What Are the Best Cognac Ratings or Competitions? The International Spirits Challenge

International Spirits Challenge www.internationalspiritschallenge.com

The International Spirits Challenge is based in the UK, and it is very respected since 1995. The competition is founded on a rigorous and independent judging process, which serves to encourage the high calibre of spirits, designs and campaigns entered into the competition each year. Receiving more than 1,000 entries from nearly 70 countries worldwide makes the ISC is a truly global competition. It is supported by most of the world’s leading spirits producers as the international standard for quality and excellence.

International Spirits Challenge Logo

The ISC has evolved over recent years to recognize four key areas of the industry; Tasting, Design & Packaging, Marketing and Retailer Awards.

Marketing Awards: The aim of the ISC Marketing Awards is to recognize and celebrate the invaluable impact marketing has on creating and sustaining brand value which will ultimately improve profitability. Judges are drawn from marketing and advertising agencies to assess how well the campaign met the brief, overall brand strategy, evidence of innovation and creativity, positive results and statistics and return on investment.

* Best Launch Campaign

* Best Advertising Campaign

* Best Digital & Social Media Marketing Campaign

* Best Experiential Campaign

* Best PR Campaign

The International Spirits Challenge is home to some of the finest palates in the world. Each of the judges must have demonstrated their skill and knowledge in spirits before joining a specialist panel, and include master blenders, master distillers, importers, distributors, buyers, consultants, journalists, authors and independent experts.

The +: it is a well respected competition in Europe and the USA. For some reasons, some people do not trust the competitions in the USA, so they would rather leave it to foreigners. So it is a good choice for a balance of US/Europe ratings.

The -: Results are in November.

The UK have two leading competitions. I explain this by:

. Great Britain is an original and historical large purchaser of wines from France, and then the rest of Europe.

. GB is a large producer of whiskies, Gins, Beers, Ciders, etc..

What Are the Best Cognac Ratings or Competitions? The SIP AWARDS

SIP AWARDS www.sipawards.com

The Spirits International Prestige (SIP) Awards takes a new approach to beverage competitions by linking producers to the people who matter the most - The Consumers. Hence, SIP provides one of the most valid measures of beverage quality in the world. By working directly with consumers, SIP offers a more realistic opinion and more market driven point of view.

SIP AWARDS Logo

Their consumer judging panel strips away the layers of elaborate marketing, brand recognition, price point disparity, and most importantly, the bias of established judges. Spirits are judged in a blind tasting review on the characteristics of Aroma, Taste, and Finish.

The +: finally consumers are the judges.

The -: only a few consumers are judging, and therefore even if the validity of the research methodology is high, the reliability of the data set is poor because 100s of people would have to judge to make it reliable.  Reliability is how accurate is your data and validity is about how effectively you are measuring really what you are trying to measure. Therefore, one question: are all consumers equal. Answer is no. Do I want Gin lovers who would never buy a cognac evaluate my cognac. That is the advantage of using experts to judge because they are ‘supposed’ to know.

The reality is that they are not many cognac experts and the one who are really experts in cognac are mostly making it and not judging it. In addition, experts are often so unlikely representative of consumers’ tastes but at least one can expect more consistency among experts. In conclusion, experts favorites are often good products or more that the benefit.

What Are the Best Cognac Ratings or Competitions? The Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition and the Beverage Tasting Institute.

The Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition www.lawinecomp.com

This competition was initially for wine only and founded in 1939. In 2007, it began receiving entries for spirits. Awards are provided for gold, silver, and bronze medals. In 2009, there were 199 entries with 179 awarded medals.

Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition Logo

The +: situated in the middle of the capital of world entertainment. Well organized event, business friendly, ... increasingly referenced. Great longevity since 1939.

The -: the spirit rating is clearly an off-spring of the wine event, and one could say the spirit part of the event is in its introduction stage. In fact, the prices and logos state “Wine & Spirits” but website and other media references do not include the word ‘spirit’ or ‘spirits’, neither in presentations (photos ...) which proves it is starting and not their focus. As a side note they have an olive oil competition integrated in the event so it should be called: ‘Las Angeles International Wine, Spirits and Olive Oil Competition’. I think they should also do coffee, tea and why not beer!

The Beverage Tasting Institute www.tastings.com

The Beverage Testing Institute is based in Chicago, Illinois and was founded in 1981 with its initial focus on wine but later branching into the world of spirits and beer. They use a dedicated tasting laboratory in order to create consistent results and minimize external distractions. Each periodic tasting is conducted at the same time of day under identical conditions. The panelists are selected from the professional world of restaurants and publications under the leadership of director Jerald O'Kennard. Not all spirits are given a rating. Those of sufficient merit are awarded a point score between 80 and 100.

Beverage Tasting Institute

The institute seeks to produce "fair and impartial wine reviews for consumers." Buying guides have appeared in All About Beer, Epicurious.com, International Wine Review, Wine Enthusiast, Restaurant Hospitality, The New Yorker Magazine, and Wine & Spirits.

