Meet Our Judges
F. PAUL PACULT
F. Paul Pacult is America’s foremost expert on distilled spirits. He contributed to a wide array of publications, including Playboy, Wine & Spirits, Cheers, Connoisseur, MarketWatch. Travel & Leisure, Men's Journal, and the New York Times Magazine For thirteen years, Paul was the wine and spirits monthly columnist for Delta Sky, the award-winning in-flight magazine for Delta Air Lines. For a decade starting in 2000, he was judging director of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Currently, Paul Pacult is publisher/editor of F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal; special projects editor for the New York Times Magazine; contributing editor for Beverage Dynamics; and columnist and spirits-tasting director for Wine Enthusiast magazine; He also hosts the critically acclaimed monthly tasting series in New York City, the Masters Series at Keens Steakhouse, now in its 17th year. He is also founding partner of the award-winning training company Beverage Alcohol Resource, LLC (BAR).
He is the author of five books and he only journalist in the world to concurrently be a life member and Master of Keepers of the Quaich whisky society (Edinburgh, Scotland), a life member of Kentucky’s Bourbon Hall of Fame, and a life member of France’s Company of Armagnac Musketeers.
SEAN LUDFORD
Sean Ludford is the creator of BevX.com, a lifestyle magazine with a beverage focus, which is published exclusively online. Sean is also a regular contributor/columnist for several print magazines including, The Tasting Panel Magazine, Nightclub & Bar Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality, and several others. He is a captain at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and judge at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Both are the largest and most prestigious of their kind in the USA.
PAUL ABERCROMBIE
Paul Abercrombie became a cocktail expert while researching his soon to be released organic cocktail book Organic Cocktails, Shaken and Stirred. He is also a writer who contributes regularly to Gourmet, Wine Enthusiast, Men's Health, The Washington Post, National Geographic Traveler, ESPN magazine, and other publications, writing on the topics of food, drink, and travel. Additionally, he writes The Green Bar blog about all things organic cocktail related at www.OrganicShakenandStirred.com.
GINA CHERSEVANI
As one of the country’s top mixologists, Gina Chersevani is known for creating imaginative cocktails with exotic ingredients. She has won numerous awards and distinctions, including being named one of The Beverage Journal’s "10 Mixologists to Watch" for 2008, winning Absolut Vodka’s "Best Martini" competition in the spring of 2008, and prevailing in the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s contest for the "Official RAMMY Cocktail" of 2008 and 2009. She has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, DC magazine and the Washingtonian. She currently runs the beverage program at PS 7's in Washington D.C., where she has developed and exciting culinary-beverage collaboration with Chef Peter Smith.
PHOENIX KELLY-RAPPA
As Managing Partner of Cuca Fresca Exports, LLC, Phoenix Kelly-Rappa has travelled the world visiting mixologists and sampling the best Cuca Fresca cocktails that they have to offer. She hopes this competition will inspire creative bartenders and mixologists to find the ultimate way of using Cuca Fresca Premium Cachaça in a cocktail that demonstrates their unique style.
