GERMAN RUM AWARDS 2019
BEST OF THE SHOW

Rum Artesanal Trewlany Double Cask, LP, H 51,9%
Congratulations!
German Rum Awards – the most important national and international award for Rum & Rhum! An international jury, consisting of rum experts, tastes in a multi-day blind-tasting rums of the same categories against each other and evaluates them according to a recognized points system. In each category gold, silver and bronze are awarded.
The Winners
Bougainville VSOP 40%
Our Rum & Spirits Hildesheimer Rumtreiber 49%
Ratu 5 YO Dark 40%
Rum Nation Reunion 7 YO Cask Strength
The Real McCoy 12 YO 46%
Don Q Gran Anejo
Worthy Park 12 YO 2006-2018 56%
Rum Artesanal Trewlany Double Cask, LP, H 51,9%
Rum Nation Rare Rum Port Mourant 2001-2019 57,6%
El Dorado Port Mourant Ruby Cask 59,6%
HSE Blanc 50%
A 1710 Renaissance 52%
Toucan Blanc 50%
Saint James L’ essentiel 43%
Rumclub Private Selection Bielle 8 YO 54,1%
Depaz XO 45%
Depaz VSOP 45%
Saint James Cuvee 1765 42%
HSE Black Sheriff
Novo Fogo Silver 40%
Princesa Isabel Prata
Delicana Silver 44%
Novo Fogo Chameleon
Princesa Isabel Carvalho
Delicana Putumuju 45,2%
Rum-Bar Gold 40%
Marlin Spike 3 – 5 YO
Don Q Gold
Companero Gran Reserva 40%
Ron Roble Ron Ultra Anejo 40%
Millonario Cincuenta 50%
Mhoba Select Reserve French Cask >1 YO 65%
Rum-Bar Overproof 63%
Ron Jaguar Cordillera Cask Strenght 65%
Ratu Signiture Blend 8 YO 35%
Companero Ron Elixir Orange 40%
Rum-Bar Cream 15%
Selected Cask Comunity Westerhall 21 YO 56,03%
Our Rum & Spirits Trinidad 2003-2019 Single Cask 62,8%
Rumclub Private Selection Don Q 9 YO Single Cask 48,3%
Louis Santo 18 YO Solera DomRep 40%
Ron Esclavo XO 42%
Rum Nation Panama 18 Solera 40%
The Real McCoy 10 LE Virgin Oak 46%
The Real McCoy 12 LE Madeira
Rum Aresanal Caribbean Island Blend 40%
Rum Company Bleack Bean Karibischer Rum + Kaffee 40,6%
CineCane Popcorn Gold
Vana Tallinn Elegance, Aged Rum Liquer 40%
Nine Leaves White Rum 50%
Rum-Bar Silver 40%
Bougainville White Rum 40%
Simon’s Bavarian Nordic Rum, Valkyrie Port Cologne 56,25%
Rumult Blanco 43%
Ron Elba
Richland Rum
Ron Aldea Single Cane White Rum 43%
Paranubes White Rum
Rhum Metiss Ananas Passion
Ti BIO Orange Citron 21%
Rhum Metiss Fruit de la passion
THE JURY
What does “professional jury“ mean? All participating jurors have many years of experience in spirit tastings and are experts in all things rum. They participate in international competitions and hail from various different countries. To have a good mix in the panel, there’s always at least one jury member with excellent sensory but not necessarily subject-specific training. We also invite bartenders to the jury as they bring additional aspects to the overall assessment.
“However, what makes the jurors truly special is the fact that they work for free. We only cover their food & lodging” – The Untouchable Jury!

Susanne Simon
burns passionately for good distillates, works in the distillate manufactory fine distillery Simon’s, is trained Edelbrandsommelieré and experienced taster at various awards, including for Bayernbrand and the Bavarian Institute of viticulture and horticulture. Has a penchant for rum and barrel-stored fires.

