The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 Winners

Introducing The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 Winners

The finals scores for The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 have been submitted, calculated and verified revealing The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 winners. Now in its fourth year, the competition was once again extremely competitive and close, with many of the entries this year scoring very highly. We were proud to see a rich variety of regions and styles well represented again this year.

We also believe the winners this year reflect the direction of travel for Scottish Gin as the category here in Scotland and the wider gin and spirits industry faces a number of on-going challenges. As the Scottish Gin category continues to mature we’re seeing Scottish Gin brands carefully evaluate their Scottish Gin portfolio, tweaking recipe’s, investing in branding and packaging, developing Scottish Gin visitors experiences at their distilleries and more. The result is amazing tasting liquids and beautiful looking bottles, with both values reflected across our awards this year.

In each award category, with the exception of the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Gin Award’, there were Gold, Silver and Bronze awards and where applicable a ‘Highly Commended’ award for entries that showed exceptional qualities and came within a 3% margin of a bronze award.

The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 has issued 76 awards this year, up by 12 on last year, with a number of entries picking up multiple awards across different categories. Some of the scores were extremely close this year which is reflected in the number of ‘Highly Commended’ awards in some of the categories.

The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 Judging Panel

The Gin Cooperative Awards scoring criteria critically evaluates a range of elements covering gin neat, gin and tonic along with packaging and design. Every entry had a total of 72 individual scoring elements that were used to calculate the final score.

This year’s judging panel featured 72 judges: 24 industry judges, 24 consumer judges and 24 community judges, divided into 8 judging groups. Each group featured 3 industry judges, 3 consumer judges and 3 community judges, with each group allocated a variety of samples for review. Judges were also provided our in-depth judging guide covering every aspect of the judging process, scoring, judging best practice and more.

We bid farewell to several judges from the previous industry and community panels and welcomed several new replacements who all quickly got to grasps with the judging process. When people hear your going to be judging gin it normally invokes two very different responses. “I don’t like gin” or “Wow that’s amazing and must be a lot of fun.” The reality is judging gin or any spirit is hard work. It takes a lot of time, effort and a consistent approach, often whilst balancing work, family, life. The fun part is when you discover a gin you judged has won an award or a finding out the name of a gin you judged are really liked. Yes it can be fun and yes it is an amazing feeling when you try and sample and it really makes you sit up and pay attention in a good way. But it does take time and commitment. We are extremely thankful for the time, energy and support our judges put into the judging this year, so a big thank you once again for all your hard work. 

The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 Sponsors

Thank you to our 2025 award sponsors for their time and support this year. It’s a testament to our awards programme that we have a range of key supply chain sponsors involved with our awards – great businesses that play a crucial role in supporting and championing the Scottish Gin category and the broader drinks and spirits industry.

• Flexi-Hex; innovative packaging for shipping spirits – learn more here.
• Rankin Brothers & Sons; premium corks, capsules and closures – learn more here.
• Walter Gregor’s; premium Scottish tonic – learn more here.
• CRE-ATE – Website Design, Branding, Marketing, 3D Animation – learn more here.
• ScottishGin.com; Scottish Gin merchants – learn more here.

The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 Entries

Last but not least, thank you to all Scottish Gin business and brands who took the time to enter The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025. Scottish Gin and the wider gin category have and continue to face a wide range of challenges, perhaps more now than ever before. Our awards has and always will be about showcasing the Scottish Gin brands, producers and the amazing Scottish Gins available. We are very grateful to all the brilliant Scottish Gin brands and producers who took the time to enter the awards this year. Thank you.

Judges feedback will be provided to all entrants once the winners are announced later this month.

Congratulations to all the winners listed below and to all the finalists.

Scottish Gin of The Year Award 2025 Winners

Scottish Gin of The Year Award 2025 – sponsored by Flexi-Hex – innovative Packaging for Shipping Spirits.

Scottish Gin of The Year Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging, across all taste award categories.

