The modern beverage alcohol landscape requires a strategic blueprint that connects product, authenticity, and relationships. Virginia Miller, a long-time spirits writer, international spirits judge, and consultant, argues that the most successful brands don’t just sell a drink, they sell a genuine story and a strong product.
This blueprint, drawn from her experience judging hundreds of thousands of spirits and consulting with brands worldwide, outlines the non-negotiable strategies for achieving lasting brand loyalty and quality.
The Blueprint for Brand Loyalty: Honing Your Unique Story
Virginia Miller believes that authenticity is the highest currency, yet many brands fail to convey their true narrative, hiding behind “marketing speak.”
“I am a writer who’s looking for authenticity, who’s looking for stories,” Virginia notes. The core challenge for every brand is moving past generic claims to a deeply personal narrative.
Get Personal and Strategic
The first step is distillation of a narrative. Brands must:
- Be Succinct: Identify 3 to 5 key points that truly set a brand apart. Whether it’s a career change, an unconventional path, or a family heritage.
- Let Personality Through: Get a little personal. Consumers want to know who the people are behind the product.
- Leverage Bartenders: Bartenders are the greatest preachers and salespeople. The key is forming genuine relationships with these category specialists so that they genuinely love the story behind the brand and cannot wait to share it from behind the bar.
The gold standard for this approach is Fortaleza Tequila, which has built cult loyalty not just through its fabulous tequila, but also by personally engaging with bartenders and sharing the old-world methods of the distillery.
The Non-Negotiable Core: The Judge’s Guide to Spirits
No matter how compelling the story is, the liquid must withstand professional scrutiny. Virginia’s perspective, honed by tasting blind for 15 years, distills product quality to two core principles:
Principle #1: Balance and Integration
The absolute first test is Balance. A judge is looking for congruence. Is the scent harmonious with the palate?
- Heed the Warning Signs: If the nose is off but the palate tastes great, or if the spirit is too “hot” (alcohol burn masks nuances), something is amiss.
- The Finish: A truly great spirit lingers pleasantly and maintains complexity. It doesn’t fall off or dissipate quickly.
Principle #2: Originality
While a beautifully integrated product can win a Gold, Originality is what truly excites a judge who has tasted thousands of samples.
- The Pop: Virginia looks for the element that “just pops.” It could be a unique botanical, an unexpected flavor, or a new approach.
- Avoid Myopia: Don’t rely on a friend’s or family member’s palate. Obtain an objective critique by submitting samples to spirit competitions or consulting with judges and trade professionals to receive expert opinions on what is missing.
Finding Future Growth: Spotting Beverage Alcohol Trends
Once a liquid is award-winning, the final strategy is positioning. Virginia emphasizes that brands shouldn’t simply chase trends, but own them by injecting personal heritage.
- Personalize the Trend: “We come from five generations of farmers” is more personal than something generic like “We’re grain to glass.”
- Cultural Fusion: Look for new angles by blending heritage with regional context. For example, a chef may combine Asian influences with pristine Scandinavian seafood to create a unique standout.
- White Space Innovation: Test the boundaries of different categories. When Virginia tasted a Sotol Gin for the first time, she knew it was a leader, not a follower. Brands must leverage local agriculture or personal passion to find these unique, yet authentic, areas of innovation.
Contact Virginia at virginia-miller.com/.
The Blueprint for Brand Loyalty: Honing Your Unique Story Transcript
Virginia Miller (0:03)
Hello, I’m Virginia Miller, and I’m a food and drink writer in San Francisco. I’m also a longtime judge and consultant in restaurants, bars, cocktails, wine, and spirits — I’m a lead judge or chairperson/committee member for some of the biggest awards in restaurants, bars, and spirits around the world, everything from Tales of the Cocktail to the James Beard committee. I’m the chairperson for World’s 50 Best Restaurants, as well as North America’s 50 Best Restaurants, which just launched.
