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Jérome Cottin-Bizonne. General director of Havana Club International S.A.

«It’s an Honor to Join Habanos in its Festival»

Recently stationed in the Cuban capital as part of his new responsibilities, this young executive says he’s pleased to attend the 14th Habano Festival right at the very onset of his assignment and come to the big bash of Habanos that “together with rum and music make up an indispensable blend always present in the lifestyle and way of being of the Cuban people,” he said.

As some sort of forewords before our exchange on Havana Club International’s mission of spreading the Cuban culture around the world – as it’s been happening with the “Nothing Compares to Havana” campaign – Cottine explained that “2011 was excellent, with a few medals and major prizes for the Seleccion de Maestros, let alone a 15 percent uptick in sales and Havana Club’s climbing to the number-one spot in the Top Hot Brands, a top-10 category ranking of spirits. These achievements, announced by British publication Drinks International in its January 2012 issue, are tabbed on the basis of polled bartenders who worked in the world’s best fifty bars during the course of 2010. The Cuban spirit topped the list of the bestselling rums or the most requested drink by patrons. The survey – conducted by the U.K. Market Research Society – polled over 120 sources containing different information, plus websites and international beverage guidebooks, while the bars handpicked for this study had to be labeled as the finest in their regions by at least two recognized or reliable sources. Havana Club not only clambered to the top in its category, but it also knocked down all major competitors as the most requested brand by bartenders. Now within the framework of the Habano Festival, Cottine pointed out “this is a very interesting occasion to promote the expertise of the Cuban people by the hand of those who attend the event every year and get in touch not only with the Habano, but also with other products made in Cuba, like the Havana Club rum.” In this sense, he said to be very pleased for “being able to personally attend the event for the first time and for the fact that Havana Club International is one of the Festival’s sponsors.” One of the most promising moments of this 14th edition of the festival is the possibility of rubbing elbows with master rum maker Jose Navarro, the creator of the Seleccion de Maestros, “a highly-acclaimed personality who stands for Cuba’s rum-making tradition and heritage,” he underscored. There’s no doubt that Mr. Navarro’s attendance in this festival is a luxury too hard to pass up by those who are lured by the longstanding confabulation between the sugarcane distilled drink and the Habano. “Drinking a Havana Club while puffing on a Habano,” Mr. Cottine concluded, “is a pleasure everybody should have at least once in their lifetimes, and if this happens next to Navarro, it just can’t get any better.”