Shane’s shaken and stirred!
As well as winning €1,000 in prize-money, Shane out-mixed five other top bartenders from bars in Dublin, Cork and Galway and now represents Ireland at the Finlandia Vodka Cup Global Final in Lapland next February.
The competition is now in its 13th year and following regional heats earlier this month in Dublin, Cork and Galway, last year’s Irish winner, Javier Bravo from Long Island Bar, Cork, came fifth overall in the global final earlier this year and was the outright winner of the global Quick Mix category. This was a fantastic achievement for Javier who was competing against bartenders from over 30 countries and firmly established Ireland on the global mixology map. Shane Quigley now has the chance to follow in Javier’s footsteps.
This year’s judging panel included Finlandia’s Market Development Manager Adam Murphy, Brand Development Manager Ian Carroll and Finlandia Brand Ambassador Alan Kavanagh. All judges were impressed with the high standard of entries to the competition as well as with the way different ingredients were used to create premium quality cocktails. In addition to the regular judging panel, Long Island Bar also invited some of their regular customers to attend the event and act as the fourth judge, giving their opinions on the cocktails created by each of the finalists.
Commenting on the 2010 Finlandia Vodka Cup, Ian Carroll, Brand Development Manager, Finlandia Vodka said, “This has been a fantastic year for the Finlandia Vodka Cup with an unprecedented number of entries from bartenders and mixologists all over the country. We have been hugely impressed with the high standard of cocktails produced in the heats and the final. We wish Shane the very best of luck in the global final in February 2011. We’re sure he will do Ireland proud”.