Eric Zandona
| Director of Spirits Information, American Distilling Institute
Eric Zandona is the American Distilling Institute's Director of Spirits Information. His responsibilities include running ADI's annual spirits competition, the Judging of Craft Spirits, and administering their Certified Craft Spirits program. In addition, Eric has authored, edited, and contributed to seven books on distilled spirits, and has had articles published in Distiller magazine, and Gin Magazine. Eric serves as a "Tequila Jockey" for Tequila Aficionado's web-series Sipping off the Cuff, and regularly speaks about spirits before consumers, producers, and regulators, both in the US and Internationally.
In 2018, Eric was a shortlist nominee for the International Wine and Spirits Competition's Spirits Communicator of the Year Award, and in 2019, the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 13th Annual Spirited Awards Committee selected The Bourbon Bible as a Top 10 Nominee for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History or Spirits. In 2020, the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation’s 14th Annual Spirited Awards Committee selected The Tequila Dictionary as a Top 10 Nominee for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History or Spirits. That same year BookAuthority named The Tequila Dictionary as one of the Best Tequila Books of All Time.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Eric studied History at San Francisco State University (BA '06, MA '12), and dabbles as a homebrewer and amateur winemaker. In 2013, he created EZdrinking as a platform to share stories and experiences about distilled spirits, craft beer, wine and specialty coffee. Eric and his family lived in San Francisco's Mission District until 2017, when they began an year long residency in Oaxaca drinking, and learning about Mexican gin, rum, whiskey, and agave spirits. Today, he, his wife Tia and their two sons live in Vancouver, Washington.