A FIRST-TIMER’S
A D I C O N V E N T I O N R E C A P W R I T T E N BY H A R RY H A L L E R
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I L LU S T R AT I O N S BY D I E T M A R K L E I N
My editor says I need to introduce myself and explain why I went to the ADI Expo and Conference. My name is Harry Haller, and I co-owned a cachaça distillery in Brazil, selling it last year with the idea of setting up shop in the US. As for the why of my trip, I wish it was because the ADI expo is the single-most comprehensive all-inclusive craft distilling event offering unprecedented ease of access to
meet
manufacturers,
suppliers, advisors, and even the TTB, while also providing an impressive lineup of seminars held by the brightest and best in the industry. In reality, my reason was a side effect of doing business with Pakistani molasses sellers. Planning my trip to Karachi, they suggested it might be more convenient if we met in Kentucky. Since I knew nothing about the expo at the time and was unable to conceive of even the wildest of reasons why Pakistani molasses sellers would ever find themselves in Kentucky, I Google translated their e-mail into Urdu then back into English hoping for some clarification. I got “This is known as the Kentucky State may agree to face his face.” Fingers crossed, I did it again and got, “It may agree to face his Kentucky” and then I don’t know what I pressed but, “This verse may fall if the wells were fky” popped onto my screen which had me sold. The possibility of seeing a “verse fall” sounded like as good a reason as any to go to Kentucky. And if by “wells fky” they meant having my entire perspective of this expo and its role in craft distilling twist upsidein and outside-down then I got exactly what was promised.
Day One I had arrived too late the day prior to check in at the convention or even go to Moonshine University’s welcoming party. I was also late enough to get railed on by my airbnb host for the forty minutes I kept her waiting. Signing in at the expo was a breeze. I was given a bag of goodies and a booklet listing everything an attendee would need to know, from seminars to vendors to where each vendor was seated to a list of places in town one could
“take
advantage
of
Special
Offers!” simply by showing their name
“I was profoundly confounded and thoroughly mystified by the sheer number of bottle suppliers, label designers, and cap / cork sellers in attendance.”
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