Épisodes

  • Brigid Green & Robbin Green Yeh — The Other Side of the Medal

    Brigid Green & Robbin Green Yeh — The Other Side of the Medal
    Oct 27 2026
    Before they ever worked a competition, Brigid Green and Robbin Green Yeh were shoppers like everyone else — noticing the medals on bottles and taking them as a reasonable bet. Years of volunteering at The Tasting Alliance competitions changed what those stickers mean to them. In this episode, they talk about seeing the blind judging process up close, the expertise and care that goes into every award, and why a medal reads differently once you know what stands behind it.
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    16 min
  • Maddee McDowell, Executive VP - Carrying the Legacy Forward

    Maddee McDowell, Executive VP - Carrying the Legacy Forward
    Oct 20 2026
    Maddee McDowell, Executive Vice President of The Tasting Alliance, has spent years helping build what grew out of a single competition and keeps it running at a scale Anthony Dias Blue’s original San Francisco International Wine Competition could only hint at. In this episode, she talks about what it means to carry that legacy forward, what it actually takes to run competitions of this size, and the standards that have stayed the same no matter how much everything around them has grown.
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    16 min
  • Molly Horn, Total Wine & More — What Actually Sells

    Molly Horn, Total Wine & More — What Actually Sells
    Oct 13 2026
    Molly Horn spends her days watching what people actually buy. As Head of Mixology, Spirits Education, and Celebrity Events at Total Wine & More, she knows what pulls someone toward one bottle over the twenty next to it — label, price, word of mouth, or something harder to name. In this episode, she gets into how that view from the retail floor shapes the way she judges at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and what the gap is between a spirit that wins a medal and one that uses that medal to win a customer.
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    21 min
  • Alex Hoyt & Nic Bishop — Learning From the Best

    Alex Hoyt & Nic Bishop — Learning From the Best
    Oct 6 2026
    Behind every competition is a crew that keeps it honest. Alex Hoyt and Nic Bishop have spent years on the San Francisco World Spirits Competition floor, and they bring serious industry chops of their own to the room. In this episode, they talk about what it's like to work alongside some of the world's best palates, what you pick up when you're pouring hundreds of samples a day, and why the people running the room matter as much as the ones behind the table.
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    20 min
  • Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Chief Judge — Inside the Judging Room

    Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Chief Judge — Inside the Judging Room
    Sep 29 2026
    What happens after the bottles arrive and the doors close? Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Chief Judge of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, joins Toby Blue and Jason Rabinowitz for a behind-the-scenes look at the art, discipline, and responsibility of judging spirits blind. An award-winning bartender and author of The Bar Book and Drinking Distilled, Jeffrey brings decades of experience behind the bar to one of the world’s most respected spirits competitions. This episode is the first in a series featuring the judges who help determine what earns the industry’s highest honors.
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    24 min
  • Amanda Blue, President — Opening the Doors

    Amanda Blue, President — Opening the Doors
    Sep 22 2026
    Season Two opens with the person who decided to open the doors. Amanda Blue, President of The Tasting Alliance, joins Toby Blue and Jason Rabinowitz to talk about leading the world's most prestigious spirits competition, protecting the integrity of blind judging, and why this season pulls back the curtain on how Double Gold is earned.
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    23 min
  • Blackleaf Organic Vodka Tasting - Crisp, Peppery, and Herbaceous

    Blackleaf Organic Vodka Tasting - Crisp, Peppery, and Herbaceous
    Aug 4 2026
    In this bonus episode, Toby Blue and Jason Rabinowitz taste Blackleaf Organic Vodka with founders Kevin Larkai and Monté Burrow — nose, palate, finish, and the judges' notes behind the Double Gold and Platinum honors.
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    6 min
  • Bottling a Vision: Building Blackleaf Organic Vodka

    Bottling a Vision: Building Blackleaf Organic Vodka
    Jul 27 2026
    What does it take to build a luxury spirits brand that didn't exist before — without waiting for permission? In this episode of Proof of Concept, Toby Blue and Jason Rabinowitz sit down with Kevin Larkai and Monté Burrow, co-founders of Blackleaf Organic Vodka, one of the most decorated organic vodka brands in the world. Kevin and Monté open up about the quieter, harder chapters of building the brand, becoming their own distributor, "Making Organic Sexy," sustainability that's substance over performance, and what it means to be Black founders in a category where ownership remains incredibly rare. Plus: the emotional weight of earning Double Gold and Platinum Awards at The Tasting Alliance's San Francisco, New York, and Asia World Spirits Competitions — and why they're just getting started.
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    59 min