A milestone for Scottish Gin

The world's largest dedicated Scottish Gin directly adds 250th Scottish Gin.

Published: 6th April 2019

When we launched The Gin Cooperative website in late April 2018, we launched with the world’s largest, most comprehensive and detailed Scottish Gin directory, featuring rich content for 150 individually profiled Scottish Gins and 70 individual Scottish Gin brands. We researched and pulled together the content, including writing the profiles for the gins and bios for the distilleries and brand owners, which was a real labour of love. Colour correcting photos, photoshopping out blemishes from bottle shots, photographing product shots on white backgrounds (we don’t shout about it but a lot of the products shots that appear on retail sites originate with The Gin Cooperative). As we said, it’s a labour of love, making sure that everything we publish, be it images or editorial, meets the high expectations we’ve set.

It took us four months to get the website and directory to a stage we were happy with, including carrying out a sustained period of due diligence to ensure the gins in our directory were being distilled, rectified or cold compounded in Scotland. For most brands, this information was freely and openly available, but for others we required clarification in writing, which they followed through with. 

As the Scottish Gin category has continued to grow since we established The Gin Cooperative, so has our website and directory. It’s feels like a full-time job in itself, making sure every gin maker profile is current and up to date. Adding new expressions, overhauling gin maker profiles with new branding and packaging, shooting original photography and more. We work extremely hard to make sure our directory is not only factually correct but also presents all Scottish Gin brands and their gins in the best possible way to our growing audience.

We’re delighted to say that in just under one year since our website launched, we’ve now added our 250th Scottish Gin, Highland Liquor Company’s signature gin, Seven Crofts, which also brings our directory to 100 Scottish Gin brands. With another 10 gins soon to be added and a number of new brand profiles currently being worked on, we anticipate by the end of 2019, our directory will be sitting at a staggering 300 Scottish Gins and 115 Scottish Gin Brands.

This dramatic increase in the number of Scottish Gins and new brands demonstrates that Scottish Gin as a category is here to stay. And the recent publication of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) figures shows a record 73 million bottles of gin were sold in the UK in 2018. With the value of the category almost doubling between 2016 and 2018, topping out at over a staggering £2 billion, the popularity of gin shows no sign of stopping.

It’s a sign of the industry in Scotland and we feel the focus from genuine Scottish Gin makers and brand owners, that the overwhelming number of new gins that have came to market since we launched, bar one (Haggis Gin), have added more depth and value to the Scottish Gin category for the consumer. Even the gins that have been made specifically for a bar or shop, have been of a great quality, with the brands and people behind the shops playing a role in supporting the Scottish Gin category through their shops or establishments.

We are confident that as long as Scottish Gin makers continue to produce premium, quality gins, continue to incorporate their own stories and personalities in their products, weave local folklore from their respective regions into their brand and gins and above all continue to respect and value the consumer, then Scottish Gin brands will continue to flourish and grow. We are also passionate about, and will continue to promote, Scottish Gin as a category in its own right and as a vital part of Scotland’s food and drink portfolio. If the time does come when the demand for gin levels off, we strongly believe that Scottish Gin will be in a very strong position as being something more than just part of the gin craze, rather positioning Scottish Gin as being clearly recognised as a product of Scotland.

The last 12 months for us personally as gin drinkers has afforded us the unique opportunity to not only try a number of new Scottish Gins but also revisit some old favourites and meet the people behind the businesses. From the shores of Loch Ness to Scotland’s capital city, from rural Aberdeenshire to the most northernly tip of mainland Scotland, the islands, the lowlands and  borders, Scotland’s former industrial heartland of Glasgow to small rural communities, Scottish Gin can be found far and wide across the country. The fact we have so many talented people working in Scottish Gin and the wider drinks and spirits category, gives us cause for celebration.

We have chosen to work with and include only the Scottish Gin makers and brands who make their gin in Scotland, which is something we’re very proud of. That said, we’ve also been speaking with and kept in touch with a number of gin makers and brands who make their gin outside of Scotland. As we’ve mentioned, it’s a positive sign that for most in the Scottish Gin category, it’s widely accepted and understood that a Scottish Gin is a gin that’s made in Scotland. It’s a positive sign that some of these gin makers and brands who are in this position are in the process of moving their production back to their respective regions in Scotland, something we would actively encourage and where we can, help support and promote these brands, once they’ve achieved this goal.

All heart, no heads or tails… take a bow Scotland’s gin producers and brand owners.

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