This week I’m talking to the Maidenii vermouth and Marionette Liqueurs founder, Shaun Byrne, about his career but also about the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, of which he is the new head judge. The ADSA is the biggest spirits judging competition in Australia, and I think it’s the most reputable — they have a mix of bartenders, writers, retail buyers, and distillery industry folks on their many panels as judges, and it’s a pretty robust system they have in place. So i talk to Shaun about the awards — this was recorded back in July just before the judging actually took place. 

But Shaun got his start as a bartender, eventually working at the iconic Melbourne bar, Gin Palace, for eight years under the late and great Vernon Chalker, and we talk a bit about how went from bartender to booze maker.