The spirits world has always had its share of awards. Shelves are lined with bottles wearing gold stickers like battle ribbons, and most drinkers have learned to tune them out. But a new podcast from The Tasting Alliance is trying to change the conversation — not by questioning the awards, but by asking what they actually mean.
Proof of Concept launched recently as a storytelling podcast built around one specific question: what does it actually take to earn a Double Gold at a world-class spirits competition? Not the technical answer. The human one.
The show comes from The Tasting Alliance, which describes itself as the world's leading authority on beverage alcohol competitions. That includes the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, one of the most respected blind judging events in the industry. A Double Gold at that competition means every single judge on a panel gave the spirit a gold medal — no exceptions, no averaging it out. It's a rare thing, and the people behind those bottles tend to have stories worth hearing.
That's exactly the premise. Hosts Toby Blue and Jason Rabinowitz sit across from the founders and makers behind these winning brands and ask them to pull back the curtain. Not on the recipe. On the journey.
The Man Behind the Microphone
Toby Blue is not a typical podcast host, and his background makes that clear fast. He started his career in film, with credits that include work on Forrest Gump and Jurassic Park, before producing City of Angels for Warner Bros. From there he co-founded Petrol Advertising, building it from a three-person operation into a global agency with more than 120 employees. He's held executive roles alongside will.i.am and worked with The Coca-Cola Company on the EKOCYCLE initiative.
Now he serves as Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of The Tasting Alliance, focused on advisory work, media, and brand growth. It's a resume that crosses film, marketing, entertainment, and now spirits — and it shows in how the show is framed. This isn't a product review. It's a conversation about building something.
The First Episode Sets the Tone
The debut episode features Andrew Merinoff, the founder and CEO of Chinola, and it's a compelling choice to kick things off. Chinola is described as the world's first shelf-stable fresh fruit liqueur, which is one of those product descriptions that sounds simple until you start thinking about what it actually required to pull off.
Merinoff walks through the process of getting there — thousands of test batches, early failures, and the challenge of building a brand out of the Dominican Republic that could stand up to serious scrutiny in the global spirits market. He talks about what it took to win over bartenders, who are notoriously skeptical of new liqueurs, and what it meant to eventually earn multiple Double Gold and Platinum awards from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The conversation doesn't shy away from the hard parts. There's real discussion of the setbacks, the costs, the moments where the whole thing could have gone sideways. And underneath all of it is a thread about sustainability and community impact in the Dominican Republic — the idea that a spirits brand can be about something larger than just what's in the bottle.
That's the kind of story Proof of Concept is designed to surface. Not the polished press release version, but the version that includes the late nights and the wrong turns.
What's Coming Next
The lineup of upcoming episodes suggests the show has real range. Future guests include the people behind Brother's Bond Bourbon, Heaven Hill Distillery, Ten to One, Mezcal Vago, and Blackleaf Organic Vodka. That's a mix of established heritage brands and newer operations, domestic and international, whiskey and beyond.
Heaven Hill alone is one of the largest family-owned spirits producers in the country, with a history going back decades and a portfolio that spans bourbon, rye, and more. Mezcal Vago operates at the craft end of the mezcal world, known for working directly with traditional producers in Oaxaca. Brother's Bond Bourbon has a different kind of story — built by the stars of a hit television show and working to prove it belongs on the shelf for reasons that have nothing to do with celebrity.
Each of those stories is different. Each of them earned a Double Gold. The thread connecting them is what the show seems most interested in following.
Why This Format, Why Now
The spirits category is crowded in a way it has never been before. There are thousands of distilleries operating in the United States alone, more than at any point since Prohibition. Consumers have more choices than they can reasonably navigate, and most of the marketing sounds the same. Heritage. Craft. Small batch. The words have started to blur together.
What Proof of Concept is offering is something different — context. Not what a spirit tastes like, but where it came from. Not whether it won an award, but what that award required. For anyone who has ever stood in the whiskey aisle feeling genuinely unsure which of thirty nearly identical bottles to pick up, that kind of backstory can actually matter.
There's also a growing appetite among serious spirits drinkers for the kind of knowledge that used to live only inside the industry. Which producers are doing things the hard way because they believe it produces a better result, and which are cutting corners dressed up in nice packaging? That information exists, but it takes work to find. A show built around the people who've earned the highest marks from professional judges is one way to start separating the signal from the noise.
The Double Gold Standard
It's worth understanding what Double Gold actually means in this context, because the show's entire premise rests on it. In blind competition judging, spirits are evaluated without any knowledge of the brand, price point, or producer. Judges score what's in the glass. A gold medal means a judge found the spirit to be exceptional. A Double Gold means every judge on the panel awarded it gold — unanimous recognition from a group of professionals who are specifically trained not to be impressed easily.
At the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, which The Tasting Alliance operates, that standard has remained consistent across thousands of entries annually. The competition draws submissions from around the world. Getting a Double Gold there means something specific, and it means the same thing regardless of whether you're a multinational producer or a first-generation founder working out of a small facility in the Caribbean.
That consistency is part of what makes the podcast's premise hold up. The guests aren't there because they're famous or because they spent a lot on marketing. They're there because a room full of experts tasted their product blind and agreed it was exceptional.
Built for a Specific Kind of Listener
The show's stated audience is anyone who cares not just about what wins, but why it wins. That's a narrower group than it might sound, and it's probably the right size. This isn't background noise for a casual Friday evening. It's for the person who genuinely wants to understand the difference between a spirit that's merely good and one that stops a panel of experienced judges in their tracks.
Founders will find value in the business-building conversations. Bartenders and industry professionals will appreciate the technical and commercial honesty. And the drinker who has developed a serious interest in the category — who reads the back label, who asks the bartender questions, who has opinions about production methods — will find something here that most spirits coverage doesn't offer.
The episodes are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. The first episode with Andrew Merinoff is live now. The rest of the slate is expected to roll out in the coming months.
In a category where everyone claims to stand for craft and quality, Proof of Concept is asking the people who can prove it to explain what that actually cost them. That's a conversation worth having — and based on the first episode, one that's only just getting started.
