Scottish Gin News

Our end of month round-up captures some of the exciting news from the wonderful world of Scottish Gin. From new Scottish Gin expressions to distillery openings and more. If you’ve got a story you’d like us to consider for inclusion in next month’s Scottish Gin News Round-up then email hello@thegincooperative.com.

As we sit writing our final Scottish Gin news round-up for 2020, we’re both glad to see the back of 2020 having made it through the year relatively unscathed but also optimistic and hopeful that 2021 will be the year the world starts to slowly recover.

Throughout the year we’ve continued to grow our membership and renewals and we’ve worked tirelessly to showcase Scottish Gin with online digital interviews and campaigns, including our Support Scottish Gin campaign, editorial content and more.

We’ve seen, heard and felt the challenges our members have experienced and faced. Large gin orders going unpaid leaving gin makers out of pocket. Traditional routes to market closed. Export plans, many over 12 months in the planning scrapped. Product launches delayed. The challenges Scotland’s gin makers have faced for the most part have gone untold, with many having to adapt, at times, what felt like on a day by day basis.

It’s testament to Scotland’s gin makers and brand owners as people that all the Scottish Gin makers we work with have made it through 2020. What the future holds with Brexit and Covid is yet to be written but we’re hopeful, focused and excited to see the reputation of Scottish Gin continue to grow in recognition as being a premium spirit made in Scotland with love, care and passion. 

As we look at new ways of supporting our members in 2021 and new opportunities to showcase Scottish Gin and our members, thanks to everyone who’s visited our website, shared our content and generally engaged with us throughout 2020.

We ended 2020 with the launch of our new online shop, with a focus on education and inspiring the customer to discover Scottish Gin. With nearly all original images taken by us along with in-depth detail behind all the products we stock, our shop provides a wealth of information to help consumers purchase the Scottish Gins that are right for them. Tasting notes and flavour profiles, production information including distillery and location, flavour and gin style categories and more. Simple to navigate and with over 120 Scottish Gins, our shop is a fantastic place to start a journey into the wonderful world of Scottish Gin. And with the inclusion of Apple Pay and Google Pay along with a number of other check-out options, buying Scottish Gin has never been easier. We’re very excited to see our stock continue to grow and provide an additional way to support our members and the Scottish Gin industry. 

Christmassy things…

A Very Merry Christmas on Tiree

We absolutely loved this festive story of gin generosity from Tyree Gin. The owners and distillers at the Tiree Whisky Company announced they were giving away a free miniature bottle of Tyree Gin or Pink Hebridean Gin to every islander on their native Tiree over the age of 18. The duo behind the business and distillery wanted to spread some festive cheer after what has been a difficult year for almost everyone. Islanders over the age of 18 among Tiree’s population of 650 simply applied online and collected their sample from the island’s general store Buth a’ Bhaile just in time for Christmas!

Learn more about Tyree Gin here.

Inshriach Christmas Video 

Filmed on location at the Inshriach Distillery in Aviemore, the team worked with Kirk Watson at Perfect View Productions to create an impressive video, which is a worthy and fitting tribute to the Inshriach Estate, distillery and gin. It’s very tongue-in-cheek and the talented Mr Micklewait aka estate owner, distiller (and now TV producer!) has really captured the essence of place and production behind Inshriach Gin. Watch it here.

Learn more about Inshriach here.

Glaswegin Christmas TV Advert

Congratulations to the team at Glaswegin on their first TV advert, which was aired on STV during early December. Fittingly, it’s a black and white production and speaks to the city of Glasgow as a place of invention and innovation, the birthplace of and inspiration for Glaswegin. Watch it here.

Learn more about Glaswegin here.

Christmas Advents

There were some fabulous Christmas advents running over Christmas. Kintyre Gin, Lost Loch Spirits and BrewDog to name a few; with some inspiring cocktails, competitions and countdowns, helping us get into the Christmas spirit. Darnley’s Gin are still running a wonderful competition on their website giving one lucky person a two day trip to the East Coast of Fife including a Darnley’s Gin Cottage Gin School experience, check it out here.

