Manchester barman named world's best gin bartender
Jones was crowned G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2013 at the annual Gin Connoisseur Program (GCP) which is held in Cognac - the home of G'Vine Gin.
Challenges
The barman beat off stiff competition from fellow gin bartenders across the world including Hannah Lanfear from Boisdale in London, Meaghan Dorman from Raines Law Room in New York and Mohammed Irwan Majid from Cut by Wolfgang Puck in Singapore.
"It's absolutely amazing to win this, it hasn't even really sunk in yet" said Jones, immediately after collecting his prize from the panel of GCP judges which included G'Vine founder and master distiller Jean-Sébastien Robicquet. "I'm just so thrilled to have been able to spend the week with such an incredible group of bartenders," he added.
The GCP competition is judged to be one of the toughest bartending contests - participants face a week of seven challenges including tests of knowledge, gin and cocktail trivia quizzes, blind tasting and technical bartending and presentation assessments.
Jones was also named the winner of the Cocktail & Spirit challenge.
Toughest contest
Although this year's competition attracted hundreds of entries from across the world, the GCP organisers hand-select the participants.
Organiser and judge Philip Duff said: "There are far too many bartending contests out there now whose success is solely judged by how many bartenders enter. Despite the fact that 500 bartenders enter GCP from around the world each year, GCP has never been about numbers, so starting in 2013 we have decided to choose world finalists through a hand-selection process, picking a dozen or so bartenders to compete in each country.
"This has enabled us not only to retain, but to further increase the GCP's reputation as the toughest and most credible contest in the whole world of bartending," he added.
As part of his prize, Jones will now receive personal training from Duff, a professional workshop in the UK and the chance to co-present seminars with Duff in New Orleans and Berlin.
