Rivulet™ Artisan Pecan Liqueur Wins Gold At Washington Cup Spirits Competition
Kansas City, Missouri – October 8, 2014 – Rivulet Artisan Pecan Liqueur is pleased to announce it has taken home a prestigious GOLD Medal at the one-of-a-kind Washington Cup Spirits Competition. Rivulet was awarded the gold medal out of a field of 130 American made spirits.
The Washington Cup Spirits Competition is unique among spirits competitions, in that there are three distinct phases. The first round consisted of a panel of professional tasters evaluating all spirits in a blind tasting by category on July 1, 2014. Gold and Silver winners advance to the next round. The second round took place on July 29, 2014, and consisted of a group of professional bartenders judging the spirits blind and then creating cocktails for their top scoring spirits. Eleven spirits were awarded gold medals after this round and were invited to proceed to the next round. The third round consisted of consumers from the general public blind tasting the top eleven spirits in cocktail form at a Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival on August 23, 2014. These consumers ranked all eleven spirits in preference order.
“We are very pleased that Rivulet was awarded a gold medal as part of this unique spirits competition,” said James B. Marshall, the managing director of C88 Holdings, LLC, the producer of Rivulet Artisan Pecan Liqueur. “We are obviously quite proud of our American quality story, and consumers around the world will be able to make Rivulet part of their luxury spirits repertoire.”
Doug Frost, Director of the Washington Cup, reflected on the competition saying, “We believe that the Washington Cup’s focus upon a democratic approach towards spirits tasting and assessment reflects our nation’s founding father’s own steadfast belief in a new political system that allowed the people to speak as loudly as the powerful. George Washington, along with his other brothers in freedom, saw the merit of a democracy in which a meritocracy (the Executive brand) shared power alongside the people’s direct representatives (Congress), with an impartial and experienced group providing oversight (the Judiciary). With the Washington Cup, we have tried to create a series of tastings that mirror our remarkable system of government,” he said. Doug Frost, who is a Master Sommelier (MS) and also a Master of Wine (MW), created this unique competition system to offer an opportunity for U.S. distilleries to demonstrate their skills and the excellence of their products on a level playing field.
About the Competition
JUDGES’ CHOICE: July 9, 2014. This First Round of tastings was a blind tasting of spirits by category, judged by experienced and top-flight spirits judges including BAR Master Ryan Maybee (Kansas City), Freddie Sarkis (Chicago), Mendel Kohn (San Francisco), Chris Bostick (Houston), Leo DeGroff (New York) and Sean Kenyon (Denver) and others. Doug Frost, MS and MW, will acted as the Chief Judge for the competition. The first round of the Washington Cup identified American spirits and liqueurs that were believe to be worthy of the public’s attention. These were guaranteed at least Bronze Medals in the Washington Cup Spirits Competition and were carried through to the Second Round of the tasting.
BARTENDERS’ CHOICE: July 29-30, 2014. The Second Round of the Washington Cup was judged by selected bartenders of the Kansas City Chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild. These bartenders have been trained and vetted previously and each has already gained local acclaim in the Paris of the Plains Bartending Competition, an eight-year-old competition that involves talented mixologists from throughout the United States. These bartenders received an unmarked bottle of the spirits that have passed through to this Second Round, and over the course of a specific evening built cocktails for the public from the spirit selected. Each bartender awarded a score to his or her blind spirit, alongside a group of three professional spirits judges. Based upon these scores, the bartenders and the spirits judges could choose to elevate the medals previously awarded to any of these spirits. The top spirits among these Award Winners then passed through to the Third Round of the Washington Cup.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE: The Third and final Round of the Washington Cup represented yet another unique aspect of the process, unlike any other in the world. The top twelve Bartender’s Award winners were tasted by the general public at the Paris of the Plains Cocktail Festival Gala held at the American Restaurant on August 20, 2014. The public was allowed to taste the twelve top Bartender’s Award winners in cocktail form in a blind setting and was allowed to vote for their favorites, reflecting that the cocktails had been tasted and analyzed not only by professionals but also by an enthusiastic crowd of cocktail fans at the Gala event of more than one hundred fifty people.
About Rivulet Artisan Pecan Liqueur
Rivulet Artisan Pecan Liqueur is the world’s most unique luxury liqueur, carefully crafted for connoisseurs who appreciate the combination of contemporary American luxury with the time-honored traditions of fine artisan distilling and craftsmanship. Rivulet starts with the finest slow-distilled brandy, aged to perfection in small oak casks, combined with a proprietary pecan recipe that extracts the delicate flavor profile that makes our liqueur so special. Handcrafted in small batches, our luxury liqueur is a Fair Trade Certified™ product, using only the finest natural ingredients. Rivulet is one of the artisan products from C88 Holdings, LLC, in Louisville, Kentucky USA.
For more information, visit us at www.rivulet.com or www.c88holdings.com
©2014 C88 Holdings, LLC. Rivulet Liqueur, 30% alc. by vol. (60 proof), produced and bottled by C88 Holdings, LLC, Louisville, Kentucky USA. Savor Rivulet Responsibly.