The Adult Beverage Week took place last month, where we hosted wine, beer, spirits, pre-made cocktail/mixer producers, non-alcoholic beverages, importers, distributors and exporters and buyers from around the world for one-on-one meetings, networking opportunities, and the Grand Tasting Event. 

The session was held at the beautiful Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, California. Participants could also utilize our digital platform, ECRM Connect, to meet with partners if travel was restricted. 

The Grand Tasting Event held on Monday evening drummed up excitement among participants. Suppliers submitted up to 3 product offerings available for tasting. Participants sampled and voted on Best Wine, Best Beer, Best Spirit, and Most Innovative. We are pleased to announce the winners: 

Best Wine: Casa Luigi 
Casa Luigi offers the first and only Prosecco/Italian Sparkling Wine, Italian Sparkling Rosé and Prosecco Cocktails RTD in cans in the USA. Founders, Claudia Farrokhnia and her husband Wolfgang, camp up with Casa Luigi after they saw that Americans are used to drinking out of cans and that glass is not allowed anywhere by pools or the beach. Casa Luigi is on bar and pool menus of the top 40 hotels in Las Vegas, including all MGM properties, and can also be found in dozens of retail stores in Las Vegas hotels and casinos. Their Prosecco grows in Veneto, Italy, known as the "Prosecco Region", just a little north of Venice. Casa Luigi currently comes in 5 flavors. SECCO BIANCO, SECCO ROSÉ, SECCO HUGO, SECCO IMPERIAL, and SECCO VENEZIANO. 

Best Beer: Palmia Beer
Palmia’s dream was to bring a new choice to the light beer market, a lager that demonstrates superior flavor with only 96 calories. What makes this beer different from all other beers is that they use the best tattenauer hops, infuse the beer with all-natural Meyer Lemon, and use an all-natural plant-based sweetener, Erythritol, to give it the smooth and refreshing taste. It is made from a 5.0% beer base, is kosher certified, has 98 ppm of gum/arabic acacia and 2193 ppm of propylene glycol, and is GMO-free. The brewery uses recycled glass for the bottles and recycled aluminum for the cans if possible for sustainability, as well as cardboard for their cases.

www.palmiabeer.com 

Best Spirit: M.S. Walker 
M.S. Walker produces and imports major brands in the wine and spirits business as well as produces bottles and distributes nationally across the USA. During the Grand Tasting Event, they featured Coppa Cocktails. Created with the expertise of world-class mixologists from all-natural ingredients. Imported from the Netherlands. Types and flavors include Margarita, Pina Colada, Chocolat Deluxe Chocolate Liqueur, Triple Chocolate, Salted Caramel & Peanut Butter, and Triple Chocolat. M.S. Walker serves On-Premise and Off-Premise establishments throughout the Northeast.

www.mswalker.com 

Most Innovative: TIE between Mixoloshe and More Labs 
Mixoloshe is a premier non-alcoholic RTD that tastes like alcohol. They believe that a non-alcoholic alternative should still taste like the real deal and be full of only real stuff. Mixoloshe’s three flavors are Tropical Smoky Margarita, Southern Pineapple Smash and Mango Chili Crush. (12-ounce slick cans). They have 5 more non-alcoholic cocktails in the making. They are a woman-owned business and the founder has been named a Top 10 Forbes entrepreneur two times in a row (in the category of fastest growing company owned by a woman).

www.mixoloshe.com 

More Labs was founded with an ambitious spirit and simple objective: to provide science-backed solutions to real problems. Each one of their products is designed to optimize your system, so you can maximize every moment and get more out of life. During the Grand Tasting Event, they presented Morning Recovery Original, Sugar-Free, and Orange Mango. These are hangover supplements designed to boost your body's natural response to processing the toxic byproducts of drinking alcohol. Made with patent-pending technology and designed to boost your body’s natural response to alcohol, restore vital nutrients, and help you feel better after drinking.

www.morelabs.com 

Congratulations to our Grand Tasting Event Winners!