The +: highly recognized in the trade and used to promote to consumers. So it is working and it is clearly an official source. The spirit division is very seriously carried out and broken into departments: the whiskies, the bandies, the eaux-de-vie, ... Just from the fact that they divide and organize ratings of spirits by family and rate them at different times and per family says a lot. I like the scientific ‘kind of’ style this organization has. I like the fact that they clearly mentioned that not everyone gets to win something. No idea if it is true but it sounds good.

The -: rather expensive and many boutiques brands do not apply/submit anything which makes it a safe heaven for the spirits produced by large corporations.

What Are the Best Cognac Ratings or Competitions? The Internationaler Spirituosen-Wettbewerb ISW (www.mundusvini.de)

The case of the Internationaler Spirituosen-Wettbewerb ISW (www.mundusvini.de)

This competition was started in 2004 in Germany, and it is a subsidiary of Meininger Verlag in Neustadt, one of Germany's oldest specialist publishing houses and run by the 4th generation family. It specialises in wine and beverage publications for different target groups.

Internationaler Spirituosen-Wettbewerb Spirits Competition Germany

A special ISW supplement with a print run of more than 100,000 copies reports in detail on prize-winning spirits and their producers and is included with all the wine, beverage and hospitality trade magazines published by Meininger Verlag.

The ISW judges are renowned experts from wine & spirits institutes, producers, retailers and restaurateurs who have daily experience with spirits.

---> The +: this is a well organized competition that seems very professional.

---> The -: mostly from Europeans for Europeans, and in particular Germans.

What Are the Best Cognac Ratings or Competitions? The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) www.iwsc.net

The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) www.iwsc.net  is the most famous competitions has it has been seriously organized and supported by the majors of the industry for the longest. I think also it benefits from having been established in London by a British and a German person in 1969 so it has benefited from a solid organization and structure from the foundation. Europeans have taken a serious lead on this judging/rating a long time ago. The statistics and numbers are huge 30,000 submissions, 80 countries, 250 judges coming from all over the world, chemical analysis, and etc... But it is hard to decipher how much of this is dedicated to spirits. I guess about 1000 submissions for spirits.

International Wine and Spirit Competition, IWSC

This competition is also greatly enhanced by its world partner and media support mostly from the Drinks Business magazine, but also by its pertinent participation in the world’s leading trade exhibitions, such as Vinexpo, ProWein and Vinitaly.

Plus the IWSC has a huge experience in getting media coverage and offers promotional supports trough their networks of retail/industry connections. It is a powerful organization - no doubt. Far more powerful than the World Spirits Comp. in San Francisco presented above, and far older too.

---> The +: they are powerful and their name means business in the alcoholic beverage industry.

---> The -: lack of legitimacy for the spirits ratings in particular as this is fundamentally a wine competition. I think it is and it will always be a wine event in priority!

Breaking News: IWSC and The Tasting Panel Magazine have just announced they would cooperate in 2013 for the organization, ratings, submissions, media and etc. from and for the USA. This news is quite significant has it shows that the 2 leading international competitions will be cooperating to improve the outcomes. Better to share something big than keep it all small.

Bartender We Need a VS or VSOP ... New Music Video Starring M.I & Naeto C.

New video from Hennessy Artistry programme.

Bartender - The Official Hennessy Artistry 2012 Music Video Starring M.I & Naeto C directed by Clarence Peters.

1) Not sure if it is a video or a commercial.

2) What I found new in this video is that they are a many empty bottles. Could be a subliminal message!

What's in Common between a Stradivarius and a Cognac?

Old and Modern Violin

Old violins are always better than new ones. Expensive violins are better than cheap ones. One could say that this is the same for cognac!

Professor Claudia Fritz of the University of Paris VI and Joseph Curtin, a violin-maker have discovered that this opinion is biased. Twenty one professinal violinists were given to compare blindfolded a Stradivarius and a new quality violin. In this comparison, the Stradivarius were estimated at about 3 millions USD each versus the modern violin were about 30 thousand dollars each. Obviously, they could not compare the Stradivarius against cheap violins but against substantial violins made using modern technology.

One simple question was enough to say a lot: "given the chance, which violin would you want to take home?". The results are quite revealing since the majority of players clearly indicated the modern violins as being better. This study suggests that it is hard for people to be objective when estimating subjective measures as emotional as the feeling given by playing an instrument. This emotion is even more enhanced when one knows the value given to the instrument.

I wonder if this study would be true for cognacs as one may question the alleged superiority of the old cognacs over younger cognacs, and of the superiority of expensive cognacs over affordable cognacs. Now that we have 3D printing technology could it be that the Stradivarius status is jeopardized? Could we ever think of a liquid-D printing technology where we would be able to replicate on demand our favorite cognacs.

I am just day dreaming!

Please Sir! Print me a cognac...

http://brain4biz.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/brand-and-item-excellence-just-about-marketing-and-social-status/

http://www.economist.com/node/18114327

Photo: Source: Didacool, Wikipedia