At the end of last month, the Tales of the Cocktail Conference once again returned to New Orleans. First launched 22 years ago, the Conference is now widely considered to be one of the largest and most respected industry events globally. This year also marked the 18th instalment of the Spirited Awards. Despite Melbourne’s Luke Whearty being named as a top four finalist for the International Bartender of the Year, no Australian bartender, venue or product clinched an award in 2024.
“It was pretty exciting that Luke got in the top four. You also had Matt Whiley in the top 10,” said Chanel Melani, Co-Founder of Birds of Isle rum.
Chanel Melani attended the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Conference along with business partner Sally Carter. Since then, Drinks Trade staff caught up with them both to discuss their key takeaways from the event.
“One of the two key things they spoke about as being the kind of growth drivers for spirits in the US over the next five years was premiumisation and moderation,” said Melani.
“I think premiumisation has probably had its challenges over the last 12 months with the economic challenges, but they’re really seeing that as the main driver of growth over the next five years.
“Moderation was a big one too – the low and no basis is continually growing – and I think moving away from this binge drinking culture and moving towards less consumption of better quality spirits is one of the key trends that they spoke about.”
While a lot of the international coverage of the event tends to focus on the Spirited Awards, the results is only one component of the overall multi-day conference.
“We went over there as a learning experience,” said Melani.
“It’s known as one of the biggest and the best cocktail festivals in the world and we really just wanted to immerse ourselves in that and see what all the biggest brands around the world were doing.”
Being a trade event, many of the workshops and discussions on the ground centre around brand development and feasible ways to grow.
Melani said, “probably the most interesting thing we learned about was around home advocacy… [For example], they spoke about brands looking at investing equal parts into trade advocacy as they would into at-home advocacy, and potentially partnering with bartenders or people that are drinks influencers to be able to take these cocktail experiences into people’s homes, which I thought was a really clever idea that I hadn’t really heard before.”
Chanel Melani also believes that Birds of Isle is emerging into a market set to grow over coming years, following the current momentum of rum in the US. This is reflected by the latest this CGA by NIQ report, which shows dark rum to be the only category to have grown in Australian on-premise sales in the 12 months up to July.
“The other thing that was really exciting was just to see how well rum is received in the US,” she said.
“Rum is a lot closer to being premiumised there, which hopefully will have a flow on effect globally from that.”
When asked how the US and Australian markets differ, Melani said it mostly comes down to the reception from the people.
“We still have a somewhat complicated history or perception of rum. I think globally it still hasn’t been premiumised the way other spirits have, but I think in Australia we have an added cultural nuance where we do have quite a negative perception of rum… It is quite different to how rum is received in Australia right now. I think that was probably a good sign for us, that rum is on its way.”
Birds of Isle, the distillery Co-Founded by Melani, is seeking to create a uniquely Australian product by using Australian casks and macerating native Australian ingredients into its rums. Its debut release uses rum sourced from Venezuela which is then infused with flame-torched Bunya Nuts and finished in Muscat casks.
Birds of Isle’s first rum made in-house is currently half way through its planned ageing timeline.
“We do already make our own rum. We make rum with molasses from the Northern River, so that’s basically from sugar cane grown around where the distillery is. That’s currently in barrels. It’s been in barrels for 18 months and will be in barrels for another 18 months, so that’ll be released as a three year old rum. But while we’ve been waiting for that to age, we started with the independent bottling.”
2024 Spirited Awards Results:
The winners from the 2024 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards are as followed:
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES
International Bartender of the Year presented by The House of Lustau
- Eric van Beek — Handshake Speakeasy, Mexico City, Mexico
Best International Bar Mentor presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Danil Nevsky
Best International Brand Ambassador presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Dave Mitton — Lot 40 / J.P. Wiser’s
Best International Bar Team presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Handshake Speakeasy — Mexico City, Mexico
Best International Cocktail Bar presented by PATRÓN Tequila
- ALQUÍMICO — Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
Best International Hotel Bar presented by Fords Gin
- BKK Social Club at Four Seasons Bangkok — Bangkok, Thailand
Best International Restaurant Bar presented by Gin Mare
- Danico — Paris, France
Best New International Cocktail Bar presented by Diageo Bar Academy
- Bar Leone — Hong Kong, China
U.S. CATEGORIES
U.S. Bartender of the Year presented by Pernod Ricard
- Kapri Robinson — Allegory, Washington, D.C.
Best U.S. Bar Mentor presented Jameson Irish Whiskey
- Alex Jump
Best U.S. Brand Ambassador presented Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Anna Mains — Monkey Shoulder
Best U.S. Bar Team presented by William Grant & Sons
- Jewel of the South — New Orleans, LA
Best U.S. Cocktail Bar presented by Del Maguey Mezcal
- Yacht Club — Denver, CO
Best U.S. Hotel Bar presented by Grey Goose
- Allegory at the Eaton Hotel — Washington, D.C.
Best U.S. Restaurant Bar presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Cleaver – Butchered Meats, Seafood & Classic Cocktails — Las Vegas, NV
Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar presented by Diageo Bar Academy
- Superbueno — New York, NY
WRITING & MEDIA CATEGORIES
Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- The Cocktail Lovers
Best Broadcast, Podcast, or Online Video Series presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Bartender at Large
Best Cocktail & Spirits Writing presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- “A New Spirit Confronts the Consequences of Colonialism,” by Adaorah Oduah, for Punch
Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- The Ice Book: Cool Cubes, Clear Spheres, and Other Chill Cocktail Crafts by Camper English
Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice: Cocktails from Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin
GLOBAL CATEGORIES
Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- YUZUCO Yuzu Super Juice
World’s Best Cocktail Menu presented by Diageo Bar Academy
- Handshake Speakeasy — Mexico City, Mexico
World’s Best Spirits Selection presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Baba Au Rum — Athens, Greece
Helen David Lifetime Achievement Award presented by William Grant & Sons
- Hidetsugu Ueno
Timeless International Award presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- Café Pacifico — London, UK
Timeless U.S. Award presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- The Buena Vista — San Francisco, CA
Tales Visionary Award Presented by Johnnie Walker
- Colin Asare-Appiah
World’s Best Bar presented by Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
- ALQUÍMICO — Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
