World bartender champion Aristotelis Papadopoulos to attend World Class Romania official launch

The official launch of the Diageo World Class Romania will feature the special visit of Aristotelis Papadopoulos (Telis – in picture), the first global winner of the World Class competition.

Aristotelis began bartending at 19 years old when he joined the bar Mediteranee in his home city, Thessaloniki, Greece. Twenty five years later he is managing his own bar, offering wonderful Greek hospitality and fantastic cocktails. Since winning the international final of WORLD CLASS in 2009, Telis’ life has changed dramatically – he has visited Seoul, Guatemala, Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Cognac and this list continues to grow.

At the event, Telis will introduce the cocktail trend that the bartenders need to take into account in the first national qualifying stage: ”The Red Carpet”. “The Red Carpet” is a trend that requires bartenders to come up with an original cocktail inspired by the eclectic world of international cinema and movie stars. A Diageo Reserve Portfolio product needs to be used as a way of introducing luxury, theatre and glamour to the serve.

Following the closing of the online applications, a group formed of leading national and international cocktail luminaries and World Class brand ambassadors will judge each bartender’s entry, conferring a maximum number of points of 40/100 per cocktail trend and 10/100 for each Diageo Super Premium Brands Knowledge TEST. Fifteen finalists will be selected to participate in the World Class Romania Final in May, where they will take part in a series of cocktail challenges and the Jury will determine the World Class Romania Bartender of the Year 2014. The winner will go on to participate in the Global World Class Final 2014.

More details about this competition and how you can drink a perfect cocktail build up by one of the greatest Romanian bartenders can be found here.