December 10, 2024 • 43 mins
For our final regular episode of 2024, we're talking awards. Specifically, the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards, and the just-announced Miami Global Spirit Awards. Founder Eddie Rivkin joins MHW's Brigid McCabe and host Jimmy Moreland to talk about what awards mean for both new and established brands, and how to capitalize on a good showing at an awards show.
More about the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards: Website
More about the Miami Global Spirit Awards: Website - USE PROMO CODE MHW25
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today is areturning favorite, mhw's
Bridget McCabe.
How have you been, bridget?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi, I've been very well.
I love the holiday season, soI'm very happy to be in the
thick of the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We're into it.
We're finally getting a littlebit of snow up here in Maine.
How are things in New York?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It is getting colder, but no snow yet.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, we've got a really fun conversation today
with a lively guest.
Shall we say?
What are we talking about today?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
One of my favorites.
So this episode we arediscussing blind tasting
competitions, why they exist andhow brands can utilize them to
help sell their brands in the USmarket.
You know the US has a verydiverse customer base and all
different kinds of categoriesthat enter, so the ability to
merchandise and show that yourtaste of your product is better
(01:12):
is going to be helpful at boththe digital and e-commerce level
, as well as brick and mortar instore.
We're also specificallytouching on the uniqueness and
the credibility of the globalVegas spirit market, which is
international just by nature ofthe amount of tourism that
happens there every year.
Mhw handles the back officecompliance services for the Las
(01:32):
Vegas Global Spirits Awards andwe have a very exciting
announcement from our guestabout new developments in the
Miami market.
Mhw does have a distributionpresence down in Florida, so
we're excited to share this newshere.
And in general, awards and theability to credential your brand
is a topic that's really nearand dear to my heart.
(01:54):
When I served as brand managerfor Purity Vodka now almost a
decade ago, that brand wasreally built off of the concept
of being one of the mostaward-winning ultra-premium
vodkas in the world.
Now you know the brand is inover 15 different markets.
They received hundreds of goldand double gold medals over the
(02:14):
years, and I also had theopportunity to serve on the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Award panela couple of years ago.
So it's something that I'veseen and come into fruition in
the marketing space as tosomething consumers are looking
for and we live in thisecosystem where everyone is
looking for an Amazon review orthey're looking to see what
their peers are saying about it.
This is the ability to havesome of the best palates in the
(02:37):
world.
An international panel ofjudges really let you know what
is the best vodka, what's thebest gin, what's the best, you
know, cachaça.
It really spans the entirecategory.
So excited to have our guest onhere.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I have a question about.
If, say, say, I'm a brand andmaybe I haven't had the
opportunity yet to have thesebest palettes rate my product,
but I'm still trying to get outto market, is it an issue of
order of operations and you justhave to do it in this order, or
is there a way to sort of?
Is it just through marketing?
Is it just through, you know,liquid to lips, as you say?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That's a great question, jimmy, because I think
it is one that most brandswonder.
Do they have to come to marketto the US and flow through the
three-tier system, you know, andbe on the shelf before they can
enter these competitions?
And the answer is no.
You could be an internationalbrand and you could have never
even set foot in the US.
But MHW being the complianceprovider for a lot of these
(03:37):
competitions, we can apply foryour certificate of label
approval for the TTB federallevel and basically get like a
temporary exception for yourproduct to label approval for
the TTB federal level andbasically get like a temporary
exception for your product tocome in.
Sometimes it, you know, doesn'teven have like its formal
packaging complete for whatit'll look like in the US, but
they want the formula tasted.
So you know that will come inthrough MHW.
(03:59):
We'll make sure that you haveeverything you need for customs
clearance and logistics for theshipment, that it's compliant
not only within the federallevel, but you need a state
wholesaler so we'll kind ofguide the producers through that
process.
Then, once they get to thetasting table with the judges,
it's really up to the liquid tokind of stand on its own and to
(04:20):
get that medal.
But we've seen hundreds ofbrands that have medaled in
various competitions, that haveused that as leverage to then
say, okay, we have somethinghere, these are the markets that
we want to enter into.
And then they've already hadthat working relationship with
MHW so they can get started withus, to get their LLCs here on
the ground, to get everythingstarted.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
To give listeners a little bit of a preview of the
conversation you talk aboutduring some of these
competitions, that you've judgedsome of these competitions, and
I guess that's some of yourbackground there.
I want at some point to reallydo a deep dive with you on
judging competitions becauseit's just something that's
interesting to me.
I know that I do not have themost refined palate, but it's
(05:02):
just interesting to me to listento people who do have these
really strong palates, to beable to pull out all of these
notes out of things and I'm justlike, really you're tasting all
of that.
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Right?
Well, there's a whole rabbithole you could go down with.
There's things like WSET, whichis the Wine and Spirit
Education Trust.
They have multiple levels oftraining in wine and spirits.
You know my good friend and thefounder of Laura Badish PR, the
Badish Group we love Laura.
Badish.
We love Laura Badish.
(05:33):
She's been on here as a guest.
Yeah, she does MHW's PR as well.
You know, good friend of mine,she has essentially established
a mezcal university, so with Ibelieve we had the other guest
who had established that.
So you know there's there's amultitude of different options
you could go down and of course,you could become a trained
(05:54):
sommelier in wine.
One thing I do notice across theboard and not just with the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Awards andMiami Global Spirit Awards, but
a lot of the others as well isif you're deep in the industry,
if you have a lot of industryknowledge, if you're a retail
buyer who's been a buyer for 15plus years, if you're a head
mixologist at the Cosmopolitan,as it may be for the Las Vegas,
(06:18):
if you run a distributor company, those are all opportunities
where you know you may not besitting there blind tasting
spirits all day long, but justthroughout your career you've
had the opportunity to try afull range.
You have learned through thebrands that you work with
education on the productionprocess.
(06:38):
You know the different flavornotes that might come through.
So Purity Vodka when I workedthere, I mean I can't tell you
how many taste tests we had todo on the marketing and sales
end to be able to recognize ourown vodka against other vodkas.
People say that that is acategory that is classically
supposed to be tasteless,colorless, odorless, but that is
not necessarily true.
(06:58):
Most of the vodkas out there,depending on what bases are used
for it, for the productionprocess, you can taste those
underpinnings of flavors andnotes and to be able to
recognize them, I still believeto this day, if you put the top
15 vodkas in front of me thatare performing on the market, I
could still do that.
So that's why they put me onthe clear spirits judging panel.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, if you put the 15 best scotches in front of me,
I will say thank you.
Well, if you put the 15 bestscotches in front of me, I will
say thank you.
Well, let's get to work hereand introduce our guest for
today, because it's a greatconversation.
Our guest today is the founderand CEO of Las Vegas Global
Spirit Awards, which showcasesand celebrates the best of the
beverage industry.
(07:40):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Eddie Rivkin.
Thanks for having me.
Nice to meet you, jimmy Bridge.
Great to see you, as always.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Great to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's great to have you on here, Eddie.
Can you give us just a littlebit of a background?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
about yourself.
I read out your title, but canyou just tell us who you are?
Well, I'm a 35-year Las Vegaslocal, so I don't drive on the
strip anymore.
I moved here in 1989 fromMichigan.
I've spent a good part of thefirst part of my Vegas time in
the casino business.
I started out as a blackjackdealer, making about $11 a day
(08:20):
in tips downtown at the ElCortez, and my last position was
a casino shift manager wearinga suit and tie and walking
around and acting important.
My time in casinos led me intomarketing and sales and making a
ton of friends in the liquorand the spirits and wine space
(08:40):
and it sort of transitioned mewhen I burned out of the casino
world into clubs and managingclubs and general managing and
beverage director and thingslike that.
And then the most fortuitousbounce and the luckiest bounce
and I guess if it's in Vegas,you know luck should be a part
of the story.
I absolutely 100% lucked intothis concept the Las Vegas
(09:06):
Global Spirit Awards.
And you know, knock on wood,this is the ninth year, so I
must be doing something okay.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So it sounds like you've lucked into the concept a
little bit, but there had tohave been some element of
inspiration behind this.
So what inspired you to launchLas Vegas Global Wine and
Spirits Awards?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know that's a great question but honestly it
was not inspiration, it wastruly luck.
I was the general manager ofarguably the coolest tiki bar in
the world called the GoldenTiki, here in Las Vegas.
The owner of the bar was a hugerum collector and WSWA at that
(09:48):
time was rotating between LasVegas and Orlando and I thought
that, you know, maybe if I couldscore a badge I'd be able to
help him add to his rumcollection.