I’ve been an editor and writer in this field for 18 years, judging for most of that time, and judging spirits specifically for over 15 years. So I’ve heard it all when it comes to pitches. Today I want to talk a little about storytelling and branding — but not from a marketing-speak perspective. I’m not a marketer, I don’t come from a marketing background. I’m a writer looking for authenticity, looking for stories — that’s the lens I bring to this.
Even though the food and drink worlds are closely related, PR people and marketing firms operate very differently between spirits and wine, and between bars and restaurants — and I hear from all of them. I’ve visited over 15,000 restaurants and another 15,000-plus bars, and been to hundreds of distilleries and wineries. I’ve also made spirits myself and consulted on blending and similar projects. So I’ve had a lot of experience and heard thousands of stories.
One of my greatest values in life is authenticity. Even when a distillery, restaurant, or bar has a beautiful, authentic story, sometimes that doesn’t come through in the marketing speak. One of the things I love to do in consulting is help people move beyond marketing speak — tell me your story, and tell me what the key points are that make it fresh, rather than similar to everyone else’s.
Virginia Miller (2:13)
You can’t just say, “Hey, I’m local and organic,” or even “female-run” or “LGBTQ-run.” Those are all great factors, but I like to help dig a little deeper — what are the elements that brought you to where you are? Maybe you’re a career-changer who became a distiller, or you got into hospitality through some unconventional path. There are all kinds of stories that can be woven in, and they should be told succinctly, letting your personality come through.
I can’t tell you how many sites I visit where there’s no proper bio, or even a story, about the person or people behind a distillery or a bar. I want to know who’s there — what’s it about, where do they come from? Get a little personal with it. Honing your message in a noisy space while staying authentic isn’t easy, especially under the pressure of social media, where you need to tell your story in a bite-sized way. There are more small producers than ever trying to mark their territory — so what’s unique about you, and how do you amplify that?
I always encourage people to come up with a few quick bullet points — no more than five, maybe even just three key points that set your story apart. What are they, and how do they relate to your region, your city, your state, your country? Maybe you come from another country and are now in the States or elsewhere — how do you tell that story, and how does it influence what you make and the palate behind it? Those are all key things that need to feed into your story.
Virginia Miller (4:06)
Another area where I often help is strategizing key relationships. Especially if you’re not a big brand — if you’re a small spirits brand, a small producer, a small RTD or non-alcoholic brand — how and where do you go? Maybe you’re starting just within your state or region. Have you reached out to key people and relationships that might connect with your story?
Some of these are obvious: if you’re from, say, Brazil, are there Brazilian restaurants or bars in your neighborhood — shop owners or others you can connect with who’ll naturally resonate with your story? Or, if you make rum, whiskey, or aquavit — are there specialists, people who feature those categories on their menus, that you can build relationships with? I often help people narrow down a list of, say, 20 businesses to reach out to and build relationships with if they’re looking for placement.
So it’s about making strategic partnerships and building relationships with people who understand what you’re doing and get your story. Those are the people you want to start with — form those relationships, and they can exponentially spread your story. Of the thousands of bars I visit around the world, so many bartenders have introduced me to some of my favorite spirits over the years — more so now, since I get sent samples every day for a spirits column I write for Distiller Magazine. But 20 years ago, when I was just learning all this, I learned a lot of it from bartenders. They can be your greatest advocates and salespeople, if you build the right relationships — if they love your story and feel it, they can’t wait to share it from behind the bar.
Of course, the product still has to taste good — that’s crucial. But the story is what will set you apart from the thousands of other great products out there, because there’s a glut of both goodness and mediocrity. Those key relationships are going to help you go further.
Virginia Miller (6:14)
You also want to have key recipes on your website, and build partnerships around those recipes. If you’ve got a really unique spirit — a unique amaro, or a genever, or something with a different botanical makeup, like a unique contemporary gin — you can’t just automatically drop that into basic classic cocktails. You need to be clear on how your spirit is going to shine.
