LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dear Readers,

Welcome to our February 2022 edition of PR%F the Magazine featuring supermodel, philanthropist, actress, and award-winning wine and sparkling wine brand creator Christie Brinkley. We are pleased that our special digizine is entering our second year of operation and want to thank all of our participants, advertisers, brands, distilleries, wineries, our management and team. We especially want to thank and honor special brand creators for your mad scientist attitude and for embracing the new with your ingenuity. It’s hard to believe we are working on PR%F Awards IV. This will be our fourth consecutive year of bringing new and established brands into the hands of buyers to be rated, judged, and decorated with our hand-crafted medals.

PR%F Awards 2022—Masked! and Unmasked!—will continue its dual competition platform in July 2022. First, there is PR%F Awards 2022 Masked!. This is the coveted double-blind tasting where buyers from across the United States taste and rate your brand with a 100-point scorecard searching for the ultimate next new thing. PR%F Awards 2022 Unmasked program—The Total Package tasting—is when the judges taste your juice, hold your bottle, see your logo, marketing, and price point. All of our judges are buyers, so taste, appearance, marketing and price go hand-in-hand with what they are looking for to bring home to their shelves. Your brand can be sold at bars, casinos, nightclubs, restaurants, airlines, cruise ships, distributors, retail and grocery chains, and more. We just added a bar gadget and bar tools competition at the PR%F Awards. Check out our extended categories to enter at www.proofawards.com. Our goal is to bring the adult beverage industry the most compelling competition and content and become an outlet for all of us to share. We are not afraid of thought-provoking topics; we welcome them. We would like you to send press releases, announcements, and information to proofmagazineinfo@gmail.com. We are your platform to get the word out about your emerging brand or established favorites, new beverage technology, new drinks. It’s a chance to shine in front of your industry and get you in the minds of the consumer. Let us be a forum for you. PR%F Awards 2022 is set for July. Enter your brands today at www.proofawards.com or reach out to our Business Development Director Colleen Banks at Colleen@proofawards.com or our Competition Director Terry Hart at TerryHart@proofawards.com for group entries and special packages that include both PR%F Awards and PR%F the Magazine.

Cheers, Love & Light, Michele D. Tell Executive Director, PR%F the Magazine Founder, PR%F Awards

THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE CRATER LAKE SPIRITS

ROCK AND RYE

Friends don’t let friends drink bad spirits. That’s why we created this classic rye whiskey cocktail: the ideal camping and adventure companion. Whether you’re shredding the mountain, sitting around the campfire, or simply watching the clouds roll by overhead, Crater Lake Rock & Rye will serve you well. Notes of dark cherry, blood orange, and bitters make for a carefree crowd pleaser.

Our Rock and Rye won Double Gold in PR%F 2021 spirits award competition! Check out our website craterlakespirits.com for buying options near you.

For over a quarter of a century Crater Lake Spirits has been at the forefront of the craft spirits movement, all built on a simple mission: Distilling real spirits made from real ingredients. This Bend, Oregon based distillery was founded with the goal of reviving the tradition of American handcrafted gin and vodka. One of the Pacific Northwest’s oldest and largest distilleries, it continues to produce a growing array of distilled spirits, all still created in small batches. The offerings have expanded beyond the original vodka, gin, and whiskey to include infused vodkas, reserve products, ground-to-bottle estate spirits, Black Butte Whiskey (a collaboration with brewing pioneer Deschutes Brewery), and other special and seasonal projects. These special projects have included a double malted barley whiskey, an agave spirit, and an aged rum, all exclusives in the two Crater Lake Spirits Oregon-based tasting rooms.

From ground to bottle, the distillery produces a portfolio of spirits that remains true to its roots. Inspired by the pure water of the Cascade Mountains, the flagship product, Crater Lake Vodka, is filtered a minimum of ten times through charcoal and crushed lava rock, a practice unique to them that mimics the natural filtration of water in their region. A quirk of nature that produces water so ideally suited to alcohol production that Bend is home to over 30 breweries, many of which are nationally recognized.

Created from 100% rye grain, Crater Lake Straight American Rye Whiskey is aged in number 4 char new American white oak barrels for two years. While two years may be young for some whiskies, the high desert climate of Central Oregon, with its low humidity and incredible temperature variations, provides an aging environment that matures whiskies quicker than the more temperate climates of Scotland or the American southeast. In fact, Crater Lake Rye was one of the American whiskies that inspired the concept of terroir in aging whiskey.

This history has led Crater Lake Spirits to earn prestigious honors in this year’s PR%F Awards. Crater Lake Reserve Gin won the Silver Medal, with focused botanicals of juniper berries, coriander, bitter Seville orange peel, sweet glazed orange peel and grapefruit peel. With a minimum filtration of 50 cycles, this gin’s smooth taste and impeccable citrus and herbaceous notes make it worth the space in any gin connoisseur’s liquor cabinet. Rock and Rye Whiskey won the Double Gold Medal, a ready-to-drink classic rye whiskey cocktail with notes of dark cherry, blood orange and bitters.

In early 2022, the company launched its 60 proof Rock and Rye Whiskey in 100ml cans. Available in packs of two, the cans are available immediately in Oregon with future expansion planned. Currently, 750ml bottles are available for purchase at craterlakespirits.com, or available by request wherever liquor is sold near you.

What’s next?

Crater Lake Spirits remains focused on celebrating and supporting local. A passionate supporter of social responsibility and sustainability, the distillery believes in providing spirits crafted from real ingredients that are authentic, fresh, and sourced locally whenever possible. The distillery has made a switch to using recycled and post-consumer packaging products, growing many of its own herbs and spices, composting on-site and they are working on the development of a solar-powered facility.