February continued to be a relatively quiet month for Scottish Gin news although there were a number of award wins announced during the month, with numerous Scottish Gin brands fairing well. It was encouraging to receive notice of the reopening of hospitality or see a glimpse of light at the end of this very long tunnel but for many, April and May could not feel further away. As always, we’re wishing our friends in hospitality the best of luck as they attempt to survive the next couple of months and plan for reopening.
New Scottish Gins
Sutors Gin Flora
This is the second gin release from the team at Sutors Gin, based near Tain in the Scottish Highlands. We know they’ve been working on this gin for close to a year and so the final recipe is the result of many months of hard work and development. An initial batch of just 180 has been released, featuring exclusively native botanicals including Violets, Elderflower, Sweet Cicely, Sweet Woodruff, Hawthorn and Gorse. Flora is a light, floral style gin crafted from a wheat spirit brewed and distilled at the distillery. The gin is described as beautifully smooth with subtle violet leading to elderflower and citrus, finishing with smooth menthol. Learn more about Sutors Gin here.
Scottish Gin News
Dunnet Bay Distillers secure local Castletown Mill
Claire and Martin Murray, co-founders at Dunnet Bay Distillers, makers of Rock Rose Gin, announced they had secured the local landmark that is Castletown Mill, which overlooks the beautiful bay of Dunnet, and not 5 miles from their distillery on the other side of the bay. The former mill, which dates back nearly 200 years, is quite dilapidated and in need of some serious TLC but the couple, who have kept a keen eye on the B-listed building for many years, are determined to bring it back to life and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for it. Congratulations to the whole team on this exciting new adventure. Learn more about Dunnet Bay Distillers here.
Awards
World Gin Awards 2021
Congratulations to all the Scottish Gins who picked up awards at the 2021 World Gin Awards. Covering a wide variety of gin styles and taste categories, it’s great to see Scottish Gin being recognised with a number of awards including World’s Best Classic Gin. In total our members picked up 25 awards. Well done all! We’ve listed the winning Scottish Gins below.
World’s Best Classic Gin
World & Country Winner Scotland – Gold – Tobermory Hebridean Mountain Gin
Silver – Tobermory Hebridean Gin
Bronze – Rule Gin
World’s Best Contemporary Style Gin
Country Winner Scotland – Gold – Kinrara Highland Dry
Silver – Cairngorm Gin
Bronze – Robertsons Gin
Bronze – Misty Isle
Bronze – 1670 Edinburgh Gin
World’s Best Flavoured Gin
Country Winner Scotland – Gold – Misty Isle Mulled Christmas Gin
Silver – Edinburgh Gin Rhubarb & Ginger
Bronze – Edinburgh Gin Gooseberry & Elderflower
Bronze – Inspirited Pink
Bronze – Edinburgh Gin Raspberry
Bronze – Misty Isle Pink Old Tom Gin
World’s Best London Dry Gin
Country Winner Scotland – Gold – Glaswegin
Gold – Isle of Harris Gin
Silver – King’s Hill Gin
Bronze – Edinburgh Gin Classic
Bronze – Misty Isle Cill Targhlain
Bronze – Darnley’s Spiced Gin
Bronze – Ben Lomond Gin
Bronze – Smugglers Gin
World’s Best Matured Gin
Silver – Goodwill Quercus Robur Cask Matured Gin
Bronze – Firkin Gin Côte Du Roussillion
World’s Best Navy Gin
Country Winner Scotland – Gold – Rock Rose Navy Strength Gin
Silver – Inspirited Navy Strength Spiced Gin
Bronze – Pentland Hills Navy Strength Gin
World’s Best Old Tom
Silver – Kirkjuvagr Gin Beyla Old Tom
World’s Best Signature Botanical
Bronze – Inspirited Bergamot Orange and Golden Kiwi
Gin Magazine Gin Hall of Fame
Hendrick’s Master Distiller Lesley Gracie was the sixth person to be inducted into the Gin Magazine’s Gin Hall of Fame, alongside esteemed industry names including distillers, writers and bar owners. Lesley Gracie has been involved with the Hendrick’s Gin story from the beginning after being asked by Charles Gordon, part of the William Grant & Sons family, to create a gin that would excite and break the mould of what gin could be.
Lesley has continued to play a vital role in the Hendrick’s Gin story through exploration and innovation, expanding the Hendrick’s Gin range of expressions, drawing influences from travels, botanicals, seasons and more.
Learn more about the award winners by visiting their respective pages in the Scottish Gins A-Z directory on our website here.
