Unlike many modern master blenders, who brim with hyperbole and self-aggrandisement, he seems a shy, modest man – in a way that makes you trust what he says and believe that he actually likes to get his hands dirty producing the rum he…

_____________________________________________ IMAGINE YOU PRODUCE a spirit that has been in long-term decline. Your loyalists are mostly domestic and at the latter stages of life. When they’re not around anymore, your company won’t be far behind. This is where genever producers found themselves 10 years ago. Genever, with around half a millennium of rich history, seemed like it was entering its final…

The magazine is a ranking of champagne brands from 1-30 based on the votes of the world’s top wine experts.  This year, which marks the fourth edition, saw Roederer beat Pol Roger to the number one spot.  Click here to read the Most Admired Champagne Brands 2018.

______________________________________ LAID-BACK manner, Tarzan hair and a childhood spent riding the waves of the Australian coastline, Luke Whearty appears every bit the surfer dude. Except things aren’t that clear-cut. Whearty actively avoids cliché, always choosing the alternative path to the norm. Coffs Harbour, where Whearty grew up from the age of 10, is a small coastal town a couple of hours…

Cachaça is a big category of around 85m 9-litre cases globally – but in the bar it is small. For now, rhum agricole looks like the sugar cane juice spirit most likely to catch bartenders’ imaginations, while cachaça has to do more to tell its story. That said, 90% of our sample of the world’s best bars stocked a cachaça. Two-thirds carried two brands but…

It’s a big win for Italian’s vermouths this year. The go-to brand in our poll of bars is Bacardí’s Martini, with 27% saying it was their most used. Around half of bars stock the brand, which had looked a little tired (perhaps resulting in its fourth-place finish last year), but the launch of Riserva Speciale has added a premium dimension. Bartenders have started to pick…

Sherry has risen to prominence in the cocktail bar in recent years, and bartenders are starting to look beyond style and towards brand. Tío Pepe, the iconic fino brand at under £10 a bottle, is a no-brainer for bartenders looking for a drier style. Indeed, 39% polled said it was their number one sherry and 65% put it in their top three. It’s owned by…