Hennessy and The Pinnacle Guide launch bar residency programme
The residency programme will embed bartenders with host cocktail bars around the world to provide an immersive career experience.
Participants in the programme will be chosen from bartenders competing in Hennessy Cognac’s MyWay cocktail challenge.
Host venues will be selected from The Pinnacle Guide’s list of pinned bars, which have been recognised for their cocktails, culture, hospitality and community efforts.
The programme is said to go ‘beyond the guest shift’ and draw inspiration from the restaurant industry, in which trainees will spend weeks or months on placements in host kitchens.
Speaking to The Spirits Business, Dan Dove, The Pinnacle Guide co-founder, said: “There’s no question that a knowledge exchange between bar teams is incredibly valuable and sometimes this can be achieved in just an evening, but we wanted to explore what more could be learnt if this was a more formal, coordinated programme over several weeks, with clear deliverables for both the host bar and the guest resident.”
Jordan Bushell, manager of trade and advocacy and global ambassador at Hennessy, added: “The Hennessy MyWay programme has always been about identifying and nurturing outstanding talent. This partnership gives those individuals something exceptional to aim for, and a genuinely transformative experience when they get there.”
Hennessy will cover accommodation and travel costs for bartenders placed on residencies. The Pinnacle Guide will ‘ensure that every placement is built on a solid educational foundation’. This includes developing the framework for each residency, supporting both the resident and the host venue throughout, and holding the standard of the programme from start to finish.
Hannah Sharman-Cox, also a co-founder of The Pinnacle Guide, highlighted the challenge as a “wonderful global platform that champions people from all across the world.”
She continued: “Their commitment to global excellence felt completely aligned with ours: sustainability at the heart of the brand, widely sharing opportunities for career progression, and elevating standards across the industry. We are all extremely excited for the people who take part in the residency programme.”
Entries for the 2026 MyWay competition are currently open. Entrants will be judged on sustainability, tasting notes, product knowledge, service ritual, and presentation.
Siobhán Payne, the third Pinnacle Guide co-founder, added: “This is a platform we’re committed to growing over time, just as The Pinnacle Guide and Hennessy MyWay challenge have done. We’ve given ourselves a target of five to ten stages for this first iteration, and once the ways of working are robust, we’re hoping to roll out to more.”
The Pinnacle Guide was established in 2022. It awards a potential one, two or three ‘pins’ to bars that apply to be considered, a rating system that emulates the Michelin Stars awarded to restaurants.
Applications from bars in select countries across Europe, North America and Asia are now open, with the next ‘pinned’ bars set to be announced in October 2026.
Hennessy’s owner LVMH kicked off this year with a 5% increase in spirits sales after a challenging 2025, helped in part by Chinese Lunar New Year activations.
The Cognac house continued its on-trade push this summer with a partnership with Latin music star Bad Bunny, and also targeted global travel retail by revisiting its ‘Spirit of Travel’ campaign.
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