Unless you’re an amazing bartender yourself and can create recipes, I’d highly recommend working with a great partner — a bartender who can do something creative with your spirit and showcase it. It doesn’t need to be complicated; it should be something people can make at home. I get samples of spirits all the time, and when I try a gin in a classic cocktail, it sometimes doesn’t quite work — the botanicals clash with the tonic, say, and it’s just not a good G&T gin. In that case, you don’t want to make a gin and tonic with it — you need to highlight it differently. You want to help guide people on that.
I also see so many recipes on websites that feel dated or pretty mediocre — heavy on juice, elderflower, that sort of thing, which feels like it’s coming from a late-90s or even 80s “juicy cocktail” perspective. Are you current, or are you classic? You want whoever’s creating your recipes to be savvy and sophisticated, because it’s going to showcase your spirit — and the vast majority of people will try your spirit through a cocktail first. So have a few savvy recipes on your site, especially the more unique or unconventional your spirit is.
You should also share those partnerships — post on social media that you worked with a particular bartender or bar to create those recipes, and highlight that work. There are many ways to tell authentic stories: short clips and reels on social media, or — since people don’t read a lot of copy, which is hard for me as a writer — even a short-form blog, story posts, or photo journals on your website. These get people engaged with who you are, what you’re about, the unique ingredients you use, and the regional stories behind what you’re making. Each of these needs to be highlighted with some joy and authenticity, to help you stand out from the many great — and many average — products out there. Authentic storytelling is everything.
Virginia Miller (8:58)
I’ve seen that the brands that go way further than others succeed through authentic storytelling and relationships. A good example — not one of the biggest brands in the market, but one that’s become huge and cult-favorite around the world — is Fortaleza tequila. Fortaleza is on allocation now, in demand all over the world. But I remember, over 15 years ago, Guillermo Sauza himself would come regularly to my city, San Francisco, hanging out and drinking with bartenders, reaching out to writers like myself, inviting us to the distillery, showing us his family, the stray dogs that had become part of the family on the distillery grounds, and the old-world methods he used to make tequila — which was very unusual at the time, and is now starting to make a comeback in tequila, having been more prominent in mezcal.
All of those things formed relationships and built loyalty early on. And of course, it’s fabulous tequila — but it’s risen to this cult status, where most of us can barely get it anymore, because of those relationships, that authentic storytelling, and his genuinely unique personality. All of that is a huge part of why there’s such loyalty to that brand.
There’s a lot to be learned from stories like that, and I can help if you’re feeling stuck, or trying to figure out what your unique story is. Reach out to me at virginia-miller.com — I’m here in San Francisco, and I look forward to talking to you.
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The Non-Negotiable Core: The Judge’s Guide to Spirits Transcript
Virginia Miller (0:03)
Hello, I’m Virginia Miller from San Francisco, and today I’m going to talk about tasting, blending, and honing your drink product — whether that’s NA spirits, RTDs, or beyond. I’m a longtime dining, bars, cocktail, spirits, and wine writer and judge based here in San Francisco, but I’m traveling around the US and the world for about half of every month.
Besides writing for multiple publications, I judge in many of the world’s biggest spirits competitions. I’m the chairperson for World’s 50 Best and North America’s 50 Best, and I sit on the James Beard committee for beverage — just to name a few things. I also do a lot of consulting in this arena, including blending and honing products. I come at this not from the perspective of a marketer, but from the perspective of a judge, a writer, a critic, and someone who’s tasted hundreds of thousands of products. I’ve been to over 15,000 bars and another 15,000 restaurants, so when it comes to spirits and drink products, I’ve tasted hundreds of thousands.
There are things that happen, especially once you taste blind, which is what I do in judging and competitions. We’re sometimes tasting blind for anywhere from 6 to 7 hours, even up to 9 hours a day, trying to reset our palates between flights. You get a line of glasses — all clear, or sometimes multicolored if it’s liqueurs, or all brown if it’s whiskies, brandies, and so on — and you can’t tell one from the other except by leading with your nose, then moving to the palate.
