I agree, the seating was definitely missing inside.
Also, I found it pretty hot in the hall on Sunday.
The funniest fun fact was the DonPapa car next to the Nobilis stand
Otherwise, I was happy to see old and familiar faces again. And of course new ones too.
The highlights for me, or rather the honor that was bestowed on me, was that I got to try the stuff from @RobBauer and @Skyfly’s backpack. Not to forget @Jussi for the sample you conjured up, and thanks Frederic for the two rums from China that you pulled out from under the counter.
My special thanks to @DomM for the many samples I got to demolish with you and unfortunately all were gone by Friday. I thought they’d easily last a few weeks.
And finally @MoparRules, I think you just managed to pull off a last-minute save with @FrauZabo
Nobody really does SBS anymore anyway. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re no longer represented.
Joshua sold his shares last year and is completely out, and after a longer break he’s recently back on the rum market with various new projects (Rum Brothers, various brands from Tahiti, etc.), and Nina’s been out for ages and founded her own jackcrap spirits brand, and otherwise according to Joshua only financially interested people are still active in the background and no real connoisseurs who loved rum like he did.
PS: We also thought about a partner stand with Perola and CDI here at some point, but after reviewing their current cask list that they wanted to offer us as something special for the GRF, we decided against it because everything was uninteresting and too expensive… It’s really a shame how some of those established top-notch IBs from back then like Rum Nation, CDI, SBS, RA, etc. have developed… But on the other hand there are more opportunities for younger brands.
Thanks for your reports and impressions. It actually sounds like a successful edition of the event, even though the number of IBs keeps declining. Without 1423 and RA, it’s quite different from five years ago.
Others fill the gaps, Bottleshop definitely in terms of quality.
Warehouse 1 also participating for the first time. I’d never seen Marussia with pretty much the entire Foursquare ECS range available for tasting like that before. At the Hanse Spirit last year, they basically had none of the more exclusive Foursquare bottles.
There were actually a couple of things that stuck with me more this year than in previous years.
Feller with the Hampden Finish and the PLV were the surprise of the event for me.
Eric Koster also has a great new rum with the Guyana.
The RDL is a banger, I was blown away.
The passion that Alexandre Gabriel brings from the very first second is unique and almost beats the legendary Waldorf and Statler show by Dirk Becker at the rum vs whisky tasting.
The Nobilis from @KevinDK and @MoparRules is a powerhouse and I’m looking forward to the split so I can enjoy it at home in peace.
Savanna totally disqualified itself for me, something like that just doesn’t work for me.
Dictador put me off so much with the marketing and the weird hostesses that I wanted to leave right away.
I really missed the authentic street food from back in the day.
Just a small note about the Savanna, I happened to be there on Saturday at 2 p.m. (at the CoR stand), and one was opened. And also on Sunday at 4 p.m. Apparently just as announced beforehand.
You just had bad timing there.
However, apart from the nice gentleman from Absolutely Nuts Spirits at the CoR stand, they weren’t as friendly there as at other stands. That’s true.
And as far as I understand so far, it wasn’t a pure Savanna release — just a Savanna bottling that happened to be bottled for CoR.
In other words, if anything, you have to criticize CoR and not Savanna itself — because over the last few years, whenever someone was on site, I’ve always had extremely positive experiences with the lady who handles sales for Europe etc. here.
Was that the Nicaragua with the DOK finish? I found that terrible. For me it had such an artificial citrus note. That was also the only rum on Saturday that I had to pour down the drain.
I find that interesting. Wasn’t Foursquare with Haromex before? Why is Warehouse 1 allowed to present them in Germany — did they take over the distribution? In my opinion, that would be desirable. Haromex works for mass-market goods, but for limited releases they usually got neither the timing nor the prices right, even with El Dorado for example.
As far as I know, Foursquare has been with Marussia for quite some time (as can also be seen in Kevin’s photo above).
Warehouse 1, as far as I understood, was there via Haromex, and since it was sold out on Saturday, apparently very successful. Accordingly, I would assume that their line-up will also be available in more countries in Europe in the future. But maybe @JamRock can tell you more about that?
You’re right, I felt a bit sorry for them too, but they kept going on about an Eastern European guy (I think he was Polish) who was on-site and took care of things, and he was super arrogant, stuck-up, and unfriendly.
And I can only recommend everyone putting such a barrel in their car! What a drive home! Forget about air fresheners.
And it’s actually running out! I’ll stock up on a few more bottles, the shops will get some eventually, but not much will be left after that. Happy to help with connecting people.
