Reflections on Tales of the Cocktail

Having spent a necessary few days detoxifying from Tales of the Cocktail, I once again raise the rhetorical question of why we so rarely see spit buckets at spirits events, when they’re de rigueur at wine tastings?

I attended this year’s event in the company of Stephanie Jerzy who manages social media marketing for spirits at BAT, along with my daughter Lindsay Raye who is a brand ambassador in the New York market.  We were also joined by several clients including Johnny Schuler from Pisco Portón and Marc de Kuyper, Albert DeHeer and Arno van Eijmeren from Mandarine Napoleón.  It was interesting to see the event through the eyes of these folks, several of whom were Tales virgins.

My observations, in no particular order:

-New Orleans was cooler than CT…figuratively and literally that week.
-You can’t walk five feet in the Monteleone hotel (or on Royal or Bourbon St. for that matter) without seeing someone you know and REALLY want to talk to.
-It’s great to meet people in person whom you’ve only met via blogs or online
-The camaraderie and sense of community was outstanding…and it’s pretty cool when regular consumers are so interested in our business that they pay to come to what’s really a trade event.
-I’ve GOT to get my partner Jeff Grindrod to attend next year.
-the Faulkner bookstore was a pretty groovy place (and I saw a real pirate in Pirate’s Alley)
-Paul Pacult is a great presenter and guide to tasting spirits in a manner that makes the subjective, objective.
-Paul Clarke really knows his stuff or did his homework…or both.
-Darcy O’Neil always brings something new and interesting to Tales (but he does have some pronunciation issues, and I’m not talking “aboot” the Canadian accent.)
-I missed Camper English’s social media session and really wished I’d made it. 
-Spirits blogging is evolving…rapidly.  It’s no longer just a singular channel; Facebook, Twitter and the plethora of new media coming down the pike are magnifying our reach.
-Johnny Schuler has really nice manners (he stands when a woman arrives or leaves the table), and his passion for Pisco is palpable.
-Marc de Kuyper is the 11^th generation of his family in the business, how cool is that!
-Francesco Lafranconi and Diego Loret de Mola are the Blues Brothers of booze, only wearing guayabera shirts and Panama hats instead of sunglasses and skinny ties.
-Sandro Bottega of Alexander Grappa is one crazy dude, and he makes some fabulous grappa.
-The Mixoloseum house was great fun, and having the shuttle van was a super idea.
-Tales is growing every year and more of the bigger brands and companies are exploiting it.  It will be important for the organizers to maintain the sense of fraternity and shared passion that has characterized the event in the past.
-Call me a Philistine and a Luddite, but I don’t think cocktails go with dinner.
-The Carousel bar at the Monteleone is a royal pain…it’s impossible to keep a conversation going when one person is moving and the other isn’t. (And the quality of drinks and bartenders there should really be top drawer at Tales showcasing what cocktails really can be and how they should be prepared and served.  I had too many mediocre drinks, but the Bloody Mary was killer.)
-I’d like to know who stole my bottle of Mandarine Napoleón XO from the Summer in Paris lunch at Antoine's. Sphere: Related Content

Tattles from Tales, Day 2

Thursday started out promising and we were sauntering off to the Royal Sonesta for breakfast with Camper English of Alcademics(who was nominated for best cocktail writer, but unfortunately didn't win)when we heard some honking and looked up to see a "honey wagon" spewing a fire-hydrant-at-full-blast volume of raw sewage onto the street and sidewalk. Luckily we didn't get hit, but when the stench hit us, Sam almost gagged, and we had serious doubts about being able to make it through the miasma to the hotel. We did persevere and so now "eau de New Orleans" is forever etched in our brainstems, right next to the smell of the first overdose of Tequila...blaawwwwwghhhhh!

We had some really good idea sharing with Camper on how we can help bloggers and particularly find ways to monetize their sites.

Lunch at Herbsaint on St. Charles was with Gabriel "Cocktail Nerd" and Joanna Szazko and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin, board members of the OCSWG --they've GOT to come up with a better name--continuing the convo on how marketers and bloggers can work together for mutual benefit. (We've got lots of good ideas, but you'll have to hire us if you want me to share them.) The food was spectacular and we went on a streetcar ride
through the garden district for a real sense of the best New Orleans has to offer in terms of ambience and architecture. We were hot and sweaty, but according to the locals, only about 95, "but you should have been here last week...over 100...now THAT's hot!")

We got back too late to make the Leblon event, but I did sign the Declaration of Independence that Steve Luttman was carrying around to get the law changed to make Cachaca a legal category in the U.S.

We had dinner at Arnaud's, a sentimental site for me in N'awlins because it was my Dad's favorite and I had always hoped I'd be able to share dinner with him there, but it was not to be. Anyway, we had a fabulous time with Cheri Loughlin of Intoxicologist and her significant other Tory over crawfish and Cordon Rouge. We gave Cheri some ideas on site metrics and learned a lot about her blog.

Then it was back to the Monteleone for cocktails with Bob DeKuyper (yes, THAT DeKuyper...something like 8th generation and this pick was taken Tues of that week at PDT which went on to win the Best Cocktail Bar in America)Ivan Menting and Albert deHeer. Darcy O'Neil of Art of Drink joined us for a drink and he and I wandered back to the other theme subject of the event...is fructose (as in HFCS) pronounced "Fruck" or "Frook". The conversation was so boring that even our blogger friends turned their backs on us. Yikes, I just realized I'm a geek!

And so to bed. (and for those of you who get the reference to Samuel Pepys, you'd enjoy the comment that one of the seminar speakers was talking about "Peepies" diary. My mom kept one of those but now I'm potty trained.)

G'night y'all! Sphere: Related Content

TOTC name dropping

I landed and dashed to the Monteleone to catch the end of Jamie Boudreau’s Molecular Mixology seminar, but never made it. Ran into Cort Kinker, Marissa Frisina and Shawn Kelley of Pernod Ricard, Francesco Lafranconi mixologist extraordinaire for Southern Wine and spirits (and yes Francesco, I will attend the Grappa seminar), Camper English of Alcademics fame and courtesy of Elizabeth Lang an intro to Damian Windsor of Gordon Ramsay’s of SF. Sphere: Related Content