Graham's Blend Series Cocktail Competition Winner Announced

This week, Graham’s held the Global Final of this year’s Blend Series Cocktail Competition. Welcoming 16 national winners from across the globe, the finalists arrived on 19th May, ready for the competition on the 21st at The Royal Cocktail Club in downtown Porto.

After arriving in Porto, the finalists were given a private tour of the Graham’s 1890 Lodge, before enjoying a very special dinner amongst the casks. The following day, they were taken to Graham’s principal estate, Quinta dos Malvedos, in the Douro and had a tour of the house, vineyards and winery.

A boat trip to Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim was only topped by an incredible lunch at Casa dos Ecos, before they departed to Porto to prepare for the following day’s competition.

After a morning of fierce competition in the semi-final, the final five finalists were announced: Lukas Palubinskas (Lithuania), Zdravko Mitev (Malta), Daniel Prokes (Czech Republic), Jiří Malis (Estonia), and Stijn Deschacht (Belgium). Each finalist was then presented with a ‘mystery box’ of Douro ingredients, from which they needed to create a new cocktail to prepare in that evening’s final.

The standard was incredibly high, but after a lot of deliberation, Lukas Palubinskas of Lithuania (pictured centre) was announced as this year’s winner with his cocktail, ‘Olhos do Capitão’. He takes home the €1000 prize, along with six months’ supply of Blend Series wines for his bar. Zdravko Mitev of Malta (pictured right) was awarded second place for his cocktail, ‘Before Midnight’, and Stijn Deschacht of Belgium (pictured left) took third with his cocktail, ‘Caminho pelo Douro’.