Diageo World Class 2014 gets underway

The contestants competing in the Diageo World Class 2014 final have arrived in Scotland for a week of seminars and challenges ahead of the winner’s announcement this Friday 1 August.

Diageo World Class 2014 gathers bartenders from 48 countries all over the world to compete

Throughout the week, 48 bartenders from countries around the world will be tested in a series of challenges to discover the World Class champion 2014.

They include The Singleton Sensory Challenge; Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve Blend of Two Worlds Challenge; A Tales of Two Martinis; Five Star Classics Challenge; Cocktails and the Written Word Challenge; Zacapa Gastronomy Challenge; Ketel One Market Challenge; the Against the Clock Challenge and finally the Signature Serve, where bartenders will beasked to create a signature drink designed to make them famous.

Regular eliminations will be held throughout the week as the contenders are whittled down.

The winner will be announced at a gala awards ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London on 1 August.

The Diageo World Class 2014 Finalists

The finalists in Diageo World Class 2014 are:

Austria – Reinhard Pohorec
Mexico – Ricardo Montes Sandoval
Sweden – Rikard Enell
Thailand – Ronnaporn Kanivichaporn
GTME – Shekhar Grover
India – Varun Sudhaka
Russia – Vitalik Ekimenko
Hong Kong – Wallace Lau
Malaysia – Yinying Leow
Philippines – Joma Rivera
GB – James Fowler
UAE – Jan Liska
Morocco – Mostafa Nour Eddine
Korea – Sung Min Park
South Africa – Jeff Lopez
Costa Rica – Fernando Rodriguez
Netherlands – Leroy Soumokil
Panama – Ensor Almengor
Switzerland – Alexandros Nicolaides
Cayman Islands – Andy Trattner
Slovakia – Anton Velich
Israel – Bar Shira
China – Chris Xi
Canada – Grant Scenery
Denmark – Hardeep Rehal
Czech Republic – Jarlosav Janousec
Taiwan – Jeffrey Chang
Norway – Jesper Host
Peru – Joel Chirinos
Puerto Rico – Jonatan Melendes
Japan – Kaori Kurakami
Trinidad & Tobago – Karlina Permell
Vietnam – Le Thanh Tung
Germany – Maxim Kilian
Turkey – Onurcan Gencer
Guatemala – Raul Cojolon
Italy – Claudio Perinelli
Belgium – Hannah Van Ongevalle
Spain – Giacomo Giannotti
USA – Charles Joly
Singapore – Peter Chula
Australia – Charlie Ainsbury
Brazil – Laercio Zulu
New Zealand – Jason Clark
France – Ahmed Yahi “Mido”
Romania – Aida Ashor
Greece – Teo Spiropoulos
Columbia – Luis Humberto Cano