After an exhausting 3 days of challenges, drinking, travelling and assorted other activities the winner of the G’Vine Connoisseur Competition was Stephan Hinz from Germany (Shephard Bar in Cologne). Really, this wasn’t an easy victory. Any one of the twelve bartenders could have challenged for the top position, but circumstances, preparedness and the ability to know when to go to bed were all factors. But, there wasn’t really much surprise among the other eleven participants that Stephan won, he really did earn it. Now, as for the circumstances that hobbled some of the other competitors, there are some really funny stories to tell, including flaming pots of simple syrup being flung from a hotel room around 3 AM in the morning. I will write about those events shortly, but I don’t want to distract from Stephan Hinz hard-earned victory. Congratulations and well done Stephan, you are the G’Vine Gin Connoisseur for 2010.
