As a father, there are a few things I think it’s critical to impart and instill in my children: a sense of fair play, media literacy, critical thinking, a sense of responsibility and accountability, and, not least of all, how to win, and lose, in a sporting way. Oh, and how to properly stir a Manhattan but that’s a few years yet. If you read cocktail blogs, at all, you probably saw the coordinated action that went down with our taking down the insidious practices that were used in promoting Le Tourment Vert on our various blogs and outlets. The response was immediate.

Within six hours of our posts starting to go up the PR firm had reached out to almost every single one of us personally and apologized and asked what could be done to make it right and asked to speak to as many of us as possible by conference call yesterday. Well, it turns out the conference call was with Vinet-Ege, the distiller and importer of Le Tourment Vert. The tone was exceedingly contrite, cordial, and sincere. And I, for one, appreciated it. As an outcome of the call they’ve decided to make a public apology to the cocktail bloggers they offended, you, our readers, and to the cocktail community at-large. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I run it here in its entirety:

Dear Cocktailing Community,

We very much appreciate your feedback and concern regarding our brand, Le Tourment Vert absinthe. Our efforts to communicate with the online community were clearly misguided and we apologize for inadvertently offending you and your readers. This began with us wanting to convey the positive attributes of Le Tourment Vert and the simple belief that it can be mixed well in a cocktail. We do not pretend to be experts in online communication nor do we have a corporate communications department. We are a small import company and we relied on the recommendations of an outside party and authorized them to communicate to the online community about our product. This decision was ill-advised and we deeply regret the obvious insult that it has caused. We take full responsibility for this and are taking the following actions immediately to address the situation.

1. We have instructed the outside party to stop any and all further communications representing our company and our brand.
2. Any online communications on blogs or message boards from this point forward will be will be clearly identified as emanating from our company or representative.
3. We will seek to personally apologize to any and all members of the online community who have been hurt by unsolicited communication that we or our representatives have caused.

In addition, we would like to ensure that we have addressed any and all of your concerns. We welcome any suggestions or comments whether on an individual basis or as a group. Please feel free to contact us directly at info@vinetege.com.

It is also our hope that we may be able to reintroduce Le Tourment Vert to you, in terms as you see appropriate. We hope you will give us the opportunity to make this right. We appreciate your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Ashley Garver
Field Marketing Coordinator
Distillerie Vinet Ege SA

The decision to run this wasn’t easy given how hard I took down the whole enterprise and the product in my posts. But, consider this, not once did Vinet-Ege or any of their representatives request that I remove or change a single piece of my work. Granted, this would have been met with derision and I was ready and loaded for bear were that request to be made. But, it made their statements of apology, respect, and desire to correct any wrongs that much more sincere. They owned their side of the issue, and allowed me to own mine.