Small Batch Gin Producer – Scottish Enterprise Awards 2020
Well done to Jack and team at Cairngorm Gin Company, for picking up the small batch gin producer of the year at the annual Scottish Enterprise Awards. The award was presented by SME News and recognises a producer who “demonstrates expertise within the field, showing dedicated to client service and satisfaction, and commitment to excellence and quality.” Learn more about Cairngorm Gin here.
North East Scotland Food & Drink Awards 2020
North East Scotland (NES) Food & Drink celebrates excellent and innovation in the sector. Well done to The Teasmith Spirit Company for winning Best Distilled Product for their Broich Single Estate Gin and Lost Loch Spirits for winning Best Food & Drink Tourism Experience for their Spirits School. Learn more about The Teasmith Spirit Company here and Lost Loch Spirits here.
Small Business Britain’s f:Entrepreneur
Now in its fourth year, f:Entrepreneur was launched to highlight female role models and entrepreneurs across the UK. Their small Business Britain’s f:Entrepreneur #ialso100 campaign, which recognised achievements of women during the pandemic, named Carol Jackson, founder of Ellis Gin as one of two Scottish business owners. Carol was highlighted for her “drive, determination and dedication” during the pandemic, which included running virtual gin events and contributing 10% of money raised to NHS Charities Together. Learn more about Ellis Gin here.
Walpole’s Brands of Tomorrow 2021
Walpole, in association with Mishcon de Reya and moneycorp announced the next generation of luxury businesses selected as the Brands of Tomorrow Class 2021, which included Eight Lands Organic Spirits based at Glenrinnes Distillery in Speyside. Walpole is the industry body for the British luxury sector and their Brands of Tomorrow initiative is designed to nurture and guide Britain’s most innovative fledging luxury companies, and provide the skills and support needed to navigate the ongoing challenges of the global pandemic and beyond. Many that have participated previously have grown significantly and found international success so congratulations to the Eight Lands team. Learn more about Eight Lands here.
Yumbles Spirits Maker of the Year 2020
Yumbles is an online marketplace for artisan food and gifts from over 500 small batch makers. Congratulations to Deerness Distillery for winning Maker of the Year in their Spirits category, announced in February. Learn more about Deerness Distillery here.
The Gin Cooperative
We launched our online Scottish Gin shop in December 2020 and have continued to add to our ever growing range of Scottish Gins. Our focus will always be on educating gin drinkers and advocating the many qualities that make Scottish Gin such an exciting gin category to be discovered. Our online shop provides us with another platform for helping consumers learn and buy Scottish Gin and help us once again directly support our members and the Scottish Gin industry.
We’ve seen a number of established and new gin subscription services appear over the last three years, covering a variety of combinations of products, gifts and more. Having also spent the last three years getting to know Scotland’s gin makers and brand owners, learning about the challenges including business and commercial hurdles, challenges of building a brand in an ever growing marketplace, we felt there was an opportunity to create the kind of Scottish Gin subscription that could help both our Scottish Gin members and provide a great platform for connecting brands with consumers.
We feel in a very strong (and fortunate) position to curate a quality collection of Scottish Gins for our subscribers to enjoy. As well as selecting and sending craft Scottish gins and complementary Scottish mixers, we’re introducing the partnering gin brands in a high quality, educational way, with exclusive access to a digital guide, which includes an introduction to the gin and mixer brands, as well as tasting notes, serving suggestions and details of our exclusive subscriber-only online event. The online, exclusive meet-the-maker style events will provide an opportunity for the gin brand to present their story first hand and our subscribers can take part in a Q&A session. Alongside all of this, we’ll be providing subscribers with exclusive subscriber-only savings, offers and a variety of gifts.
We partnered with Raasay Distillery for February’s box, which not only provides our subscribers with a fantastic Scottish Gin, but an opportunity to learn more about a growing brand doing some wonderful things with spirits and in a beautiful part of Scotland. We’re delighted with the response so far and we feel this is a really special, unique and sociable way to share the story of Scottish Gin with a truly engaged audience and support our members. You can learn more about our subscription service here.
The Gin Cooperative Features February 2021
Here’s a look back at the editorial features we published in February 2021.
Scottish Gin News Round-Up January 2021 – read it here.
What makes Scottish Gin special? – read it here.
A Recipe for Gin, Misty Isle Cill Targhlain, Isle of Skye Distillers – read it here.
Scottish Gin Geography – read it here.
You can learn more about the many great Scottish Gins by visiting the links below.