So what I’m looking for first and foremost — and this is the same when I judge cocktails or food at restaurants around the world — is balance. I’m not asking, “Is this my preference? Is this my favorite thing?” I’ll admit it: I’m a spirits fanatic, and I love every category from aquavit to amari. The one category I don’t get as excited about — sorry, vodka producers — is vodka, because, as I always say, neutrality is not a flavor. That said, I can absolutely tell an excellent vodka. I can tell when a quality grain or potato comes through, when the nose and the palate are integrated. So I’m looking for that integration, that balance.
Virginia Miller (2:36)
In some competitions I judge, they actually categorize the vodka by what the distiller intended — was it meant to be neutral, or character-rich? Those kinds of specifications help, because then I can ask: what were you intending? Is it a contemporary gin or a classic London dry? All of that helps. But really, balance leads. No matter what you intended — is it balanced? Is the nose funky or off, picking up something like butyric acid or another off-note, but the palate tastes great — or vice versa? Those kinds of things are a bit of a warning sign that something may have happened during distillation — heads, tails, the cut, something’s off.
So I look for balance, and balance, of course, includes the finish. How does it linger? Does it linger at all? Does it fall off, disappear, dissipate? Does it linger pleasantly, or is it hot? Balance is everything. If you’re not tasting your product from nose to palate, you need to go back and think about that — is it congruent, is it harmonious? Is what I’m smelling the same as what I’m getting on the palate, and vice versa? Or is the nose really tight — why? What’s happening? Look at your fermentation, your heads-and-tails cuts. What’s going on? Usually, that’s the first and foremost thing I’m looking for.
The second thing I’m looking for is originality. Does it jump out? A nicely integrated but “safe” product is still entirely possible to score a gold — I might say, “This is a beautiful representation of a bourbon. It’s not particularly original, it’s classic — and that’s great.” But I also love when you’re sitting there tasting thousands of things in a week, getting into that malaise a bit, trying to focus, and then something just pops — “Oh, this is different from this whole flight, this one suddenly smells different from the rest — why? What’s going on?” Or this gin has a really unique botanical, or this agave spirit — what’s happening here?
That’s when the panel starts talking, and I look at what all the judges scored versus what I scored. Are we way off? Is someone saying bronze while someone else says gold? Those are the ones we really need to discuss — and I love when something creates that kind of controversy and buzz.
Virginia Miller (5:27)
As much as I say balance is everything, and you need a sense of palate and honing — if you’re stuck being a bit myopic, focused only on your own product, not familiar with what’s happening with everyone else’s, or you only drink gin and don’t try other categories so you’re not judging in context — then you probably need to get some expert opinions. Get other people to taste your product — not just friends and family who’ll say “it’s awesome,” or locals who are just happy to have a local producer. Get bartenders, consultants, and judges like myself involved. Send it into spirits competitions and get those opinions and perspectives: what’s missing, what needs to be honed?
Bring a few samples — if you’ve done a few different runs on the still, bring all of them, so there’s comparison and context for what you’re trying to achieve. But if you have room to be brave, bold, and original — we’re always looking for that, because these days there’s a glut of everything, and it’s hard to stand out. So what makes you stand out? First, quality. Second, originality.
Besides comparing your own samples, or having people taste different runs from your still, it’s important to compare against your competitors. I do a lot of consulting in spirits and blending — sometimes a small craft distiller will send me a few samples of an upcoming product and ask, “Which do you like best, and why?” I’ll give them a judge-level, international-standard evaluation, just as if I were judging it in competition.
Virginia Miller (8:04)
I’ve also done a lot of work in Mexico — flown down to distilleries directly. I’ve done a lot of consulting with Pernod Ricard and some of their agave brands, both creating blends for clients and working directly with house distilleries and brands to develop a product from start to finish, as well as experimental projects that have never been done before in agave — advising on how something could be made, with the distillers then figuring out how to mass-produce it afterward. We’re in the lab trying blends and batches, and throughout that process I’m comparing to what’s already out there.
