From the Barlist Journal
Global spirits authority, author of the Spirits Guidelines, and Director of the Spirits Selection by CMB, bringing 25+ years of international category expertise to Barlist.
With a career spanning more than two decades, Ulric Nijs has operated at every tier of the spirits ecosystem. His foundations are rooted in the premium on-trade sector, a launching pad that propelled him into regional brand leadership, trade marketing management, and international market development for both powerhouse global portfolios and agile independent producers.
Ulric currently serves as the Director of Spirits Selection by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB). He is also the author of the Spirits Guidelines. This definitive internal technical reference covers all major global spirits categories, created to guide international juries as they evaluate and navigate unfamiliar categories.
Operating within an extensive global network of producers, distributors, and regulators, Ulric’s work with Barlist focuses on industry evolution, commercial strategy, and category education. He is deeply committed to spirits projects built with a long-term vision, cultural integrity, and strict commercial discipline.
Explore Ulric's latest stories, guides, and cocktail-focused pieces published on Barlist.
Partnership
Pisco is one of the few spirits whose identity is divided by national borders rather than defined by them. Both Peru and Chile claim pisco as a national spirit, each supported by legal frameworks, historical narratives, and active production. This dual claim is not a modern branding dispute. It is the outcome of colonial administration, […]
October 7, 2026
Partnership
Singani is one of the least understood legally protected spirits in the world. Despite centuries of continuous production in Bolivia, it remains largely absent from global spirits discourse. This absence is not due to ambiguity or lack of definition. Singani is one of the most tightly structured grape distillates in existence, defined by altitude, grape […]
September 30, 2026
Partnership
Rum was not designed to be preserved. It was designed to move. For most of its early history, rum existed as cargo rather than a collectable, shipped in bulk or sealed bottles across the Atlantic as part of a vast commercial system linking sugar plantations, ports, navies, and merchants. When sealed bottles of 19th century […]
September 23, 2026
Partnership
Cognac did not become a global spirit because of vineyards alone. Its rise depended on water, ships, and merchants long before it depended on distilleries. The identity of Cognac was shaped as much by the port of Bordeaux as by the chalk soils of Charente. Without Bordeaux’s access to Atlantic trade routes, cognac would likely […]
September 16, 2026
Partnership
Madeiran rum exists within a narrow technical and geographic framework that resists abstraction. Unlike Caribbean or Latin American rum traditions shaped by scale and export, rum production on Madeira remains tied to fresh sugarcane juice, seasonal distillation, and localised milling. From the northern coast at Porto da Cruz to the southern town of Calheta, a […]
September 9, 2026
Partnership
Madeiran Rum production has always been defined less by volume than by method. Unlike Caribbean regions shaped by plantation scale and colonial export markets, Madeira developed a rum culture rooted in small agricultural units, seasonal cane harvests, and legally enforced technical choices. The island’s modern rum identity is structured around a clear technical divide between […]
September 2, 2026