John Gibbons
is an independent spirit ambassador, cocktail enthusiast, and rum fanatic.
John began judging for international rum tasting competitions in 2010. Starting with the Ministry of Rum Festival in San Francisco that year, he has since judged for dozens of competitions and events around the world including Miami, Berlin, Paris, Venezuela, Grenada, Amsterdam, Glasgow, and London.
In 2011, John worked at The Tiki Bar and Kitsch Inn and started the Glasgow Rum Club, which met monthly to help spread the knowledge of rum and connect bartenders and the rum curious with rum distillers, producers, and educators. Glasgow Rum Club continues to meet today.
In 2013, John co-founded Rum Symposium, a London based organization of rum experts and aficionados dedicated to the support and promotion of the rum industry. In 2016, he co-founded Rum Symposium Copenhagen.
John’s adventures have taken him to rum education programs and masterclasses such as Beachbum Berry’s Tropical Bar School in Ibiza, Rum Experience University in Salobreña (Spain), Boutique Bar Show London, Boutique Bar Show Glasgow, Cocktails in the City London, London Cocktail Week, Caribbean Rum & Beer Festival in Grenada, Bar Convent Berlin, German Rum Festival, UK Rumfest, Rum University London, Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, Imbibe Live in London, Mauritius Rum Fest, Rom & Cocktail Festival Copenhagen, Miami Rum Festival, Glasgow’s Whisky Festival, Boutique Bar Show Edinburgh, Ministry of Rum San Francisco, and Ministry of Rum Chicago Rum Festival.
Seeing how cane is grown and how rum is made by visiting distilleries and getting that hands on experience is extremely important in understanding the spirit. Some recently visited distilleries include Angostura (Trinidad), Saint Lucia Distillers (St. Lucia), Foursquare (Barbados), St. Nicholas Abbey (Barbados), Mount Gay (Barbados), West Indies Rum Distillery (Barbados), Santa Teresa (Venezuela), Diplomatico (Venezuela), River Antoine (Grenada), Westerhall Estate (Grenada), Grenada Distillers/Clark’s Court (Grenada), and Ron Montero (Spain).
Rum has been John’s spirit of passion for many years and he has collected a few hundred bottles along the way for reference — and because you never know when you will need just the right one for a special occasion.
This will be John’s seventh year attending German Rum Festival and his sixth year on the judging panel.

Benoit Bail
Benoit Bail’s first contact with a distillery goes back to the year 2008 in Cap Vert on the island of Santo Antão. Since then, he became a rum enthusiast and traveled to the French Caribbean several times to find out more, until he founded his own flavored rum brand in 2013 in Luxembourg.
His rums quickly sold out of Luxembourg and became famous in France and Belgium. He continued his passion by reading and meeting important people in the industry.
In 2015 he becomes brand ambassador for Saint James from Martinique and in 2017 he moves to the sister brand Depaz.
Since 2018 he is co-organizer of the Bordeaux Rhum Festival and since 2019 also of the Martinique Rhum Awards.
To this day Benoit is the founder and administrator of the “Confrérie du Rhum”, participates as a jury member in numerous rum competitions around the world, organizes conferences, meetings and tastings on an international level.

Suzanne Long
A well-known figure in the San Francisco Bay Area cocktail scene and the tiki world, Suzanne Long owns and operates Bar Longitude in Oakland, California, a world renowned tropical destination featuring over 500 premium spirits and one of the only house-recipe driven tropical cocktail programs in the world.

Kris von Stedingk
After being involved in beer and wine tastings for many years in Sweden, Kris fell in love with the wide flavour profiles of cane-based spirits.
With a background in cancer biology and genetics, he is currently involved in shifting this knowledge to the field of rum through developing molecular classification systems for spirits.

Johnny Drejer
Johnny has been a rum enthusiast for many years and has visited several distilleries as a photographer for
the Danish Whisky & Rom magazine. Previously been judging rum competitions in Miami, Berlin and Copenhagen.
Primarily known in the rum community for publishing the “Hydrometer method” on the Internet.
A method that allows people, in a cheap easy way, to measure how much assumed sugar that has been added to some rums.
Occasionally you will find Johnny assisting one of the largest Danish rum importer at rum festivals.

Bernhard Schäfer
started his professional Spirit carreer behind a Cocktailbar 1985, during his studies of sociology. Some years later he began giving lectures on different spirits, mainly Whisky. Where he got the highest accolades as he became a Keeper of the Quaich in 1996, and a Master in 2007.
He is a co-founder of ENSE (European Network of Spirit Experts). Since 1997 Bernhard is a panel Member at different Spirit Competitions in Europe, and since 2010 in the US. He became a proud member of RumXP 2012.
His friends say of him,: “I would once like to pass holidays as what you are calling work” and “why are you wearing Hawaiian Shirts all Summer”

Rene van Hoven
I did Technical University in Amsterdam and I’m a fully qualified teacher of food and drinks. When I specialized I became a Spirits educator and finally a Rum specialist. Recently I also became WSET qualified teacher.
I’m an international wine & spirits judge since 2000 and attend at several competitions per year around the world. I’m is also part of Rum Tresor where he sells old Rum (no longer for sale in the shops) per shot to those who can appreciate the good drink and want a sip of Rum history.
My knowledge is not the typical “PR blabla” but the real stories and facts. I’m in the drinks business since 1993 and have seen a fare part of the world of spirits. My knowledge doesn’t stop with Rum. Not only at the end of sales, but also in production. I know products from basis to end product with plenty of technical information. I’m also a journalist and wrote for several national and international magazines. Finally I’m also the author of “Spirits in the Sky”, the book about Zacapa rum.

