Spirits Academy has stepped forward as a driving force behind this year’s Bartender of the Year and the Top 100 Most Influential, reinforcing its position at the centre of education, advocacy, and community within the Australian hospitality industry. In a landscape where attention is earned, not given, this partnership is not just about presence. It is about purpose.
At its core, Spirits Academy exists to do three things exceptionally well. Educate, entertain, and reward. As the advocacy and training arm of Spirits Platform, it is built to develop real capability behind the bar while creating experiences that resonate long after the final drink is served. This is education with intent. It sharpens knowledge, builds confidence, and ultimately drives commercial outcomes where it matters most, on the menu and in the glass.
Through national venue training, ambassador led sessions and large-scale activations, Spirits Academy delivers marketing supported education that connects brands directly with bartenders. It moves beyond theory and into application, giving the trade the tools to understand not just what they are pouring, but why it deserves a place on their back bar and cocktail list.
Sponsoring Bartender of the Year and the Top 100 Most Influential is a natural extension of this philosophy. It creates a platform where education meets competition, where brands meet bartenders and where influence meets genuine opportunity. Within this environment, Spirits Academy can showcase its portfolio in a way that feels authentic, credible, and relevant.
Brands including Cointreau, Re’al, Chartreuse, Mount Gay and many more from the Spirits Platform portfolio are brought to life as more than just products. They become part of the creative process, part of the conversation and part of the bartender’s toolkit. This is where advocacy shifts from awareness to action. For bartenders, the value is immediate. It is access to deeper knowledge, direct engagement with brands and the chance to experience liquids in a way that goes beyond a standard tasting. It turns passive learning into active participation, where skills are tested, ideas are shared and careers are shaped in real time.
For Spirits Academy, the impact is equally significant. It reinforces its position as a leader in hospitality education, not through statements, but through meaningful involvement in the industry’s most important moments. By aligning with the country’s leading talent and most respected platforms, it places itself firmly at the heart of the conversation. The results speak to both short term impact and long-term value. In the moment, it delivers liquid on lips and brands in hands, while strengthening advocacy across the trade and creating lasting connections between bartenders and the Spirits Platform portfolio.
This approach is powered by a national team of ambassadors who bring the programme to life on the ground. Stephanie Rainbow leads Spirits Academy across New South Wales and the ACT, Max Borrowman across Victoria and Tasmania, Liam Shephard across Queensland and the Northern Territory, with Mark Hickey leading nationally while also overseeing Western Australia and South Australia. Together, they form a connected network that ensures consistency in education, relevance in delivery and meaningful engagement across every major market.
Memorable experiences sit at the heart of everything. From immersive brand dinners to large scale activations like Aperitivo Sociale, the focus is always on creating environments where learning feels engaging, social and memorable. These are the moments that stick, that get talked about and that ultimately influence behaviour behind the bar.
Recognition plays an equally important role. Initiatives such as Luxe Obscura and the Foundation ensure that talent, loyalty, and progression across the trade are acknowledged and celebrated. They provide a pathway for emerging bartenders while rewarding those who continue to raise the standard of the industry.
By sponsoring Bartender of the Year and the Top 100 Most Influential, Spirits Academy brings all these elements together into a single, powerful platform. It is not simply supporting the industry. It is actively shaping it.
The result is a compelling advocacy moment that strengthens the Spirits Platform portfolio, deepens relationships across the hospitality community, and reinforces a clear and confident position. Spirits Academy is not just part of bartender education in Australia. It is helping define it.
And when education is delivered with this level of intent and energy, it does more than inform. It inspires, it influences and it leaves a lasting mark on the way brands live behind the bar.