Bar Week Cometh

Australia’s largest booze trade event has got a new frock, and she’s looking pretty good in it to boot.

Each year, the publishers of Bartender Magazine put on an industry event to showcase the products and people that make hospitality all that it is in Australia. This year it’s bigger, better and for the first time, open to the public.

You’ll be able to attend the show, under this year’s swish moniker, Drinks Fest. Once there you’ll have the chance to taste and learn about all things liquid and intoxicating. I’m more excited than Tim Philips in the children’s section at Zara.

Why you should care:

1. The main event will be held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in the Rocks, instead of the weird trade halls at Moore Park.
2. For the first time, one of the days of the show (Sunday the 23rd September) will be open to the general public. This means an opportunity to learn about, and taste some great products and buy at a discount too.
3. The involvement for the general public doesn’t stop there. If you can bear the company of Alex Adams and Simon McGoram for an evening, Ketel One bar tours are a great way to learn about the small bars festooning Sydney’s inebriated underbelly, and that’s just the beginning.
4. There’s the usual fantasticness of events, dinners, breakfasts, balls and bar awards dinners.
5. Tim Philips is bringing his throne to the dinner.

Check out the website and get yourself some tickets. It is a really great way to get across the Australian industry in the work of but a moment.

Release follows:

Ketel One presents Eau-de-Vie at Taste Sydney

Taste Sydney has always been a place to expose your palate to new tastes and sensations. Increasingly (and happily) it is also being used as a brand showcase for the finest in tippling too. Interesting move here from Ketel One, partnering with Eau-de-Vie to serve up some of the most amazingly tasty cocktails in town to festival goers. I’ll be making a beeline there to be sure.

This all seems to be part of a very deliberate move to involve the brand as an interface between the drinker and a great experience, in bar, at home or anywhere that might occur.

Anyways, they have a nicely written release that explains all about it, which I’ve cut and pasted for your reading pleasure.

The *World’s Best New Cocktail Bar, Eau-de-Vie will be brought to life at this year’s Taste of Sydney Festival by the crafted ultra-premium Ketel One® vodka. Ketel One Presents Eau-de-Vie will bring a piece of Sydney’s burgeoning small bar culture to the festival guests.

Ketel One will be showcased through a selection of five signature cocktails including Eau-de-Vie’s number one selling cocktail from 2011, The Mesha (pictured above) and the Windmill Punch (pictured below).

Upon stepping into Ketel One Presents Eau-de-Vie, guests will be transported to a boutique-sized version of the cocktail bar featuring replica décor including a version of Eau-de-Vie’s centerpiece, the communal table.

At the helm of the bar will be Eau-de-Vie’s awards winning team lead by Luke Redington, accompanied by the Ketel One National Brand Ambassador, David Beatty. Australia’s best and most amicable bartenders will be onsite to treat guests of the stand to the regular decorum, theatre and craftsmanship practiced at Eau-de-Vie.

Ketel One vodka will also unveil Ketel One Bar Tours – an exciting new program that celebrates Sydney’s developing bar scene – at the  Taste of Sydney Festival. Hosted by food and drink experts, Alex Adams (Ms Darlinghurst) and Simon McGoram (Booze Braggart), Ketel One Bar Tours are a unique and sophisticated way for Sydney-siders to explore the city’s best bars with two people who have intimate knowledge of this growing scene.

So be prepared to learn more about how you can discover the city’s best small drinking establishments for yourself when you visit Ketel One presents Eau-de-Vie at this year’s Taste of Sydney Festival.

Session 1:   Thursday 8 March: 5.30pm – 10.00pm

Session 2:   Friday 9 March: noon – 4.00pm

Session 3:   Friday 9 March: 5.30pm – 10.00pm

Session 4:   Saturday 10 March: noon – 4.00pm

Session 5:   Saturday 10 March: 5.30pm – 9.30pm

Session 6:   Sunday 11 March: noon – 5.00pm

Tickets and more details on the festival here.