So I literally just went totalk to some rum brands and see
if there was anything reallycool in the market, and what I
found out was that none of thebrands that were being presented
(10:11):
at WSWA had distribution.
And then a light went offbecause I play in a card game, a
poker game.
Imagine that luck Vegas pokergame.
It's just.
It's just a Vegas story, but Iplay in a card game with some
distributors and I'm thinking tomyself well, now I have a brand
(10:31):
who wants distributors and Ihave friends who are
distributors and the ideastarted to sort of ruminate a
little bit.
And I met somebody at theconvention who worked for a
company who represented some ofthese brands.
And I met somebody at theconvention who worked for a
company who represented some ofthese brands and I said would
you take me around and introduceme to some of them?
I just like to hear theirstories and see if there's any
(10:53):
really good rum out there.
And this gal called Andreaintroduced me to a rum brand and
she said this is anaward-winning rum and I had
never heard of award-winning forspirits.
And I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
And then the light bulb gotscrewed just a tiny bit tighter
and the light got a tiny bitbrighter and I had her explain
(11:17):
to me the concept and they gowell, they entered this
competition in San Francisco andthey won a gold medal and it's
been huge for them inpublicizing their brand.
And that was the moment whenall the ingredients were in the
mixing bowl and I knew I was onto something.
(11:38):
But I also was acutely awarethat there was no chance in the
world that this wasn't beingdone in Las Vegas at the time.
Las Vegas is the alcoholconsumption capital of the world
.
They don't care what New Yorksays, they don't care what Los
Angeles says or London or any ofthose other places.
50 million people a year, plusthe 2.5 million who live here,
(11:58):
drink and we this city is that.
And the next morning and we,this city is that.
And the next morning I went tomy lawyer and I told him what I
had found out.
I said do a title search for me, see if there's anything like
that going on in Las Vegas.
A day later he goes dude,nothing like that's ever been
done in Vegas.
And with that I started mybusiness with $425.
(12:23):
I formed an LLC.
I had no idea at all what I wasdoing, but I knew that I was
going to do something for thefirst time that had been done in
Las Vegas and that, accordingto all of my really smart
friends in the casino industryand out, is the key to the
(12:48):
kingdom If you can be the first,you can be everything.
And that is the true story andthat's the luck of it.
It was absolutely a lucky breakthat I figured out something
and that it hadn't been done inLas Vegas.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Before you touch on the volume of beverages that are
consumed in Las Vegas, is thereanything else that sort of sets
Las Vegas apart from your NewYork's and your Los Angeles's
and your London's and so forththat make it important or a
special contributor on a globalscale in the beverage alcohol
(13:17):
category?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, listen, I'm a shameless shill for my city,
right?
You're a patriot and it'spretty much everything in Las
Vegas.
Los Angeles has an outstandingmixology clientele.
New York, london these areworld capitals for mixology.
What separates Vegas a littlebit from those is the fact that
(13:41):
50 million people come fromeverywhere to here, is the fact
that 50 million people come fromeverywhere to here.
So our mixology is absolutely100% on par with any one of
those cities the craft, the art,the everything.
You have places like Herbs andRye, which have won awards at
Tales of the Cocktail, the bestcocktail bar in the country.
So we have all of the thingsthat all of the other cities
(14:03):
have.
So we have all of the thingsthat all of the other cities
have.
But what we have that thoseother cities don't have are
people from Dubuque, iowa andButte, montana and, you know,
france and Germany and Icelandand Greenland, and people
literally from all over theworld come to Las Vegas and when
they come to Las Vegas theyimbibe and they try stuff and
(14:29):
they do stuff that they wouldn'tdare do where they live.
And that gives us I don't wantto say a leg up, but it gives us
a separation from the moretraditional American cities when
it comes to mixology andspirits and things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Absolutely, and I think it's the diversity you
touched upon too, the fact thatevery nationality and culture
comes to Las Vegas to imbibe.
So because of that, there'salso that imprint from all these
different cultures.
I know, for example, some ofthe judges you have on your
competition.
You know are experts inJapanese spirits and work in
Vegas.
They're experts on.
You know are experts inJapanese spirits and work in
(15:05):
Vegas.
They're experts on.
You know Brazilian spirits andyou can really find like a full
melting pot of all kinds ofspirits and wines in Vegas,
which is very cool.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
That's a fantastic point.
The diversity of our guest, ourvisitor, our like I say it's
like my city the diversity ofthe 50 plus million people who
come to town dictate that wehave to be experts at literally
everything From Piscos that comefrom Peru to Sake and Sochu and
Aomori from Japan to Baijiu,from China, from Cachaca, from
(15:39):
Brazil, if you name it.
You want to have some ties towhere you come from when you
come to Vegas, but the citycultivates curiosity to try new
things.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And so covering how brands can benefit from entering
your competition.
They win a medal at yourcompetition.
What do you recommend that theyshould do to merchandise it for
maximum impact, and how do yousupport in that process?
Speaker 3 (16:09):
The medal is.
It's really important.
And I tell the simplest story.
If a couple goes into a liquorstore and they decide that they
want to try mezcal for the firsttime and their budget is $50,
and they walk into a Lee'sLiquor here in Las Vegas and
there's 10 mezcals that are $50and some of them have really
(16:30):
cute labels and one of them someof them have sexy labels and
some have plain labels.
That doesn't help them.
But if one of those 10 has abottle sticker on it that says
Platinum Award winner Las VegasGlobal Spirit Awards, they're
going to buy that one.
Americans like shiny things.
This is just the truth.
The medal is a huge publicitytool for you.
(16:54):
You should splash it literallyeverywhere you can think to
splash it on every single bottlethat you produce of that
winning brand, on every socialmedia campaign that you launch,
on every digital, at everypromotion.
Everywhere where your brand canbe seen in the public, you
should advertise that you won amedal, In this case in the Las
(17:17):
Vegas Global Spirit Awards.
It absolutely is a huge assetto a brand's ability to improve
their optics and to sell more,Because if you've been in a
liquor store in the last 20years, they're like Walmarts,
they're wall to wall, everysingle name.
There's 150 vodkas, there's 500tequilas.
(17:41):
But what sets you apart?
What sets you apart is success,and winning a medal and
investing a very, very smallamount of your marketing budget
into the competition space canprovide you huge dividends, huge
wins when it comes tovisibility and direct sales to
(18:01):
consumers, because it does setyou apart.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I know you, eddie.
You also have a consultingbusiness on top of this.
So I do say, if someone wins agold medal for their rum, how
could they work with you tounderstand where in the market
to launch?
What are next steps in terms oftheir sales process?
How can you help them on thatside of things?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
In my years I've come to realize that there are
millions of competitions and itseems like there are new
competitions popping upliterally every week.
You know, sisters of the HolyGrail, spirits competition.
I don't know why people thinkthat they can just open their
doors and be successful, becauseI can tell you it doesn't work
that way.
But the key to competitions andthe key and what separates my
(18:46):
competition from the others is,I believe, that I have to do
more for the brands after thecompetition.
You have to have a distributor.
If you're in a three-tier state, it doesn't matter if the
judges of the competitions arebuyers for the biggest chains in
the world Sam's Club, costco,you name it.
They could be buyers for thebiggest restaurant chains in the
(19:07):
world Landry Club, costco, youname it.
They could be buyers for thebiggest restaurant chains in the
world Landry's, with 600restaurants.
But if you don't have adistributor in that state, you
can't sell.
So I identified that and I haveoffered limited opportunities
for select winners in thecompetition to be offered
distribution in Las Vegas.
And that's the key to thekingdom, because you can't do
(19:30):
anything without it.
Now the offer is not foreverybody.
The offer is based on what thedistributor is looking for to
add to their portfolios.
But it saves you tens ofthousands of dollars and having
to knock on doors and try to getmeetings and because, like you
said, bridget, the judges that Ihave are globally recognized.
(19:52):
If a distributor isn't familiarwith the competition, all they
have to do is look at the judgespanel and say, oh well, yeah,
if that got a platinum from thatgroup of people at least I know
the juice is good.
And that's the first step.
The story is everything else.
Yes, you have to have marketingmoney.
Yes, you have to be committedto going to that market and
(20:16):
doing ride-alongs withrepresentatives, because nobody
can tell your story better thanyou.
It's hard work launching and inthis city I'm not going to
sugarcoat stuff for you.
This is the most difficultmarket and the most competitive
market in the world.
You have to be committed to twoor three years of real hard
labor if you want to getestablished.
(20:39):
What can I do?
I have a big Rolodex, 35 yearsworth of friends.