Special Christmas Edition Gins

1881 Distillery’s Spiced Orange & Cranberry Gin

A very small batch of this festive gin was made but there are a few bottles left. Described as a warm blend of cranberry and orange zest with a slight spice, likened to winter desserts, mulled wine, and of course natural spring water from the Peeblesshire hills. Recommended served is with a light tonic water alongside a Cinnamon stick or slice of orange. Although it works well without the tonic, drunk neat over ice for a warm fireside tipple.

Learn more about 1881 Distillery here.

City of Aberdeen Distillery’s Mince Pie Gin

This limited edition gin is still available in a variety of sizes and proved to be a great stocking filler and gift as the distillery struggled to keep up with demand. The gin is packed with warm and fruity seasonal spices and is lightly sweetened, reminiscent of the famous festive treat.

Learn more about City of Aberdeen Distillery here.

Kirkjuvagr’s GATA – The spirit of the Ba’

The annual Kirkwall Ba’ involves the Uppies and the Doonies or “up the gates” and “doon the gates” from the gata (path or road), who play a “traditional” football game on the streets of Orkney on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We learned all about it when we visited the fiercely proud Orcadian owner of Orkney Distilling in 2019. We highly recommend learning more about this tradition by watching some videos on YouTube. Unfortunately the games couldn’t go ahead this year for obvious reasons so the distillery has marked this unprecedented year in the Ba’s history with a symbolic gesture by filling a ruby port cask with Kirkjuvagr Gin on Christmas Day and then a bourbon cask on New Year’s Day. The GATA gins will be aged for one year before a first special limited edition bottling of the series, marking the return of the Ba’ in 2021. At this stage, reservations are available to locals only and are proving very popular so we’ll have to wait and see if there are any left for the rest of us…

Learn more about Orkney Distilling here.

Scottish Gin News

Birthdays

Lind & Lime Gin

Lind & Lime celebrated their second birthday recently and what an amazing two years it’s been for the Port of Leith Distillery. In their recent round-up of 2020, despite the turbulence of a global pandemic, the team confirmed they tripled production and sales on 2019, made good progress on their vertical distillery construction, secured farmland close to Edinburgh to sew their first crop in 2021, released a new Port, grew the team, secured new investment and hinted at an exclusive crowd funding opportunity in 2021. Big kudos to the growing team!

Learn more about Lind & Lime Gin here.

City of Aberdeen Distillery

Congratulations to City of Aberdeen Distillery who celebrated their first birthday in December. We can’t quite believe it’s been a whole year since their opening when we were lucky enough to take part in one of their first gins schools in December 2019. It proved to be a very different kind of year for the distillery than planned, but that didn’t stop them being extremely busy. In their recent round-up of 25 achievements in 2020, we were honoured to feature at No.3 with City of Aberdeen Distillery representing Aberdeen City in our Scottish Gin Map collaboration with the Sunday Times for World Gin Day back in June. And congratulations to the distillery for their work with The Seafield Arms Hotel in Cullen for designing their bespoke custom boutique Pomona Gin for Christmas.

Learn more about City of Aberdeen Distillery here.

The Wee Farm Distillery’s Gin Retreat

We’ve been following the progress of The Wee Farm Distillery’s Gin Retreat closely since owner distiller Jenny told us about some of the long term plans for her farm and distillery back in 2018. And wow is it coming along nicely! Jenny, along with her husband and young family, is a first generation farmer, having bought and transformed a small farm over the last few years in Climpy, South Lanarkshire. Not only has Jenny created a very special distillery with recently upgraded distillery equipment following steady growth of her brand and products, but she’s created a fruit orchard for her popular fruit liqueurs, she’s raising a young family, managing livestock and she’s just about ready to open their recently renovated Distiller’s Cottage, which is a beautiful, genuine farm-based gin retreat where friends can experience a craft Scottish Gin distillery first hand, sample some gins and retire to the cosy farm cottage, outdoor hot tub included!

Learn more about The Wee Farm Distillery here.

The Gin Cooperative Features December 2020

Here’s a look back at the editorial features we published in December 2020.

Scottish Gin News Round-Up November – read it here.

Meet the Distiller, Keith Cruickshank, Red Door Gin – read it here.

International Scottish Gin Day Highlights – read it here.