Ultimate Beverage Challenge Announces The First Ultimate Spirits Challenge
January 5, 2010 (New York, NY) – Built upon the principles of integrity, method and credibility, the benefits to the beverage industry of finally having the most authoritative, accurate and consistent results at hand cannot be overestimated. Ultimate Beverage Challenge (UBC) announces that the easy-to-complete product entry forms for the inaugural Ultimate Spirits Challenge on March 1-3, 2010 are now available on the Ultimate Beverage Challenge website (see below).
“Our view, based on my experience of 25 years as a wine and spirits critic and 10 years as a competition judge/judging director,” says founder F. Paul Pcault. “Is that it’s time to make the leap into the 21st century by introducing a method of unassailable independence and fairness that, while built upon the shoulders of what’s already been accomplished, is more in tune with 21st century technology and evaluation advances.”
The marketing advantages and implications of having an Ultimate Beverage Challenge recommendation are enormous. Any spirit carrying the Ultimate Beverage Challenge seal of approval from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge will be readily perceived as the highest standard of product in its category.
The first Ultimate Spirits Challenge will take place in New York on March 1-3 at Astor Center and will showcase products in the best light, evaluated against their closest categorical peers under ideal conditions – for example: spirits will be served in proper glassware at ideal serving temperatures; vodkas will be served to judges chilled; cask strength whiskeys will be judged both with and without water dilution, etc., just to name a few ways the UBC has raised the bar when it comes to optimal conditions.
These pivotal innovations will benefit the products under examination and are long overdue. The entry deadline for the Ultimate Spirits Challenge is February 15.
The revolutionary Ultimate Cocktail Challenge, following in mid-April, will evaluate spirits categories in the context of how they taste in representative cocktails. This unique methodology will trail-blaze a new era of “best spirits in cocktail” evaluation, assessing each entry by category in the context of the most appropriate classic cocktail. Entry forms for the Ultimate Cocktail Challenge will be available February 15.
The Ultimate Wine Challenge is scheduled for mid-June. Judges for the Ultimate Beverage Challenges are a who’s who of the top beverage alcohol authors, journalists, speakers and educators in the world.
In addition to Judging Chairman F. Paul Pacult and Assistant Judging Chairman Sean Ludford, judges include international superstars like: Jacques Bezuidenhout, Tad Carducci, Charles Curtis (MW), Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost (MS, MW), Ethan Kelley, Don Lee, Jim Meehan, Steve Olson, Nick Passmore, gaz regan, Julie Reiner, Audrey Saunders, Andy Seymour, Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan (MW), David Wondrich and more.
“Ultimate Beverage Challenge judges will be held accountable for their scores/findings by the mandatory use of a detailed evaluation method that’s an elaboration and a variation of the tasting format I’ve employed for two decades for F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal,” continues Pacult. “It’s no longer good enough for judges sitting around a table to just say, “Yeah, I say give it a bronze medal,” with no accountability or quantifiable justification.
“We decided unanimously to employ the guidance system that has become the most easily understood and recognized by consumers, a variation of the 100-point system. It’s also because of the intricacy of the Ultimate Beverage Challenge scoring method, which will be based on that system, with winners racking up the highest aggregate scores,” he says.
All UBC competitions will be held at state-of-the-art Astor Center in New York City under the most ideal conditions. The results of each challenge will be widely publicized, both in print and online, and can be readily utilized in a brand’s marketing and promotion. In addition, the highest-rated products will be showcased at consumer tasting events in New York in the fall.
Click here for more information and to download applications for the Ultimate Beverage Challenge
Click here to view a list of all the great events takings place in 2010!