I don't go out and beat thestreet anymore, but I can call
just about anybody and say, hey,I have something I'd like you
to try and if it's good, wetrade favors in Vegas, like kids
trade bubblegum cards.
So I can help you with makingsure that your brand gets into
(21:01):
the locations.
I can help you get key accounts, both off-premise and
on-premise.
I can help you get key accountsboth off-premise and on-premise
.
But most of all, I can get youinto the doors.
I can open doors that youcouldn't open because these
people are friends of mine andat that point you have to take
over and do the work.
You have to be committed todoing the hard stuff and I'm not
(21:25):
going to lie, it's hard, it'stedious, it's time consuming,
it's frustrating, but if youwant to be in this market, those
are the sacrifices that youhave to make.
I've been very fortunate to helplaunch brands and get brands
settled here.
I get the liquid onto the lipsof the influencing bartenders in
the craft cocktail scene herein town.
(21:47):
I get their spirits onto thebars in the cool places in town
and that's the beginning of theprocess.
The biggest misconception isthat a small brand thinks that
they can go into MGM Resorts, abig casino company.
Mgm Resorts, a big casinocompany, and a lot of my time
(22:14):
with new brands is temperingtheir expectations right,
because MGM and Caesars andhotels like the Fountain Blue.
Those are King Kong right.
If MGM Resorts loves yourproduct and they say they want
75 pallets a year and you can'tproduce 75 pallets, you're out
(22:35):
and this is you know.
This is hard truth talking.
I manage their expectations.
Let's get you into someoff-premise accounts.
Let's have some tastings inliquor stores and getting some
liquid on lips of some civiliansaround town.
Let's try to make a buzz.
Let's grow your brand veryorganically with all of our feet
on the ground and go from there.
(22:57):
You're not ready to go intoYankee Stadium on Saturday night
and pitch game seven of theWorld Series.
So if you're willing to committhe time and you're willing to
work with me over a couple ofyears, we can do it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm almost hearing here that there's two parts of
the process.
The first if they enter intothe competition, it doesn't
matter if they don't have asingle relationship in the US in
the beverage alcohol categorythey have a fair shot, totally
blind tasting fair shot.
And then once they get thatmedal, it's all about
relationships in this businessand how to sort of leverage that
(23:30):
, so being able to get into theright places being introduced,
understanding, I think, to yourpoint that it takes organic and
grassroots efforts.
You need, you know, feet on theground, you need to start to
connect with industryprofessionals, but I think you
know this kind of steers me backto the question about the
(23:51):
judging.
You know this is truly adouble-bind process and I've had
the honor and the opportunityto judge for the clear spirits
categories at your competitionin the past.
Since that's my background andI've been really humbled to be
next to some of the greatestnames in beverage alcohol, can
you walk brands listeningthrough how the judging process
(24:11):
works and how you can assurethat it is a completely
double-blind process?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Sure, the process is very elegant in its simplicity.
There are two completelyseparate rooms.
The samples are kept in a verylarge room six, seven, 8,000
square feet where they areunboxed, inventoried, verified
that there is no damage and theneach entry has an ID number and
(24:38):
the ID number correlates withthe order that it's presented to
the judges and the judge'sscorecard.
There's an entire team ofvolunteers whose responsibility
is do nothing but make sure thatthat evolution runs smoothly.
The judges sit in a completelydifferent room.
They have their laptops infront of them.
Scoring is done digitally now,thankfully, we don't have to cut
(24:59):
down forests of trees.
The preliminary judging arepanels of three judges each.
They're presented with nothingmore than a glass with a number
on it and correlatinginformation on their score sheet
.
They're given what it is,obviously, they're given its ABV
, they're given its agestatement and, if it applies,
(25:23):
and other modifiers as required.
If it was sherry cask aged orsomething like that.
We want the judges to knowexactly what the sample is, but
nothing that can tell you wherethe sample is necessarily from
or any of the things that wouldget you to sort of wonder what
(25:43):
it is that preliminary judging.
The process is very simpleThree judges, eight to ten
samples in a flight.
The judges score themindividually.
So you're sitting at a tablewith two other people.
You decide platinum, gold,silver, bronze or no metal for
each of the ten.
Each of the other two judgesdoes the same.
(26:06):
When all 30 scores are available, the person who's in charge of
the table opens a conversationabout each spirit.
The first spirit in the flightwas number 1234.
It was a bourbon 90 proof.
Judge A, you had it as a gold.
Judge B you had it as a silverbut I had it as a platinum.
(26:27):
And this is the integral partof the conversation that we'll
have about judging.
This part of the judging iswhen the final score is
determined and how it'sdetermined is the three judges
have a conversation about thatspirit.
I thought it was a silverbecause I got ABC, but the
(26:50):
platinum judge says I got D, eand F.
And then the silver judge sayswait a second, I want to try it
again.
And the interaction between thejudges three excellent palates
talking about a spirit Judges.
Three excellent palates talkingabout a spirit Judges.
They can go up or they can godown.
When they get more informationfrom other experts, they come to
(27:14):
the conclusion If it's threegoals, it's a gold.
This is easy stuff, right.
But if there's a difference ofopinion, they talk about it and
I don't want to say that theylobby or they negotiate, but
they share all the informationon how they got to what they got
to come up with the fairestscore and that's the score that
(27:36):
goes forward and that's theirfinal score.
In the case that something isabsolutely exemplary platinum
medal, 95 points, or the judgeshave the opportunity to push
that forward, that entry forwardto a sweepstakes round.
The sweepstakes round is heldthe second day.
It features only the best ofeach of the preliminary panels
(28:01):
and at that point all the scoresare thrown out.
The judges don't know what thescore was when it arrived.
At sweepstakes.
The samples are retasted by theentire panel of 15, 18, 24, as
many judges as there are, andthere's no more scoring.
It's simply an up and down vote.
If we have three vodkas, howmany judges believe number one,
(28:25):
two, three, four was the bestvodka?
And it's a simple up and downprocess and that's what
determines the best in class.
And then from best in class youhave best brown spirit and best
white spirit.
From that you have the best inshow and then the chairman also
selects.
He has the opportunity toselect what he believes is the
(28:46):
best in show.
If it were to be different?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
That second day it was really really cool process.
And the second day I mean it isvery iterative.
There's a lot of conversationthat goes into it, a lot of
comparing scores, making surethat everyone's on the same page
.
I mean it is veryprofessionally run and very well
done.
So you know, I think itcertainly gives every brand a
(29:09):
fair and equal shot.
So if you're it doesn't matter,if you're new to market and
you've never sold a case in theUS, you have an equal
opportunity to you know a 25million plus million case brand.
So I would definitely advise toall of our listeners, if you
have the opportunity.
It's a very low fee to enter, toget in, and we actually have a
promo code for our listenershere.
(29:30):
You can use promo code MHW25and that will give you 15% off
your entry.
And Eddie is also available.
We'll post his contactinformation in the show notes
and on the social media posts.
If you have a large group ofspirits to enter, he will always
work with you on entering thatat a lower fee.
So I think you know.
(29:51):
Now this brings us to a greatpivot point where MHW is working
with Eddie on a new market.
So can you share a little bitmore about that news, eddie.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I'm I've sort of on my whiteboard to the side
over there Always wanted to do asecond city and even though,
like I had said earlier, thecompetition space is overcrowded
with not as prestigious andwell-known competitions, I
decided that this year was thetime, so I couldn't think of a
(30:25):
better, more natural sort ofsister city connection vibe.
So in March of 2025, the MiamiGlobal Spirit Awards will make
its first appearance onto thecompetition scene.
I am over the moon.
The location is absolutelyfantastic.
(30:46):
It's going to be 80% new judges, mostly from New York and up
and down the East Coast.
I'll bring some of my Vegaspeople with me to make sure that
we do things exactly the sameway to maintain continuity.
But this is an unbelievableopportunity for overseas brands,
because it's come to myattention that Florida is five
(31:10):
hours closer to London than LasVegas, and five hours on an
airplane is an awful long time.
So if you're a brand in Europe,if you're a brand in South
America, we have a website inSpanish.
We have all of our informationavailable in Spanish.
If you're a non-United Statesbrand, this is your chance,
(31:32):
because I have distributionopportunities available in
California, texas, florida, newYork, new Jersey, massachusetts
and a couple other states comingon board.
So if you wanted to take yourshot at entering the United
States market, if you believewhat you do, this is the
opportunity.
The judges will be anincredible mix of international
(31:55):
and United States-based judges.
Distributors from multiplestates are going to be on the
panel.
For this year we're doingsomething another sort of sure.
I'll pat myself on the back andsay groundbreaking in the
spirits competition space.