For example, I helped create Avión Cristalino from start to finish. So I had a whole lineup of every cristalino on the market, and every week or so, while spending time at the distillery, I’d bring those bottles out and compare against where we were heading — not because we wanted to be like any other brand, in fact we were trying to be different — but to stay aware of what’s out there. Keep in touch with your category, your competitors, regionally and internationally. What’s happening elsewhere? What am I going for compared to what they’re doing? You may want to go in a totally different direction, but you still want to understand how you fit into the category, and how you’d describe your product compared to the big sellers and the most unique offerings in that category. It’s always about that comparison and honing, and getting outside opinions on it.
Virginia Miller (8:47)
When you create something memorable and go unique, market study matters too — and this is something I can help with, again not from a marketer’s standpoint, but from someone on the ground in hundreds of cities, countries, restaurants, bars, and distilleries every year. What niche am I not seeing? Sitting there judging a few thousand spirits a year, what’s not happening yet — what niche is emerging?
Often, whether it’s a gin made with ants, or a flavored bacanora from Mexico — which actually turns out to be a historic technique — when I see something pop up, particularly in ADI craft distilling, where the distillers are small, I often see it years before it becomes a trend. I’ll think, “Oh, interesting, this is the first of its kind.” Then the next year, suddenly there are two or three cow’s-milk or mare’s-milk spirits, and we’ve got a whole category, a whole flight, to judge. But when I see that first little one-off pop up, it’s exciting — there are niches to fill.
So look out there: what hasn’t been done? What fits your region, your state, your country, your heritage? The culinary world is a vast place to play in — what in the culinary world could influence the type of brandy you’re making? It’s about thinking outside the box: what hasn’t been done? And again, you need comparison, you need context — especially if you’re not out there traveling and tasting everything yourself. Go to the people who are having those conversations about what’s happening out there.
And finally — seek your own passion. What do you love? What can you pull from your own palate — favorite tastes, memories, heritage, favorite dishes? There’s so much you can draw on to create something original.
If you’re thinking along these lines, there are people like me who can help — reach out if you’d like some consulting. My website is virginia-miller.com, and my email is ginmiller@gmail.com (spelled with “gin,” like the spirit).
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Finding Future Growth: Spotting Beverage Alcohol Trends Transcript
Virginia Miller (0:03)
Hello, I’m Virginia Miller, and I’m a food and drink writer based in San Francisco. I also do a lot of consulting and judging around the world in dining, bars, cocktails, spirits, wine, and beyond. I’m the chairperson for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, an academy chair for North America’s 50 Best Restaurants, and I sit on the James Beard committee for beverage nationally. But today I’m here to talk about trends and development.
I do a lot of consulting in areas ranging from blending to menu honing, but trends and development is a tricky one. A lot of times when I’m judging spirits — especially in a competition like ADI, with small producers — I see weird and wonderful things years before they become trends. That might be a “moo” or mare’s-milk spirit, distilled from the milk of a cow, or it might be ant-based spirits, or other more flighty trends like that. I see things years before they arrive.
It’s the same with menus at bars, restaurants, and beyond — I see things very early on that become trends later. Take our wonderful pioneer Kevin Diedrich here at PCH, Pacific Cocktail Haven, in San Francisco. He’s won a lot of national and global awards and is on North America’s 50 Best Bars list. He was the first person I saw, many years ago, doing pandan negronis and a lot of pandan cocktails, nodding to his Filipino heritage. Over the years, I started seeing pandan cocktails trend everywhere — I didn’t even see them much in Asia until after he was already doing it.
So I keep my ear to the ground — not because I’m looking for what’s hot or trendy, but because something new and exciting genuinely is new and exciting, especially once you’ve tasted everything. People often tell me, “You were the first to ever write about our restaurant, our bar, or what we’re doing.” That’s because I keep that ear to the ground so much, and I’m at so many places that it’s easy to spot when something stands out.
Virginia Miller (2:15)
So often, what I encourage — and try to help people with — is how to level up your story, your menu pairings, maybe your product, and the story behind your product. How do you make that unique? How do you tell your story through it?
