Meet The Woman Behind The World’s Largest Spirits Competition

If you’re a fan of fine wine, beer or spirits you ought to know the name Amanda Blue. As chief operating officer of The Tasting Alliance, she’s running some of the biggest competitions in the business. She’s been at it for the better part of a decade. And while the judging space has grown into quite the crowded cottage industry during that time—raking in millions of dollars in profit and popping up in cities and countries all across the globe—Blue has been making moves to ensure her consortium remains at the vanguard.

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the tentpole of the operation, is the oldest competition of its kind, founded in 2000. Earlier this year it added its own awards show, highlighting the best in show from the more than 5,000 entries received, and hoping to gain recognition as the “Oscars of Booze.” To stay on trend, it opened up judging to the exploding ready-to-drink category, which has been surging in recent years. It will soon launch an e-commerce platform to make winning products directly available to consumers.

The changes reflect Blue’s steadfast commitment to keeping her finger on the pulse of the industry. It’s no easy task in a sector where movement can be swift and fickle. But as she grows the global footprint of The Tasting Alliance (it launched a competition in New York in 2018 and in Singapore in 2019) her role is less about reacting to trends as it is about setting them. After all, a stamp of approval from her organization can determine how high a bottle rises on the shelf of your local liquor store. Or whether or not it even shows up on the backbar of your favorite watering hole.

For her part, Blue certainly doesn’t seem like someone who craves those sort of kingmaking credentials. She’s much more concerned with stewarding the family business and making her dad proud. In an exclusive interview with Forbes she reveals where she came from and where she hopes to go in the years ahead.

Tell us about how you got into the spirits competition business?

Amanda Blue: “My dad started the SF International Wine Competition in 1980. It quickly became the largest wine competition in the US. As he began to see the spirits market grow, he decided to start the spirits competition in 2000 and a New York Wine and Spirits Competition in 2010. The amazing director of the competitions, Chandler Moore, unfortunately got very ill and passed away. At that point I decided to step in to help keep the business running.”

Did you always know that you were going to get into this industry?

AB: “I was in the film business before I had children. It wasn’t an industry that was very kind to women and supportive of mothers. I have always loved the beverage industry as I grew up getting access to the most amazing places and people with my dad. I decided I was ready for a change and dove in to the family business. The community is amazing, supportive and so much fun.”

What were some of your fondest memories of your dad running this competition, when you were growing up.

AB: “I never really understood what my dad did until I actually attended a competition and was blown away. It is such a finely-tuned machine that is run by volunteers who have been a part of the competitions since they first began. We now have three generations of people working the competitions, grandfathers, their sons and grandkids who are now of age and helping out, making sure the competition runs as smoothly as possible. It is like a family that gets to reunite a few times a year. Everyone there is passionate and curious about the beverage alcohol space and eager to learn about new products and trends. And of course they all get to taste the good and the bad stuff at the end of the day. Watching my dad run the sweepstakes round which is the finals on the last day was really impressive. He is so beloved and cared for by the staff and judges, I realized then what an amazing community this is and that its not just about drinking booze.”

What are the most pivotal steps you’ve taken to grow SF Spirits Comp into the standing that it enjoys today?

AB: “We have built a stellar all-woman run team. We have diversified all of our judging panels to include more women and people of color. We added new technology and developed our own software on iPads to streamline the judging process. We have added a spirits competition in Singapore, a ready-to-drink competition and a beer competition all under The Tasting Alliance umbrella. We plan to have a portfolio of ten competitions by 2025. We have also partnered with Reserve Bar, an e-commerce site to create, a shoppable website of our winning products.”

What was the moment when you realized, “Wow, this is really huge”?

AB: “Nothing is bigger than getting a personal shout out by LeBron James, who won best reposado tequila, this year. Also we officially became the largest competition in the world with the amount of entries we got this year. 50% growth in only 2 years.”

What’s next?

AB: “We are very well-known in the trade, and now we want to become known to the consumer because that is who we are ultimately trying to reach. We want to be considered their ultimate resource for curation in the beverage alcohol space. We will be by holding educational events, dinners, and tasting events across the country—and eventually the globe—starting with a 3-day event in Las Vegas in summer 2023. Trade and consumers will be able to taste medal winners and purchase them through our partner Reserve Bar. We want the consumer be able to experience, learn and get access to all these interesting products from all over the world that they otherwise would not even know about. Yes, we evaluate all sorts of brands, from the major ones who want to cement their reputation with a medal, to the little guys who start distilling in their garage. Each product gets their due. Not all of these products make it to market so the consumer at our events will be able to try even these small guys who shine in their own right.”

What are some things that go into running a spirits competition that the general public might not be aware of?

AB: “We make it our top priority to maintain the integrity of our competitions. Every single brand submitted gets evaluated blind by a panel of judges who have been judging spirits for up to 30 years. The judges are never told what they are tasting and don’t see the results until they are announced to the public. Another thing is the power of these judges to carefully evaluate so many spirits in a day without experiencing palate fatigue. We make sure not to overload or rush our judges and it’s amazing to see how they can taste so much. And then go for a beer at a pub after [laughs].”

What does your dad think about what you’ve done with the family business?

AB: “My dad is 81 and hasn’t been able to travel to a competition since Covid hit. He really misses the camaraderie with the judges he has known for so long. It’s like a family or summer camp. And of course he misses the tasting. He is very excited with the modernization of the company and very eager to see what we will do next and hopes my children and my sibling’s children will one day be running it. But unlike my dad who has a stellar palate—he was once insured by Lloyd’s of London—I have zero skill in tasting wine or spirits. Watching professionals like him be able to blindly identify characteristics is so amazing to me.”