I've created an e-commerceplatform where select winners
(32:15):
from the competition will havethe opportunity to join a
membership-based e-commerceplatform and immediately be sold
in 42 states around the country.
And this goes back to thebeginning where I said what does
the competition do for youafter the competition?
And the premise is brands needhelp with just about everything
(32:37):
other than making juice.
So if I can be the guy that canget them into the United States
with an importer, having MHW domy import and my compliance,
I've got the distributionnetwork.
I have an e-commerce platform.
It's a package where, basically, if you make good juice and you
want to take a shot and you'vegot the money, I can bring you
(33:00):
into the United States andlaunch you probably in 90 days.
And that is what sets Miamiapart from every other
competition and we'll work thee-commerce platform into the
Vegas competition as well,because it's 42 states.
Basically, the control statesare the exception.
So if it's a three-tier stateand this is, you know, getting
(33:23):
super techie with suppliers butif you're looking to get into
three tier states this will saveyou literally tens of thousands
of dollars of your time, butmore than that years of your
life trying to sort it out.
Your importers in the middleblock of our little Brady Bunch
podcast here right, thedistributors are my field.
(33:47):
Everything that you need tolaunch in the United States is
now available to you for a verynominal marketing budget fee to
enter the competition.
I want to make this perfectlyclear.
There are no guarantees.
It is not offered to everybody.
There is no shortcut.
You can't call me up on thephone and say, hey, I don't want
(34:10):
to enter the competition butcan you help me with
distribution?
Because I'm going to say yesand then I'm going to tell you
I'm going to charge you ahundred thousand dollar
consulting fee and you're goingto say that's crazy and I'm
going yes, but if you're stupidenough to give it to me, I'm
stupid enough to take it.
Spend the $450 or $500,.
(34:32):
Take your chance in thecompetition and have the portal
that I've created to success beavailable to you that way.
That's why I created thecompetitions to help the brands
and that's why I deliver moreafter the competitions to be a
part of their growth and success.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So how can brands who say they do really well in
Miami, how can they leveragetheir shiny new metal in the
Miami market using both MHW andyour upcoming feet-on-the-ground
sales service?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Well, in order to succeed, you have to have boots
on the ground, and there aremultiple ways that brands do
that.
The misconception for all thesuppliers is that the
distributor is your sales team.
They're not.
They take orders, they fulfillorders, they do your back of
housework, they keep youorganized inventory-wise and all
(35:25):
of that other stuff, butthey're not salespeople.
We're putting together aprogram where we'll have boots
on the ground in each of thestates where we have
distribution.
It's part of your marketingcommitment every month and part
of that money you'll have,basically, a brand ambassador,
and that brand ambassador isonly going to represent brands
(35:49):
that have won the competition.
There are other big distributorsand you all know who the big
distributors are, so there's noreason to name them.
Their book could be 10,000spirits or 20,000 spirits or
even more.
For you personally, if you makea bourbon, one of these big
(36:09):
distributors might have 150bourbons in their book.
Have 150 bourbons in their book.
What's different about themodel that I'm working on and
I'm creating is thisrepresentative will only
represent winners from thecompetition.
So they might have two bourbons, they'll have two tequilas,
they'll have a vodka, they'llhave a liqueur, they'll have a
couple of RTDs, but you as asupplier, as a brand, will have
(36:35):
direct access to somebody whoonly has one or two things in
your specific space.
So when he goes and calls onthese accounts these restaurants
, these bars, these casinos,strip clubs, whatever it is and
they say, hey, we're looking fora bourbon, he's not going to
pull out his laptop and show him150 bourbons and try to pitch
the one that has the mostpromotion money.
(36:57):
His only job is pitching andselling winners from the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Awards andfrom the Miami Global Spirit
Awards.
So it's a unique opportunity.
It's kind of in its infancy.
It will be ready to be launchedby the end of the Miami
competition we're hoping aroundApril but it gives brands the
(37:17):
opportunity to have asalesperson and that's the thing
that they don't have.
And that's to me.
Between having sales, havinge-commerce, having distributors,
I can't see a reason in theworld if you made a spirit and
you were serious about gettingout there and whatever your goal
(37:38):
is whether it is to selleverything you make or it's like
a tequila brand owned by aquestion and earlier having
somebody be your preacher ofyour brand so when you come to
Florida and you have I want tomake this clear.
(38:04):
You have to come to market.
You have to come to market atleast twice a year we would
prefer once every quarter andyou go on what they call
ride-alongs, where you go aroundwith our rep and you go see 15
or 20 people and he talks aboutit from the business.
But people want to hear yourstory, your personal story.
Yeah, we started this wine in abathtub and I found out I loved
(38:28):
making wine and you know,thankfully we had enough money
and we bought a winery and webecame wildly successful.
The story is everything andit's what separates you from
everybody else.
So you have to come to market.
You have to come to Florida,twist your arm.
You have to come to Las Vegasfor a few days and meet some
(38:49):
people and help us open someaccounts, because the deals that
you go see they close at a wayhigher rate than when just a
rep's going in making calls onpeople.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
And I think the credentialing factor is so
important in this, the fact thatyour representative can say we
only represent gold medalwinners.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
So they have dominated against hundreds of
other spirits in the category.
This is the one that came outas the winner is already going
to credential it, because someof the like I've noticed this
when I've gone on ride-alongs inmy past life when I worked at a
vodka brand some of theoff-premise, many of them, I
would say, don't even taste.
They don't they.
If they tasted every you knowrep's product that walked into
(39:33):
their liquor store, I think theywould be permanently drunk all
day long.
So they don't taste.
What they want to know is isthis going to move?
Does it taste good?
But they're not going to be theones to do it.
And so I think having thatcredentialing factor to say yes,
this won.
And then we decided to bringthem into the portfolio that
just gives a leg up on theretail side, into the portfolio.
(39:56):
That just gives a leg up on theretail side.
And then, of course, we knowfrom what you mentioned earlier,
having the necker or it on theyou know labeling is going to
help with the consumer part ofit.
So it just all the way throughthe tiers.
I think this is going to be ahome run.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Instead of our usual, normal question, we're going to
throw a little bit of acurveball, and I think that
we're going to have some funwith this.
So, eddie, who's your pick forthe Stanley Cup this year?
Do you think the Golden Knightshave what it takes?
Come on, man.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Listen.
Hockey is my life outside of mywork here.
I'm going to shamelessly plugthe Hockey Nights in Vegas
podcast because I'm acredentialed member of the Las
Vegas Global Knights media.
I travel on occasion with theteams.
I was asked this question lastnight in an interview setting
and my answer is if the puckgods are kind to them and they
(40:48):
remain healthy when it comes tothe important part of the season
in April or May, they areabsolutely one of the five or
six teams that can win theStanley Cup.
It's the most difficult trophyin sports.
You have to win 16 games.
You basically play every othernight for about two months to
get Lord Stanley's Cup.
(41:08):
But I've been blessed to see ithappen in my home rink a couple
of years ago and if they'rehealthy, they'll be one of the
last people at the dance comeJune.
How's?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
that for fair.
I wish you luck.
I'm not much of a sports guy,but moving from Houston up here
to Maine, I at least canhopefully start cheering for
some colder sports.
Go watch black bear hockey.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Black bear hockey.
Is this a euphemism?
No, no, the University of Maineare called the black bears.
Okay, and the University ofMaine always has one of the
better collegiate hockey teamsin the country.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
All right, eddie Rivkin, giving me some knowledge
about my own Hockey knowledge,dropping hockey knowledge Well,
I appreciate it.
Well, I want to say huge thanksto our guest, eddie Rivkin, for
coming by and dropping someknowledge.
Links again to the Las VegasGlobal Spirits Awards will be in
the description and Miami.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And Miami.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
And Miami.
All of that will be in the shownotes, regardless of how I said
it it be.
All of that will be in the shownotes.
Regardless of how I said it,It'll all be correct in the show
notes.
So, Eddie, thanks again foryour time and your hockey
knowledge as well.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Bridge.
Wonderful to see you, as always.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Good to see you.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Congratulations on the beautiful little bouncing
baby that you have.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thank you.
Hopefully when you're feelingup to it, you'll bless us with
your presence on a panel in oneof these cool two cities that
I'm working in.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Absolutely Thank you so much, eddie, and thank you
listeners for joining us on theMHW Mark podcast and thanks
again to Bridget McCabe forjoining me in hosting.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Thank you so much.
Always good to be here.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
This podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen Frommyself and the whole team at
MHW, thank you for a wonderfulyear of conversation.