Jery Gitany
Rum judge, consultant, promoter and retailer…
Jerry is co-founder of The Rum Embassy, a society in charge of the promotion of the Agricole Rhum of Guadeloupe and Martinique around the world
He’s a veteran judge in different rum awards contests through Europe.
Jerry also serves as Administrator of La Confrerie Du Rhum, the largest rum-related Facebook group in the world, with more tha 33,000 members.
At last , Jerry is the Rum Ambassador of Christian de Montaguère the first and biggest shop in Europe specialized in rum only (1 300 references) since 2009 !

Ingvar Thomsen
is a rum enthusiast living in Copenhagen, Denmark — known as “Rum Thomsen” by his friends.
Ingvar has been writing about rum for the Danish “Whisky & Rum Magazine” since it started I 2011. It a 100-page magazine which is published five times a year.
He has been hosting rum tastings since 2005 with increased interest every year, now up to 30 tasting events annually with up to 180 participants.
Ingvar enjoys visiting Caribbean distilleries and has appeared on Danish television shows to speak about rum and rum festivals.
He has been judging rum since 2015
He is co-owner of the Rum and Whisky import/export company Mac Y and co-host of “The Danish Rum and Whisky Festival.”

Emanuele Ingusci
Italian bartender, barber of the smallest cocktail bar in Munich for 11 years, the Barroom-Muenchen.de Emanuele is a very respected professional who has developed his own rumblends for his bar. He is always looking for exciting rums. Emanuele gives cocktail courses, works as a consultant and member of the bar circle.

Tomasz Kryzk
began his professional career as a bartender and manager at Radisson and Sofitel hotels in Wroclaw.
Then he developed and gained his experience in international companies such as Bacardi Martini Polska and Moet Hennessy Polska, with which he was associated for over a decade. In these companies, Tomasz was in charge of building a distribution network, organizing trainings, parties & venues and various industry and business events.
Currently, for more than three years, Tomasz is a co-owner of the BlackBeard Salon in Wrocław, Poland. This place combines a store with alcohol and a barber. This idea is very original, because nowhere in Poland can we find such combination and it is worth emphasizing that for now it is the only such concept in Poland.BlackBeard Salon offers to its customers a very wide range of alcohols, especially a large selection of rum and cigars.
Tomasz Krzyk is also the originator and co-organizer of Rum Love Festival. This is the first festival in Poland that focuses exclusively on the category of rum. The project is developing very dynamically, while the rum market in Poland is growing rapidly. All this resulted in another project that he co-creates with his business partners. This new project called BlackBeard Store. It's an online shop and warehouse. This project will allow customers from the Polish market to learn more about a wide range of available rum. BlackBeard Store will also deal with the distribution of selected alcohols in Poland.
This year Tomasz also took part in the prestigious Martinique Rum Awards festival. During this event he had the honor to be a part of the international jury, which assessed various categories of rum produced in Martinique and not only.

Eugen Kasparek
has many years of experience in high-end restaurants, specialist retailers, in seminars, as a member of culinary associations, trade visitor at conventions, juror of any number of competitions and last, but certainly not least, as Master of Tasting.
As early as 1978, when he was already working as a young bartender, he discovered his love for unique spirits at the legendary “Johns Club“ in Garmisch Partenkirchen – especially among the huge variety of whisk(e)y and rum! Quickly, he fell in love with the tradition, the different historical developments and the respective range of flavor profiles and characteristics of these spirits.
Since 1997, he has been exclusively working with these spirits. His many years of experience, his vast knowledge and his focused sense of taste are his greatest assets when he gives presentations or leads tastings and seminars among experts – equally so when he held one of his famous tastings at the Berlin specialty store Whisky & Cigars. He is the store’s manager and advises a large customer base of laymen, passionate professionals, and international collectors. In 2014, Whisky & Cigars was awarded best whisky shop in Germany.
During his travels around the world, he is always on the lookout for that hidden culinary paradise and the most beautiful spirits. His knowledge of rare spirits is also evident in his expertise regarding whisk(e)y, cognac and rum at the art and luxury auctioneers Auctionata.

Henrik Ratzmer
has been working as a bartender in Berlin for 16 years, where he also trained. He has worked in prestigious bars such as AMANO, Principal or Grand Hyatt and has graduated as a certified business economist. He is currently working in the bar WAGEMUT, which is known for its large range of spirits. There he has developed his passion for spirits, in particular the sensory knowledge refined by constant training.
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