It’s the same approach I’d take with trends: okay, we’ve got this trend happening in your city or region — or maybe it’s a trend happening across the world that nobody’s doing yet in your city or state. How do you not just follow it, but make it your own? How do you personalize it? So often it comes down to: what’s your heritage? What’s your culture? What’s your background? How did you grow up — did you grow up on a farm? Are we telling that story?
I’ve consulted with people doing “grain to glass” — wonderful, hard work, and a lot of people are doing it now. But some of the distillers I’ve met aren’t telling the story that, say, “We come from five generations of farmers, and we’ve been growing this for the past century in our state.” That’s the story you need to lead with — that’s how you make it more than just trendy. You’re not doing “grain to glass” just because it’s a trend or because it’s sustainable — though those are wonderful things to do and follow — you’re doing it because it’s your family’s heritage, because you come from a farming tradition first. So it’s about pulling out those angles and that emphasis, and making sure it shows in your product, your menu, and your story.
Virginia Miller (5:08)
How do you tell that story and make it unique? How do you make the trend yours? Again, it’s really about personalizing it. I was recently writing about a restaurant in Copenhagen that I loved, where the chef was Asian-Canadian with a very international staff — people from the US, from around Europe, from Latin America. So how was it Scandinavian? Primarily through using Scandinavian ingredients — but he’d also worked a long time in Copenhagen and Denmark, so his familiarity with the pristine seafood of Scandinavia, combined with his ability to tell that story and bring in elements of his Canadian and Asian heritage and background, made it a unique standout among all the other excellent Scandinavian restaurants I visited that were run by Scandinavians.
So there are many ways to maximize your story, personalize it, and look at a trend and ask: how could this relate to me? How could I do something fresh in my region, or in my spirits category, that hasn’t been done before?
Virginia Miller (5:08)
One of the projects I consulted on in recent years involved tasting through different distillery samples for a sotol gin — and again, that was seeing, and tasting, a sotol gin for the first time. There’s a lot of amazing gin coming out of Mexico now, including mezcal gins and similar things, but a sotol gin was something I hadn’t seen yet. So the question becomes: what makes this a sotol, and what makes it a gin? That’s already a unique story.
That’s the kind of thing where someone is leading a trend — but for you, it might look totally different. Maybe you work with different Asian spirits, rice-based spirits, and you do something totally different with a rice-based spirit. Maybe it pulls on your heritage or your region — say you live in a US region where rice growing or sugarcane is common.
One important thing I always talk about is comparing and contrasting with what else is out there. What are other people doing? Who are your competitors, if any, and who are the closest? That’s something I can help with, because in my mental “files,” I’ll often think, “Oh yeah, I tasted something like that once, in this country, or on this menu.” It’s about making sure you’re comparing — and also personalizing. Everything doesn’t have to be unique, crazy, or tell an extreme story; there can be subtle tweaks that make it yours and make it personal. Looking for those is what’s going to set you apart from your competitors.
There’s obviously great honor in doing a classic bourbon or a London dry-style gin, but those things have been done very well already. So again — what are you bringing to the table that’s different? That’s where you really want to pull on your own heritage, story, culture, family, interests, passions, and background.
Virginia Miller (6:59)
I’ve seen people weave their love of the arts into their spirit or their menu, and it’s beautiful. I’ve tasted cocktail menus based around literary themes — and as a book lover, a reader, and a writer myself, I’m just thrilled by that — or built around music themes. I’ve been to bars where everything is themed around different records, playlists, or genres. All of that sets someone apart — not as a gimmick, but when it comes from an authentic place of genuine interest and passion.
So it’s about digging into your own passions and perspective — what’s unique about what you bring to the table — and making sure that comes through in your product, your label design, and your menu design. There are so many ways to set yourself apart from the thousands of others doing something similar, and I’m here to help with that.
If you’d like to reach out, my website is virginia-miller.com, or you can email me — she spells out an email along the lines of “ginmillerg@gmail.com” (using “G” for “gin,” as in the spirit), though the audio is a bit garbled here, so it’s worth double-checking the exact address against another source.
Thank you. Thanks for tuning in — make sure to hit the subscribe button to keep up with the latest beverage alcohol industry insights.