(43:12):
We wish you a safe and happyholiday season.
We'll see you soon.
Cheers.
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today is areturning favorite, mhw's
Bridget McCabe.
How have you been, bridget?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hi, I've been very well.
I love the holiday season, soI'm very happy to be in the
thick of the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We're into it.
We're finally getting a littlebit of snow up here in Maine.
How are things in New York?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
It is getting colder, but no snow yet.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, we've got a really fun conversation today
with a lively guest.
Shall we say?
What are we talking about today?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
One of my favorites.
So this episode we arediscussing blind tasting
competitions, why they exist andhow brands can utilize them to
help sell their brands in the USmarket.
You know the US has a verydiverse customer base and all
different kinds of categoriesthat enter, so the ability to
merchandise and show that yourtaste of your product is better
(01:12):
is going to be helpful at boththe digital and e-commerce level
, as well as brick and mortar instore.
We're also specificallytouching on the uniqueness and
the credibility of the globalVegas spirit market, which is
international just by nature ofthe amount of tourism that
happens there every year.
Mhw handles the back officecompliance services for the Las
(01:32):
Vegas Global Spirits Awards andwe have a very exciting
announcement from our guestabout new developments in the
Miami market.
Mhw does have a distributionpresence down in Florida, so
we're excited to share this newshere.
And in general, awards and theability to credential your brand
is a topic that's really nearand dear to my heart.
(01:54):
When I served as brand managerfor Purity Vodka now almost a
decade ago, that brand wasreally built off of the concept
of being one of the mostaward-winning ultra-premium
vodkas in the world.
Now you know the brand is inover 15 different markets.
They received hundreds of goldand double gold medals over the
(02:14):
years, and I also had theopportunity to serve on the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Award panela couple of years ago.
So it's something that I'veseen and come into fruition in
the marketing space as tosomething consumers are looking
for and we live in thisecosystem where everyone is
looking for an Amazon review orthey're looking to see what
their peers are saying about it.
This is the ability to havesome of the best palates in the
(02:37):
world.
An international panel ofjudges really let you know what
is the best vodka, what's thebest gin, what's the best, you
know, cachaça.
It really spans the entirecategory.
So excited to have our guest onhere.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I have a question about.
If, say, say, I'm a brand andmaybe I haven't had the
opportunity yet to have thesebest palettes rate my product,
but I'm still trying to get outto market, is it an issue of
order of operations and you justhave to do it in this order, or
is there a way to sort of?
Is it just through marketing?
Is it just through, you know,liquid to lips, as you say?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That's a great question, jimmy, because I think
it is one that most brandswonder.
Do they have to come to marketto the US and flow through the
three-tier system, you know, andbe on the shelf before they can
enter these competitions?
And the answer is no.
You could be an internationalbrand and you could have never
even set foot in the US.
But MHW being the complianceprovider for a lot of these
(03:37):
competitions, we can apply foryour certificate of label
approval for the TTB federallevel and basically get like a
temporary exception for yourproduct to label approval for
the TTB federal level andbasically get like a temporary
exception for your product tocome in.
Sometimes it, you know, doesn'teven have like its formal
packaging complete for whatit'll look like in the US, but
they want the formula tasted.
So you know that will come inthrough MHW.
(03:59):
We'll make sure that you haveeverything you need for customs
clearance and logistics for theshipment, that it's compliant
not only within the federallevel, but you need a state
wholesaler so we'll kind ofguide the producers through that
process.
Then, once they get to thetasting table with the judges,
it's really up to the liquid tokind of stand on its own and to
(04:20):
get that medal.
But we've seen hundreds ofbrands that have medaled in
various competitions, that haveused that as leverage to then
say, okay, we have somethinghere, these are the markets that
we want to enter into.
And then they've already hadthat working relationship with
MHW so they can get started withus, to get their LLCs here on
the ground, to get everythingstarted.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
To give listeners a little bit of a preview of the
conversation you talk aboutduring some of these
competitions, that you've judgedsome of these competitions, and
I guess that's some of yourbackground there.
I want at some point to reallydo a deep dive with you on
judging competitions becauseit's just something that's
interesting to me.
I know that I do not have themost refined palate, but it's
(05:02):
just interesting to me to listento people who do have these
really strong palates, to beable to pull out all of these
notes out of things and I'm justlike, really you're tasting all
of that.
That's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Right?
Well, there's a whole rabbithole you could go down with.
There's things like WSET, whichis the Wine and Spirit
Education Trust.
They have multiple levels oftraining in wine and spirits.
You know my good friend and thefounder of Laura Badish PR, the
Badish Group we love Laura.
Badish.
We love Laura Badish.
(05:33):
She's been on here as a guest.
Yeah, she does MHW's PR as well.
You know, good friend of mine,she has essentially established
a mezcal university, so with Ibelieve we had the other guest
who had established that.
So you know there's there's amultitude of different options
you could go down and of course,you could become a trained
(05:54):
sommelier in wine.
One thing I do notice across theboard and not just with the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Awards andMiami Global Spirit Awards, but
a lot of the others as well isif you're deep in the industry,
if you have a lot of industryknowledge, if you're a retail
buyer who's been a buyer for 15plus years, if you're a head
mixologist at the Cosmopolitan,as it may be for the Las Vegas,
(06:18):
if you run a distributor company, those are all opportunities
where you know you may not besitting there blind tasting
spirits all day long, but justthroughout your career you've
had the opportunity to try afull range.
You have learned through thebrands that you work with
education on the productionprocess.
(06:38):
You know the different flavornotes that might come through.
So Purity Vodka when I workedthere, I mean I can't tell you
how many taste tests we had todo on the marketing and sales
end to be able to recognize ourown vodka against other vodkas.
People say that that is acategory that is classically
supposed to be tasteless,colorless, odorless, but that is
not necessarily true.
(06:58):
Most of the vodkas out there,depending on what bases are used
for it, for the productionprocess, you can taste those
underpinnings of flavors andnotes and to be able to
recognize them, I still believeto this day, if you put the top
15 vodkas in front of me thatare performing on the market, I
could still do that.
So that's why they put me onthe clear spirits judging panel.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Well, if you put the 15 best scotches in front of me,
I will say thank you.
Well, if you put the 15 bestscotches in front of me, I will
say thank you.
Well, let's get to work hereand introduce our guest for
today, because it's a greatconversation.
Our guest today is the founderand CEO of Las Vegas Global
Spirit Awards, which showcasesand celebrates the best of the
beverage industry.
(07:40):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Eddie Rivkin.
Thanks for having me.
Nice to meet you, jimmy Bridge.
Great to see you, as always.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Great to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's great to have you on here, Eddie.
Can you give us just a littlebit of a background?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
about yourself.
I read out your title, but canyou just tell us who you are?
Well, I'm a 35-year Las Vegaslocal, so I don't drive on the
strip anymore.
I moved here in 1989 fromMichigan.
I've spent a good part of thefirst part of my Vegas time in
the casino business.
I started out as a blackjackdealer, making about $11 a day
(08:20):
in tips downtown at the ElCortez, and my last position was
a casino shift manager wearinga suit and tie and walking
around and acting important.
My time in casinos led me intomarketing and sales and making a
ton of friends in the liquorand the spirits and wine space
(08:40):
and it sort of transitioned mewhen I burned out of the casino
world into clubs and managingclubs and general managing and
beverage director and thingslike that.
And then the most fortuitousbounce and the luckiest bounce
and I guess if it's in Vegas,you know luck should be a part
of the story.
I absolutely 100% lucked intothis concept the Las Vegas
(09:06):
Global Spirit Awards.
And you know, knock on wood,this is the ninth year, so I
must be doing something okay.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So it sounds like you've lucked into the concept a
little bit, but there had tohave been some element of
inspiration behind this.
So what inspired you to launchLas Vegas Global Wine and
Spirits Awards?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know that's a great question but honestly it
was not inspiration, it wastruly luck.
I was the general manager ofarguably the coolest tiki bar in
the world called the GoldenTiki, here in Las Vegas.
The owner of the bar was a hugerum collector and WSWA at that
(09:48):
time was rotating between LasVegas and Orlando and I thought
that, you know, maybe if I couldscore a badge I'd be able to
help him add to his rumcollection.
So I literally just went totalk to some rum brands and see
if there was anything reallycool in the market, and what I
found out was that none of thebrands that were being presented
(10:11):
at WSWA had distribution.
And then a light went offbecause I play in a card game, a
poker game.
Imagine that luck Vegas pokergame.
It's just.
