BAR® – Who We Are
Partners & Faculty

F. Paul Pacult

Wallkill, NY

Journalist, author, educator, lecturer, consultant

Called “America’s foremost spirits authority” by Forbes.com, F. Paul Pacult was recently the publisher/editor of F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal. F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal, founded in 1991, was recognized as the world’s premier independent source of spirits reviews and evaluations. In 2019, F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal was placed on hiatus in order to give Paul the space and time to write two more books, Kindred Spirits 3: 2,400 New Spirits Reviews Reviews From F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal 2014-2020 and Buffalo, Barrels & Bourbon: How Buffalo Trace Became The World’s Most Awarded Distillery.

He and his wife/partner Sue Woodley were also the creators of the groundbreaking, highly successful iWhiskey App.

CONSULTING, EDUCATION & PUBLIC SPEAKING:
Since the mid-1990s, through Spirit Journal, Inc., Paul and Sue have consulted to a Who’s Who list of the beverage alcohol industry’s largest and mid-size mainstream and smallest craft companies on product development and improvement. Since the 1990s, Paul has helped to discreetly create and improve scores of whiskies, brandies, vodkas, liqueurs, rums, gins, tequilas, and mezcals, many of which are now considered top shelf SKUs.

Since 1996 Paul has hosted Spirit Journal, Inc.’s celebrated Primary Liquids educational training program for mainstream and craft beverage and non-beverage companies throughout the United States, as well as Europe. Paul also hosted the tasting series in New York City, the Masters Series at Keens Steakhouse, for over 20 years.

Paul is the creator and presenter of the THE RUM AUTHORITY, THE WHISKEY AUTHORITY and THE BRANDY AUTHORITY educational initiatives, all sponsored by Spirit Journal, Inc. The “AUTHORITY” series exclusively trains service industry personnel.

In 2019 Paul became Master Blender for Palm Bay International’s whiskey project, Jacob’s Pardon.

COMPANIES:
In addition to establishing Spirit Journal, Inc. with Sue Woodley in 1991, Paul is a founding member, along with Steve Olson, Dale DeGroff, David Wondrich, and Doug Frost, of the award-winning spirits and mixology training company Beverage Alcohol Resource® LLC (BAR-2005). Together, they teach the highly respected BAR 5-Day Program® of Spirits & Mixology, held once per year in lower Manhattan.

Additionally, BAR, in conjunction with Pernod Ricard USA, has taught over 40,000 bartenders across the world through the BarSmarts Advanced Training Program.

Paul is likewise a founding member, along with Sue Woodley and David Talbot, and is judging chairman of the innovative spirits, cocktail and wine competition company Ultimate Beverage Challenge LLC (UBC-2010).

BOOKS:
Paul is the author of five best-selling books: Kindred Spirits 2: 2,400 Reviews of Whiskey, Brandy, Vodka, Tequila, Rum, Gin, and Liqueurs from F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal 2000-2007 (Spirit Journal, Inc., 2008); A Double Scotch: How Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet Became Global Icons (John Wiley, 2005), the best-selling American Still Life: The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World’s #1 Bourbon (John Wiley, 2003), as well as Kindred Spirits (Hyperion, 1997) and The Beer Essentials (Hyperion, 1997).

He and Sue are now writing Kindred Spirits 3: 2,400 Spirits Reviews From F. Paul Pacult’s Spirit Journal 2014-2020, available in late 2020. Another book on American whiskey, Buffalo, Barrels & Bourbon: How Buffalo Trace Distillery Became The World’s Most Awarded Distillery is to be published by John Wiley & Sons in September 2021.

JOURNALISM:
From 1982 to 2009, he contributed to scores of national and international publications, including Playboy, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Cheers, Connoisseur, MarketWatch. Travel & Leisure, Men’s Journal, Beverage Dynamics and many others. Most prominently, for 17 years he wrote about spirits, cocktails, travel, and wine for the New York Times Sunday Magazine; was the Sky Magazine wine/spirits/cocktail columnist for 13 years for Delta Air Lines; and for 9 years was Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s spirits columnist/spirits tasting editor.

RADIO & TELEVISION:
Sue produced and Paul co-hosted two nationally syndicated radio shows, The Happy Hour with Paul Pacult and Gary Regan (1996-1998) and Paul Pacult’s Good Life (1999-2000). Paul has appeared in two landmark History Channel documentaries on beverage alcohol.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES:
Paul won the award for wine journalism excellence in 2001 from The Academy of Wine Communications. He is the only journalist worldwide to concurrently be a life member and Master of Keepers of the Quaich whisky society (Edinburgh, Scotland), a life member of Kentucky’s Bourbon Hall of Fame (Louisville, KY) a life member of Kentucky’s Order of the Writ whiskey society Fame (Louisville, KY), and a life member of France’s Compagnie des Mouquetaires d’Armagnac (Company of Armagnac Musketeers; Gascony, France).

In July of 2007, the company Paul co-founded Beverage Alcohol Resource® LLC in 2005 won the Cheers 2007 Innovator of the Year Award. In September 2011, the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (BNIC) in France honored Paul as the Cognac International Personality of the Year 2011. In January 2012, he was awarded the Cheers Conference 2012 trophy for “Raising the Bar” in spirits education.

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