Tuesday saw the long anticipated Australian final of Reserve Brands’ World Class bartending competition with Adrian Ruiz-Avila (Adi Ruiz) from Melbourne’s Seamstress/Sweatshop taking out first place after an arduous day of competition.

Adi will be flying to London next month to represent Australia on the world stage by competing against 25 finalists from participating countries around the globe. The winner of the global final will not only hold huge bragging rights, but will also have their own cocktail book published for them for global distribution.

Sven Almenning, head judge for World Class Australia and director of Behind Bars said that: “I truly believe this can be a life changing opportunity for Adi should he go on to win the global final, something I think he has a great chance of doing. Adi really shone in the bartending round and was also a clear winner on the knowledge test, proving that he’s a great allrounder.”

Assembling bright and early Tuesday morning at the Kirketon Hotel in Darlinghurst the World Class national finalists, picked from four competitions (The Tanqueray No. Ten Martini Awards, The Whisky Awards, The Vodka Awards and Ron Zacapa invite only competition) held over the last year of World Class activity, were first asked to sit a gruelling knowledge exam in what would prove to be a tough day of bartending challenges.

Next up was the ever difficult ‘nosing’ exam where the finalists had to identify five spirits, not only in terms of category, but also the producer.  

After this little warm-up the Reserve Brands and Behind Bars teams had much more in store for the competitors; before turning up the finalists were asked to put together a cocktail list to bring along on the day with two cocktails on the list to be made for the World Class judges to scrutinise. 

The cocktail lists were also subject to marks for creativity and appearance both of which were not in short order from the bartenders present.  Martin Lange from Brisbane’s Sling Lounge showed off his drinks on a iPod Nano; simply select a song to get a short description of the drink, an image or video, and a theme tune to match the beverage in question.

Third place getter, Sam Pinneri from The Beresford Hotel, wowed the judges with his cocktail list that came in a ‘treasure chest’ with colour coded ribbons tied around ‘messages in a bottle’ each containing aged scrolls with full descriptions of the drinks: Truly amazing presentation. 

While half the competitors were whipping out their own creations the other half were required to perform a ‘bartending round’ on another bar. Bartender magazine gave a hand during this challenge which asked bartenders to make a round of five drinks in ten minutes (one stirred cocktail, one shaken, one muddle and two mixed drinks). The competitors were marked on speed, efficiency, up-selling, knowledge, friendly service, call order and hygiene. 

This round proved to be more difficult than expected with Adi Ruiz and second place getter Andy Griffiths from Melbourne’s Cookie impressing the judges.

Once all rounds were completed the bartenders readied themselves for a luxurious degustation dinner at Flying Fish where they were able to try the winning drinks from the past year of challenges while waiting for the winners to be announced. The drinks on offer included Lucy George’s (Emporium Hotel Cocktail Bar, Brisbane) Tanqueray No. Ten Martini experience tapped from an absinthe fountain and Ricky Liau’s (Golden Monkey, Melbourne), Ciroc vodka based, ’French Cut’ served over a hand carved ice diamond.

“It’s been both a pleasure and a privilege to be managing Reserve’s World Class program over the past year,” comments Almenning. ”And, with all the great feedback we’ve had from both bars and bartenders over the past year, I hope that even more people will rally behind this program in the year to come. “

Check out June’s and July’s Bartender magazine for further coverage on the World Class competition and check back here for a gallery from the Australian final.