It's just a Vegas story, but Iplay in a card game with some
distributors and I'm thinking tomyself well, now I have a brand
(10:31):
who wants distributors and Ihave friends who are
distributors and the ideastarted to sort of ruminate a
little bit.
And I met somebody at theconvention who worked for a
company who represented some ofthese brands.
And I met somebody at theconvention who worked for a
company who represented some ofthese brands and I said would
you take me around and introduceme to some of them?
I just like to hear theirstories and see if there's any
(10:53):
really good rum out there.
And this gal called Andreaintroduced me to a rum brand and
she said this is anaward-winning rum and I had
never heard of award-winning forspirits.
And I'm like, oh, wait a minute.
And then the light bulb gotscrewed just a tiny bit tighter
and the light got a tiny bitbrighter and I had her explain
(11:17):
to me the concept and they gowell, they entered this
competition in San Francisco andthey won a gold medal and it's
been huge for them inpublicizing their brand.
And that was the moment whenall the ingredients were in the
mixing bowl and I knew I was onto something.
(11:38):
But I also was acutely awarethat there was no chance in the
world that this wasn't beingdone in Las Vegas at the time.
Las Vegas is the alcoholconsumption capital of the world
.
They don't care what New Yorksays, they don't care what Los
Angeles says or London or any ofthose other places.
50 million people a year, plusthe 2.5 million who live here,
(11:58):
drink and we this city is that.
And the next morning and we,this city is that.
And the next morning I went tomy lawyer and I told him what I
had found out.
I said do a title search for me, see if there's anything like
that going on in Las Vegas.
A day later he goes dude,nothing like that's ever been
done in Vegas.
And with that I started mybusiness with $425.
(12:23):
I formed an LLC.
I had no idea at all what I wasdoing, but I knew that I was
going to do something for thefirst time that had been done in
Las Vegas and that, accordingto all of my really smart
friends in the casino industryand out, is the key to the
(12:48):
kingdom If you can be the first,you can be everything.
And that is the true story andthat's the luck of it.
It was absolutely a lucky breakthat I figured out something
and that it hadn't been done inLas Vegas.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Before you touch on the volume of beverages that are
consumed in Las Vegas, is thereanything else that sort of sets
Las Vegas apart from your NewYork's and your Los Angeles's
and your London's and so forththat make it important or a
special contributor on a globalscale in the beverage alcohol
(13:17):
category?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, listen, I'm a shameless shill for my city,
right?
You're a patriot and it'spretty much everything in Las
Vegas.
Los Angeles has an outstandingmixology clientele.
New York, london these areworld capitals for mixology.
What separates Vegas a littlebit from those is the fact that
(13:41):
50 million people come fromeverywhere to here, is the fact
that 50 million people come fromeverywhere to here.
So our mixology is absolutely100% on par with any one of
those cities the craft, the art,the everything.
You have places like Herbs andRye, which have won awards at
Tales of the Cocktail, the bestcocktail bar in the country.
So we have all of the thingsthat all of the other cities
(14:03):
have.
So we have all of the thingsthat all of the other cities
have.
But what we have that thoseother cities don't have are
people from Dubuque, iowa andButte, montana and, you know,
france and Germany and Icelandand Greenland, and people
literally from all over theworld come to Las Vegas and when
they come to Las Vegas theyimbibe and they try stuff and
(14:29):
they do stuff that they wouldn'tdare do where they live.
And that gives us I don't wantto say a leg up, but it gives us
a separation from the moretraditional American cities when
it comes to mixology andspirits and things like that.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Absolutely, and I think it's the diversity you
touched upon too, the fact thatevery nationality and culture
comes to Las Vegas to imbibe.
So because of that, there'salso that imprint from all these
different cultures.
I know, for example, some ofthe judges you have on your
competition.
You know are experts inJapanese spirits and work in
Vegas.
They're experts on.
You know are experts inJapanese spirits and work in
(15:05):
Vegas.
They're experts on.
You know Brazilian spirits andyou can really find like a full
melting pot of all kinds ofspirits and wines in Vegas,
which is very cool.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
That's a fantastic point.
The diversity of our guest, ourvisitor, our like I say it's
like my city the diversity ofthe 50 plus million people who
come to town dictate that wehave to be experts at literally
everything From Piscos that comefrom Peru to Sake and Sochu and
Aomori from Japan to Baijiu,from China, from Cachaca, from
(15:39):
Brazil, if you name it.
You want to have some ties towhere you come from when you
come to Vegas, but the citycultivates curiosity to try new
things.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
And so covering how brands can benefit from entering
your competition.
They win a medal at yourcompetition.
What do you recommend that theyshould do to merchandise it for
maximum impact, and how do yousupport in that process?
Speaker 3 (16:09):
The medal is.
It's really important.
And I tell the simplest story.
If a couple goes into a liquorstore and they decide that they
want to try mezcal for the firsttime and their budget is $50,
and they walk into a Lee'sLiquor here in Las Vegas and
there's 10 mezcals that are $50and some of them have really
(16:30):
cute labels and one of them someof them have sexy labels and
some have plain labels.
That doesn't help them.
But if one of those 10 has abottle sticker on it that says
Platinum Award winner Las VegasGlobal Spirit Awards, they're
going to buy that one.
Americans like shiny things.
This is just the truth.
The medal is a huge publicitytool for you.
(16:54):
You should splash it literallyeverywhere you can think to
splash it on every single bottlethat you produce of that
winning brand, on every socialmedia campaign that you launch,
on every digital, at everypromotion.
Everywhere where your brand canbe seen in the public, you
should advertise that you won amedal, In this case in the Las
(17:17):
Vegas Global Spirit Awards.
It absolutely is a huge assetto a brand's ability to improve
their optics and to sell more,Because if you've been in a
liquor store in the last 20years, they're like Walmarts,
they're wall to wall, everysingle name.
There's 150 vodkas, there's 500tequilas.
(17:41):
But what sets you apart?
What sets you apart is success,and winning a medal and
investing a very, very smallamount of your marketing budget
into the competition space canprovide you huge dividends, huge
wins when it comes tovisibility and direct sales to
(18:01):
consumers, because it does setyou apart.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I know you, eddie.
You also have a consultingbusiness on top of this.
So I do say, if someone wins agold medal for their rum, how
could they work with you tounderstand where in the market
to launch?
What are next steps in terms oftheir sales process?
How can you help them on thatside of things?
Speaker 3 (18:22):
In my years I've come to realize that there are
millions of competitions and itseems like there are new
competitions popping upliterally every week.
You know, sisters of the HolyGrail, spirits competition.
I don't know why people thinkthat they can just open their
doors and be successful, becauseI can tell you it doesn't work
that way.
But the key to competitions andthe key and what separates my
(18:46):
competition from the others is,I believe, that I have to do
more for the brands after thecompetition.
You have to have a distributor.
If you're in a three-tier state, it doesn't matter if the
judges of the competitions arebuyers for the biggest chains in
the world Sam's Club, costco,you name it.
They could be buyers for thebiggest restaurant chains in the
(19:07):
world Landry Club, costco, youname it.
They could be buyers for thebiggest restaurant chains in the
world Landry's, with 600restaurants.
But if you don't have adistributor in that state, you
can't sell.
So I identified that and I haveoffered limited opportunities
for select winners in thecompetition to be offered
distribution in Las Vegas.
And that's the key to thekingdom, because you can't do
(19:30):
anything without it.
Now the offer is not foreverybody.
The offer is based on what thedistributor is looking for to
add to their portfolios.
But it saves you tens ofthousands of dollars and having
to knock on doors and try to getmeetings and because, like you
said, bridget, the judges that Ihave are globally recognized.
(19:52):
If a distributor isn't familiarwith the competition, all they
have to do is look at the judgespanel and say, oh well, yeah,
if that got a platinum from thatgroup of people at least I know
the juice is good.
And that's the first step.
The story is everything else.
Yes, you have to have marketingmoney.
Yes, you have to be committedto going to that market and
(20:16):
doing ride-alongs withrepresentatives, because nobody
can tell your story better thanyou.
It's hard work launching and inthis city I'm not going to
sugarcoat stuff for you.
This is the most difficultmarket and the most competitive
market in the world.
You have to be committed to twoor three years of real hard
labor if you want to getestablished.
(20:39):
What can I do?
I have a big Rolodex, 35 yearsworth of friends.
I don't go out and beat thestreet anymore, but I can call
just about anybody and say, hey,I have something I'd like you
to try and if it's good, wetrade favors in Vegas, like kids
trade bubblegum cards.
So I can help you with makingsure that your brand gets into
(21:01):
the locations.
I can help you get key accounts, both off-premise and
on-premise.
