Jack Daniel's Last Round: a bartender competition shot in Paris

Last Round was a bartender competition launched by Jack Daniel's on 26 April 2023, built around two expressions that were new to the range at the time, Bonded and Triple Mash. Twenty bartenders took part, from Bordeaux, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Rennes and elsewhere.

It ran in two stages. A digital first round from 1 to 9 May, where each competitor created two cocktails, one per whiskey, and presented them on Instagram. Then the semi-finals and the final, held on the same day, 15 May 2023, in Paris.

The format leaves no room for a second take. In the semi-finals each bartender had five minutes to rebuild their drinks in front of a jury and an audience that voted. In the final, four cocktails had to be built in four minutes, two repeated and two new.

Four minutes is exactly how long it takes to miss a picture. A move at the shaker, a flamed zest, ice clouding over: none of it can be asked again of a competitor who is playing for the win.

Four semi-finalists came through the first round: Marion Estève of Hanzo in Bordeaux, Tomo Watanabe of Divine, Andres Quiñonez of Bövem, and Charles Jonville, an independent bartender known as Les Cocktails de Charles.

The final put Charles Jonville against Andres Quiñonez. Jonville won it, with a drink called Mike's Coffee, built on Jack Daniel's Bonded with a vanilla coffee liqueur, an amaro, red vermouth and roasted coconut water infused with tonka.

Paris was the meeting point. The twenty bartenders came up from Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Rennes for a single day, and the final was decided in a Paris room built around a boxing ring. Photographing a competition of that shape in Paris means photographing people who have spent hours on a train and will not get a second chance.