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May 25, it is a Saturday afternoon at the newly renovated Whisky and Alement, formerly known as Chez Regine, with the staff busy preparing glasses and snacks for the Whiskey and Beer pairing about to start. I've arrived a little early with Linus Schaxmann setting up his laptop for the presentation, we're still waiting for everyone else to show up.

Meanwhile I have a look around the new bar and it really looks fantastic with all the tasting glasses set perfectly on their pre-allocated spots reserved for about 30 people.

I have no idea what the snacks consist of but they are starting to smell awfully delicious with the smell of Woodford Reserve wafting in the air as it's being poured in the glasses. Almost everyone has come in now and the presentation is about to begin.

We are introduced by Linus Schaxmann from Brown Forman to Allan Duvall and Tom Price from the Brooklyn Brewery. After a few introductory words we get right into pairing some new-make Woodford Reserve with Brooklyn Sorachi Ace. Room soon fills up with chatter as we get started and compare our notes and thoughts.

Last Friday I decided to check out Cushdy, one of Adelaide’s premier cocktail lounges owned and operated by Shaun Pattison on Hindley street since 2008. Cushdy is also the home of the Adelaide Rum Club that had its first rum tasting in 2009 with Flor de Caña rum.

This time the rum in question was a little bit closer home than Nicaragua and is an interesting blend of rums produced in Australia at the Beenleigh distillery and the other half coming from Fiji.

Originally Inner Circle Rum was produced by the Colonial Sugar Refinery for its employees, or for the so called Inner Circle, back in the 70s until 1986 when sadly the distillery closed down.

After a break of nearly two decades Stuart Gilbert, a former Olympic Yachtsman and 8 times World Champion Windsurfer and more importantly a rum enthusiast, acquired the trademark for the brand and in 2002 re-launched the iconic Inner Circle Rum in Australia with the help of CSR’s former Master Distiller Malcolm Campbell.

Sunday May 20th saw a tough competition at the Blue Diamond bar in Melbourne as nine bartenders competed in the Winter Semi Finals of Diageo's World Class Cocktail Competition, creating some truly amazing concoctions to shake off the cold.

Categories in the competition included Gentleman's Cocktail, Hot Cocktail and Dessert Serve, featuring Don Julio Reposado Tequila, Johnnie Walker Gold Label and Ron Zacapa 23 rum.

Guests were invited to taste all nine cocktails and give their vote as part of the competition in each category to the bartender they thought did best.

Ultimately Joel Persson from the Alchemist took home the prize for the Best Gentleman's cocktail with his liquid gold creation 'Magnum Opus' using a mixture of Ron Zacapa rum, Brandy, agave nectar and Pedro Ximénez Sherry.

Angus Burton from Canvas came first in the Hot Cocktail category with his blazed and deliciously comforting Don Julio Reposado tequila based cocktail that he served together with chocolate coated roasted coconut.

Chris Hysted from the The Attic put a creative twist on the Espresso Martini by combining Ron Zacapa rum with banana, cane sugar, guatemalan coffee, dark chocolate and some flamed orange peels!

The winning bartenders will join the rest of the finalists at the World Class National Final in Sydney from June 11-13, and the overall winner will be sent to Rio de Janeiro to represent Australia in the World Class Global Finals in July.

For more photos of the event please check http://www.facebook.com/refinedvices and remember to like our page!

Monday last week at the SMC, Sean Baxter from Behind Bars walked us through a very tasty line-up of some beautiful Single Malt whiskies produced in different regions of Scotland to give us an idea of the different styles.

In the line up we had a total of 6 whiskies - Glenkinchie 10 and 12 year old from the Lowlands, Talisker Distillers Edition and Talisker 18 Year Old from the Islands and Lagavulin 12 and 16 Year Old from the Islay.

Last month at Chez Regine we had the chance to try some pretty special locally produced small batch whiskey from Timboon Railway Shed Distillery.

The Timboon Railway Shed Distillery is located in a renovated railway goods shed dating from 1910 and is a short drive from the scenic Great Ocean Road and the famous 12 Apostles rock formation.

Not much was revealed about the whiskey when we began the tasting, in fact we did not even know where it came from or how it was produced. Instead we were given a Blind Tasting Questionnaire that were to be filled out as we were tasting the mystery whiskey.

In addition to rum, whisk(e)y has always been one of my favourite spirits and though I write about rum more often, I have not forgotten to enjoy a good dram of Scotch every now and then.

Fortunately, my current hometown has plenty of people who appreciate all kinds of whiskey and even has dedicated bars for the appreciation for this fine spirit.

In addition to having an extensive selection of whiskey on their shelves, one in particular organises monthly whiskey tastings and calls this The Single Malt Collective.

Selling over 200 million bottles a year, Bacardi’s widely spread presence can be seen almost anywhere you go in the world, from the northern to the southern hemisphere.

Since the founding in 1862, Bacardi has grown to be one of the biggest rum producing companies in the world and continues to be successful in their campaigns.

On 4th of July Bacardi’s representative, Martin Newell took us through a tasting of a rum that needs no introduction - the Ron Bacardi Superior.