I can help you get key accountsboth off-premise and on-premise
.
But most of all, I can get youinto the doors.
I can open doors that youcouldn't open because these
people are friends of mine andat that point you have to take
over and do the work.
You have to be committed todoing the hard stuff and I'm not
(21:25):
going to lie, it's hard, it'stedious, it's time consuming,
it's frustrating, but if youwant to be in this market, those
are the sacrifices that youhave to make.
I've been very fortunate to helplaunch brands and get brands
settled here.
I get the liquid onto the lipsof the influencing bartenders in
the craft cocktail scene herein town.
(21:47):
I get their spirits onto thebars in the cool places in town
and that's the beginning of theprocess.
The biggest misconception isthat a small brand thinks that
they can go into MGM Resorts, abig casino company.
Mgm Resorts, a big casinocompany, and a lot of my time
(22:14):
with new brands is temperingtheir expectations right,
because MGM and Caesars andhotels like the Fountain Blue.
Those are King Kong right.
If MGM Resorts loves yourproduct and they say they want
75 pallets a year and you can'tproduce 75 pallets, you're out
(22:35):
and this is you know.
This is hard truth talking.
I manage their expectations.
Let's get you into someoff-premise accounts.
Let's have some tastings inliquor stores and getting some
liquid on lips of some civiliansaround town.
Let's try to make a buzz.
Let's grow your brand veryorganically with all of our feet
on the ground and go from there.
(22:57):
You're not ready to go intoYankee Stadium on Saturday night
and pitch game seven of theWorld Series.
So if you're willing to committhe time and you're willing to
work with me over a couple ofyears, we can do it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm almost hearing here that there's two parts of
the process.
The first if they enter intothe competition, it doesn't
matter if they don't have asingle relationship in the US in
the beverage alcohol categorythey have a fair shot, totally
blind tasting fair shot.
And then once they get thatmedal, it's all about
relationships in this businessand how to sort of leverage that
(23:30):
, so being able to get into theright places being introduced,
understanding, I think, to yourpoint that it takes organic and
grassroots efforts.
You need, you know, feet on theground, you need to start to
connect with industryprofessionals, but I think you
know this kind of steers me backto the question about the
(23:51):
judging.
You know this is truly adouble-bind process and I've had
the honor and the opportunityto judge for the clear spirits
categories at your competitionin the past.
Since that's my background andI've been really humbled to be
next to some of the greatestnames in beverage alcohol, can
you walk brands listeningthrough how the judging process
(24:11):
works and how you can assurethat it is a completely
double-blind process?
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Sure, the process is very elegant in its simplicity.
There are two completelyseparate rooms.
The samples are kept in a verylarge room six, seven, 8,000
square feet where they areunboxed, inventoried, verified
that there is no damage and theneach entry has an ID number and
(24:38):
the ID number correlates withthe order that it's presented to
the judges and the judge'sscorecard.
There's an entire team ofvolunteers whose responsibility
is do nothing but make sure thatthat evolution runs smoothly.
The judges sit in a completelydifferent room.
They have their laptops infront of them.
Scoring is done digitally now,thankfully, we don't have to cut
(24:59):
down forests of trees.
The preliminary judging arepanels of three judges each.
They're presented with nothingmore than a glass with a number
on it and correlatinginformation on their score sheet
.
They're given what it is,obviously, they're given its ABV
, they're given its agestatement and, if it applies,
(25:23):
and other modifiers as required.
If it was sherry cask aged orsomething like that.
We want the judges to knowexactly what the sample is, but
nothing that can tell you wherethe sample is necessarily from
or any of the things that wouldget you to sort of wonder what
(25:43):
it is that preliminary judging.
The process is very simpleThree judges, eight to ten
samples in a flight.
The judges score themindividually.
So you're sitting at a tablewith two other people.
You decide platinum, gold,silver, bronze or no metal for
each of the ten.
Each of the other two judgesdoes the same.
(26:06):
When all 30 scores are available, the person who's in charge of
the table opens a conversationabout each spirit.
The first spirit in the flightwas number 1234.
It was a bourbon 90 proof.
Judge A, you had it as a gold.
Judge B you had it as a silverbut I had it as a platinum.
(26:27):
And this is the integral partof the conversation that we'll
have about judging.
This part of the judging iswhen the final score is
determined and how it'sdetermined is the three judges
have a conversation about thatspirit.
I thought it was a silverbecause I got ABC, but the
(26:50):
platinum judge says I got D, eand F.
And then the silver judge sayswait a second, I want to try it
again.
And the interaction between thejudges three excellent palates
talking about a spirit Judges.
Three excellent palates talkingabout a spirit Judges.
They can go up or they can godown.
When they get more informationfrom other experts, they come to
(27:14):
the conclusion If it's threegoals, it's a gold.
This is easy stuff, right.
But if there's a difference ofopinion, they talk about it and
I don't want to say that theylobby or they negotiate, but
they share all the informationon how they got to what they got
to come up with the fairestscore and that's the score that
(27:36):
goes forward and that's theirfinal score.
In the case that something isabsolutely exemplary platinum
medal, 95 points, or the judgeshave the opportunity to push
that forward, that entry forwardto a sweepstakes round.
The sweepstakes round is heldthe second day.
It features only the best ofeach of the preliminary panels
(28:01):
and at that point all the scoresare thrown out.
The judges don't know what thescore was when it arrived.
At sweepstakes.
The samples are retasted by theentire panel of 15, 18, 24, as
many judges as there are, andthere's no more scoring.
It's simply an up and down vote.
If we have three vodkas, howmany judges believe number one,
(28:25):
two, three, four was the bestvodka?
And it's a simple up and downprocess and that's what
determines the best in class.
And then from best in class youhave best brown spirit and best
white spirit.
From that you have the best inshow and then the chairman also
selects.
He has the opportunity toselect what he believes is the
(28:46):
best in show.
If it were to be different?
Speaker 2 (28:49):
That second day it was really really cool process.
And the second day I mean it isvery iterative.
There's a lot of conversationthat goes into it, a lot of
comparing scores, making surethat everyone's on the same page
.
I mean it is veryprofessionally run and very well
done.
So you know, I think itcertainly gives every brand a
(29:09):
fair and equal shot.
So if you're it doesn't matter,if you're new to market and
you've never sold a case in theUS, you have an equal
opportunity to you know a 25million plus million case brand.
So I would definitely advise toall of our listeners, if you
have the opportunity.
It's a very low fee to enter, toget in, and we actually have a
promo code for our listenershere.
(29:30):
You can use promo code MHW25and that will give you 15% off
your entry.
And Eddie is also available.
We'll post his contactinformation in the show notes
and on the social media posts.
If you have a large group ofspirits to enter, he will always
work with you on entering thatat a lower fee.
So I think you know.
(29:51):
Now this brings us to a greatpivot point where MHW is working
with Eddie on a new market.
So can you share a little bitmore about that news, eddie.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Yeah, I'm I've sort of on my whiteboard to the side
over there Always wanted to do asecond city and even though,
like I had said earlier, thecompetition space is overcrowded
with not as prestigious andwell-known competitions, I
decided that this year was thetime, so I couldn't think of a
(30:25):
better, more natural sort ofsister city connection vibe.
So in March of 2025, the MiamiGlobal Spirit Awards will make
its first appearance onto thecompetition scene.
I am over the moon.
The location is absolutelyfantastic.
(30:46):
It's going to be 80% new judges, mostly from New York and up
and down the East Coast.
I'll bring some of my Vegaspeople with me to make sure that
we do things exactly the sameway to maintain continuity.
But this is an unbelievableopportunity for overseas brands,
because it's come to myattention that Florida is five
(31:10):
hours closer to London than LasVegas, and five hours on an
airplane is an awful long time.
So if you're a brand in Europe,if you're a brand in South
America, we have a website inSpanish.
We have all of our informationavailable in Spanish.
If you're a non-United Statesbrand, this is your chance,
(31:32):
because I have distributionopportunities available in
California, texas, florida, newYork, new Jersey, massachusetts
and a couple other states comingon board.
So if you wanted to take yourshot at entering the United
States market, if you believewhat you do, this is the
opportunity.
The judges will be anincredible mix of international
(31:55):
and United States-based judges.
Distributors from multiplestates are going to be on the
panel.
For this year we're doingsomething another sort of sure.
I'll pat myself on the back andsay groundbreaking in the
spirits competition space.
I've created an e-commerceplatform where select winners
(32:15):
from the competition will havethe opportunity to join a
membership-based e-commerceplatform and immediately be sold
in 42 states around the country.
