2018: A Flaviar Year in Rear View

1. Three Flaviar Originals are Born

Let's begin with the most exciting trilogy of milestones: the trio of ritzy brands made by Flaviar for the members of Flaviar.

First, we created our first very own Cognac through a crowd-tasting stunt and called it Frérot.



Then, we decided to live the Vida Loca and concocted our first Rum that ain't your Nana's baking Rum, named Larga Vida XO.

And the third one was a lavish Armenian Brandy invented in cahoots with Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit: Shakmat. See, we take care of you.

2. Plethora of Tasty Evenings

2018 was the year of tasting. We had a two-coast Whiskey blending event with WhistlePig, happening in Los Angeles and New York; we went to Baltimore and enjoyed Rye bottling at Sagamore distillery; we organized the greatest Flaviar Family reunion in New York - 6th Craft Spirits Celebration where we celebrated craft Spirits and mingled; then, as a crown jewel, also in Nueva York, we experienced the elite elixir of Louis XIII Cognac, the lushest Spirit today.



You know what we say: tasting is believing, and our mission is for you to taste the best there is.

3. Open, Sesame!

You probably heard of The Vault, the secret safe of superior Spirits that only opens once a month. Year twenty-eighteen saw more than 400 bottles of the rarest treasures and those members quick enough will testify the specimens were otherworldly.



Want to be part of that sweet exclusivity? Make sure you keep an eye on that steel door – we’ll let you know when Uncle Flaviar brings the hefty keys.

4. A Merry Year of Unboxing

Tasting boxes are insanely exciting and each box means it can be Christmas in July. Last year, we released twenty of them, which means more than 60 splendid Spirits!

5. Private Bottling Bonanza

We know a guy who knows a guy, so we pulled some strings and released a few ridiculously rare expressions.



These bottles are so unique we're still wrapping our heads around it: four Deer, Bear & Moose expressions and two crowdtasted bi-coastal WhistlePig blends (WhistlePig Rye Los Angeles Edition and WhitslePig Rye New York Edition). Bonus points if you read that with 12 Days of Christmas in mind.

6. The Booze Frontpage of the Internet

We weren’t just updating our pantry in 2018 – we also added some cool new contraptions to our digital home. Extree, extree, read all about it on Boozefeed, the numero uno source of everything hooch-related for the Flaviar members. It’s tailor-made, up-to-date and will never tell you which Marvel superhero you are. What it will tell you is all the great offers, new tasting boxes, great stories and everything that’s important to your home bar.

7. Your Own Speakeasy

Speaking of home bars, we also introduced a beautiful piece of home improvement for every initiate Spirits aficionado: a personalized home bar. It's got a bunch of space for your first collection, enough wares to get the liquids flowing, and six bottles of premium booze to give you a nice head start.

8. No Need to Search for Merch

We preach about drinking only the finest stuff, but sophisticated experience of sipping is way better with the right gear. That’s why Flaviar launched a ton of chic and quality accessories to take your tippling to another stratum.



There are elegant Flaviar pins to broadcast your allegiance to excellence, first-class glassware, and the coolest Fonzie-level coasters made of leather or concrete. You gotta look good when you feel good.

9. Spiritual Blogging – But Not in That Way

“Educate, enlight, entertain,” says Uncle Flaviar every time he comes around. And that’s exactly the mission of our blog The Flaviar Times (the ‘B’ in ‘blog’ obviously stands for Booze), which got much heftier in 2018.


Be it a list of the best Scotches around, a story about pink Gin, or an article about the most desired Japanese Whiskies – it’s all there. These three pieces, by the way, were also the most read last year.

10. Dram TV – It’s Like a Good Bottle, But For Your Eyes

Each picture is like a thousand words, but video just killed the photo star. Because everything is more interesting in a video, we launched our own YouTube channel. And since there are enough places for cats playing pianos, we decided to post cool videos to spice up your Spiritual growth.



We try to make history less dry by sloshing it with alcohol, fun trivia and bad puns. That’s what we call A Brief History of Booze (or “The BHB” for the cool kids). Those wondering about things such as the difference between Cognac, Armagnac and Brandy, or those who want to know what an Angels' share is, will find the School of Spirits quite helpful. Tap that YouTube app open and check them vids!

11. It’s All About You

Year 2018 was great for our Family (it’s a lit new name for the Flaviar Family we’re trying to popularize). More than 15 thousand bottle reviews were posted – that’s like forty a day – and over 99,000 ratings. Because in the end of the day, we can say whatever we want, but it’s the experience of your fellow Flaviaristas that really matters.



And the best-selling blockbusters? Larga Vida XO Rum 2018 Edition, Shakmat 23 Year Old, Frérot Cognac XO Assemblage de Crus, Eagle Rare 10 Year Old, Johnnie Walker The White Walker Edition.



We won’t lie: we are proud and happy that the trio of new Flaviar brands was on your bucket list.

12. Double Silver for Son of a Peat

We are also incredibly proud that the first batch of our own blended Malt Scotch, Son of a Peat, won two silver medals in 2018: one at San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and one at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

These laurels are a wonderful and shiny proof (96.6%, to be exact) that the first Flaviar-made Whisky is really something. Here’s to silver and peat!

13. And the Winner is…

Since we’re talking about crème de la crème, our annual award ceremony is nigh. We took all your ratings, reviews and reactions from 2018, fed it to a robot, and we’ll announce the winners soon. Stay tuned for the Finest Five of 2019!

It was quite a year, the year of Earth Dog. A bunch of neat stuff happened in the world of Flaviar, and 2019 won’t be any different. Grab a glass and have a toast to new and exciting things to come. Cheers!