And this goes back to thebeginning where I said what does
the competition do for youafter the competition?
And the premise is brands needhelp with just about everything
(32:37):
other than making juice.
So if I can be the guy that canget them into the United States
with an importer, having MHW domy import and my compliance,
I've got the distributionnetwork.
I have an e-commerce platform.
It's a package where, basically, if you make good juice and you
want to take a shot and you'vegot the money, I can bring you
(33:00):
into the United States andlaunch you probably in 90 days.
And that is what sets Miamiapart from every other
competition and we'll work thee-commerce platform into the
Vegas competition as well,because it's 42 states.
Basically, the control statesare the exception.
So if it's a three-tier stateand this is, you know, getting
(33:23):
super techie with suppliers butif you're looking to get into
three tier states this will saveyou literally tens of thousands
of dollars of your time, butmore than that years of your
life trying to sort it out.
Your importers in the middleblock of our little Brady Bunch
podcast here right, thedistributors are my field.
(33:47):
Everything that you need tolaunch in the United States is
now available to you for a verynominal marketing budget fee to
enter the competition.
I want to make this perfectlyclear.
There are no guarantees.
It is not offered to everybody.
There is no shortcut.
You can't call me up on thephone and say, hey, I don't want
(34:10):
to enter the competition butcan you help me with
distribution?
Because I'm going to say yesand then I'm going to tell you
I'm going to charge you ahundred thousand dollar
consulting fee and you're goingto say that's crazy and I'm
going yes, but if you're stupidenough to give it to me, I'm
stupid enough to take it.
Spend the $450 or $500,.
(34:32):
Take your chance in thecompetition and have the portal
that I've created to success beavailable to you that way.
That's why I created thecompetitions to help the brands
and that's why I deliver moreafter the competitions to be a
part of their growth and success.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
So how can brands who say they do really well in
Miami, how can they leveragetheir shiny new metal in the
Miami market using both MHW andyour upcoming feet-on-the-ground
sales service?
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Well, in order to succeed, you have to have boots
on the ground, and there aremultiple ways that brands do
that.
The misconception for all thesuppliers is that the
distributor is your sales team.
They're not.
They take orders, they fulfillorders, they do your back of
housework, they keep youorganized inventory-wise and all
(35:25):
of that other stuff, butthey're not salespeople.
We're putting together aprogram where we'll have boots
on the ground in each of thestates where we have
distribution.
It's part of your marketingcommitment every month and part
of that money you'll have,basically, a brand ambassador,
and that brand ambassador isonly going to represent brands
(35:49):
that have won the competition.
There are other big distributorsand you all know who the big
distributors are, so there's noreason to name them.
Their book could be 10,000spirits or 20,000 spirits or
even more.
For you personally, if you makea bourbon, one of these big
(36:09):
distributors might have 150bourbons in their book.
Have 150 bourbons in their book.
What's different about themodel that I'm working on and
I'm creating is thisrepresentative will only
represent winners from thecompetition.
So they might have two bourbons, they'll have two tequilas,
they'll have a vodka, they'llhave a liqueur, they'll have a
couple of RTDs, but you as asupplier, as a brand, will have
(36:35):
direct access to somebody whoonly has one or two things in
your specific space.
So when he goes and calls onthese accounts these restaurants
, these bars, these casinos,strip clubs, whatever it is and
they say, hey, we're looking fora bourbon, he's not going to
pull out his laptop and show him150 bourbons and try to pitch
the one that has the mostpromotion money.
(36:57):
His only job is pitching andselling winners from the Las
Vegas Global Spirit Awards andfrom the Miami Global Spirit
Awards.
So it's a unique opportunity.
It's kind of in its infancy.
It will be ready to be launchedby the end of the Miami
competition we're hoping aroundApril but it gives brands the
(37:17):
opportunity to have asalesperson and that's the thing
that they don't have.
And that's to me.
Between having sales, havinge-commerce, having distributors,
I can't see a reason in theworld if you made a spirit and
you were serious about gettingout there and whatever your goal
(37:38):
is whether it is to selleverything you make or it's like
a tequila brand owned by aquestion and earlier having
somebody be your preacher ofyour brand so when you come to
Florida and you have I want tomake this clear.
(38:04):
You have to come to market.
You have to come to market atleast twice a year we would
prefer once every quarter andyou go on what they call
ride-alongs, where you go aroundwith our rep and you go see 15
or 20 people and he talks aboutit from the business.
But people want to hear yourstory, your personal story.
Yeah, we started this wine in abathtub and I found out I loved
(38:28):
making wine and you know,thankfully we had enough money
and we bought a winery and webecame wildly successful.
The story is everything andit's what separates you from
everybody else.
So you have to come to market.
You have to come to Florida,twist your arm.
You have to come to Las Vegasfor a few days and meet some
(38:49):
people and help us open someaccounts, because the deals that
you go see they close at a wayhigher rate than when just a
rep's going in making calls onpeople.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
And I think the credentialing factor is so
important in this, the fact thatyour representative can say we
only represent gold medalwinners.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
So they have dominated against hundreds of
other spirits in the category.
This is the one that came outas the winner is already going
to credential it, because someof the like I've noticed this
when I've gone on ride-alongs inmy past life when I worked at a
vodka brand some of theoff-premise, many of them, I
would say, don't even taste.
They don't they.
If they tasted every you knowrep's product that walked into
(39:33):
their liquor store, I think theywould be permanently drunk all
day long.
So they don't taste.
What they want to know is isthis going to move?
Does it taste good?
But they're not going to be theones to do it.
And so I think having thatcredentialing factor to say yes,
this won.
And then we decided to bringthem into the portfolio that
just gives a leg up on theretail side, into the portfolio.
(39:56):
That just gives a leg up on theretail side.
And then, of course, we knowfrom what you mentioned earlier,
having the necker or it on theyou know labeling is going to
help with the consumer part ofit.
So it just all the way throughthe tiers.
I think this is going to be ahome run.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
Instead of our usual, normal question, we're going to
throw a little bit of acurveball, and I think that
we're going to have some funwith this.
So, eddie, who's your pick forthe Stanley Cup this year?
Do you think the Golden Knightshave what it takes?
Come on, man.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
Listen.
Hockey is my life outside of mywork here.
I'm going to shamelessly plugthe Hockey Nights in Vegas
podcast because I'm acredentialed member of the Las
Vegas Global Knights media.
I travel on occasion with theteams.
I was asked this question lastnight in an interview setting
and my answer is if the puckgods are kind to them and they
(40:48):
remain healthy when it comes tothe important part of the season
in April or May, they areabsolutely one of the five or
six teams that can win theStanley Cup.
It's the most difficult trophyin sports.
You have to win 16 games.
You basically play every othernight for about two months to
get Lord Stanley's Cup.
(41:08):
But I've been blessed to see ithappen in my home rink a couple
of years ago and if they'rehealthy, they'll be one of the
last people at the dance comeJune.
How's?
Speaker 1 (41:20):
that for fair.
I wish you luck.
I'm not much of a sports guy,but moving from Houston up here
to Maine, I at least canhopefully start cheering for
some colder sports.
Go watch black bear hockey.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Black bear hockey.
Is this a euphemism?
No, no, the University of Maineare called the black bears.
Okay, and the University ofMaine always has one of the
better collegiate hockey teamsin the country.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
All right, eddie Rivkin, giving me some knowledge
about my own Hockey knowledge,dropping hockey knowledge Well,
I appreciate it.
Well, I want to say huge thanksto our guest, eddie Rivkin, for
coming by and dropping someknowledge.
Links again to the Las VegasGlobal Spirits Awards will be in
the description and Miami.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
And Miami.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
And Miami.
All of that will be in the shownotes, regardless of how I said
it it be.
All of that will be in the shownotes.
Regardless of how I said it,It'll all be correct in the show
notes.
So, Eddie, thanks again foryour time and your hockey
knowledge as well.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Bridge.
Wonderful to see you, as always.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Good to see you.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Congratulations on the beautiful little bouncing
baby that you have.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Thank you.
Hopefully when you're feelingup to it, you'll bless us with
your presence on a panel in oneof these cool two cities that
I'm working in.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Absolutely Thank you so much, eddie, and thank you
listeners for joining us on theMHW Mark podcast and thanks
again to Bridget McCabe forjoining me in hosting.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Thank you so much.
Always good to be here.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
This podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland,
with booking and planningsupport by Cassidy Poe and
Bridget McCabe.
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen Frommyself and the whole team at
MHW, thank you for a wonderfulyear of conversation.
(43:12):
We wish you a safe and happyholiday season.
We'll see you soon.
Cheers.
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