Scottish Gin of the Year Award 2024 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Biggar Strength (The Biggar Gin Co.)
• Silver Award – Nose of The Fairy Hill Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Kirkjuvagr Arkh-Angell (The Orkney Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Floating Kirk Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Great Glen Premium Scottish Gin (Great Glen Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – King’s Hill Sea Buckthorn & Kelp (King’s Hill)
• Highly Commended Award – Misty Isle Classically Aromatic Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Nostalgin (Isle of Cumbrae Distillery)

Scottish Gin and Tonic Award 2025 Winners

Scottish Gin and Tonic Award 2025 – sponsored by Walter Gregor’s – premium Scottish tonic.

Scottish Gin and Tonic Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the three highest scores for taste as a gin and tonic, across all taste award categories.

Scottish Gin and Tonic Award 2024 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Biggar Strength (The Biggar Gin Co.)
• Silver Award – Nostalgin (Isle of Cumbrae Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Nose of The Fairy Hill Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – 1984 Gin by Lussa (Lussa Drinks Company)
• Highly Commended Award – Badachro 57° Storm Strength Gin (Badachro Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Badachro Coastal Gin (Badachro Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – CorraLinn Handcrafted Scottish Raspberry Gin (Lanark Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Misty Isle Classically Aromatic Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Persie Labrador Gin (Persie Distillery)

Scottish Gin Packaging Award 2025 Winners

Scottish Gin Packaging Award 2025 – sponsored by Rankin Brothers & Sons – premium corks, capsules and closures.

Scottish Gin Packaging Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for bottle and packaging design, and shelf appeal.

Scottish Gin Packaging Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Isle of Harris Gin Tidal Strength (Isle of Harris Distillers)
• Silver Award – Kirkjuvagr Aurora (The Orkney Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Aatta (Orkney Gin Company)
• Highly Commended Award – King’s Hill Sea Buckthorn & Kelp (King’s Hill)
• Highly Commended Award – Kirkjuvagr Arkh-Angell (The Orkney Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Kirkjuvagr Origin (The Orkney Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Misty Isle Classically Aromatic Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)

New Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

New Scottish Gin Award 2025 – sponsored by CRE-ATE – Website Design, Branding, Marketing, 3D Animation.

New Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging, released in the last 12 months.

New Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Isle of Harris Gin Tidal Strength (Isle of Harris Distillers)
• Silver Award – 1984 Gin by Lussa (Lussa Drinks Company)
• Bronze Award – Shipyard Gin Hale Moku (Shipyard Gin)
• Highly Commended Award – Gargowan No.35 Gin (Isle of Cumbrae Distillery)

Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winner

Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Gin Award 2025 – sponsored by The Gin Cooperative – The global resource for all things Scottish Gin.

Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Gin Award is awarded to a brand, business or individual who has had a positive and tangible impact on the Scottish Gin category. The winner of this award is selected by The Gin Cooperative.

Outstanding Contribution to Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winner is:

Lesley Gracie, Master Distiller, Hendrick’s Gin

Lesley Gracie, Hendrick’s Master Distiller, said: “Being from Hull, I’m very happy to be recognised as contributing to my adopted country of Scotland and Scottish Gin. I’m glad my northern roots didn’t disqualify me. I moved here many years ago to join Grant’s and am very thankful for the trust and freedom I’ve been given. Firstly, to create the Hendrick’s Gin recipe and make sure every batch is the same as the last – I still get a kick out of seeing someone pick up a bottle off the shelf wherever I am in the world and think, “I made that.” I have the creative freedom to play around with different flavour combinations here at the Gin Palace. Sometimes it feels like all I do is play. That’s all liquid development is and I love it. I’m grateful.”

Nora Torpey, Hendrick’s Global Brand Managing Director, comments: “Lesley truly is a rare character and it’s wonderful to see her honoured in this way. Lesley really put Scottish Gin on the map; her technical brilliance and creative flair provides us with an exceptional liquid and engaging craft story that has captivated the world. Lesley is experimental by nature and is always thinking ‘what if…’ which has opened our minds to new possibilities and kept us at the forefront of sensory innovation for over 25 years. Lesley is also a huge amount of fun, quick witted, and much loved. We are very fortunate to have her.”

Hendrick’s Gin has been part of our own story since 2005, when we were introduced to the now-iconic bottle by a bartender friend who demanded we try it on a night out. Not only did it look like nothing else on the back bar when we ordered two gin and tonics and they were served with cucumber, the whole package from bottle to serve demanded your attention. The aromas and flavours took our senses on a journey, and for us, just getting into gin as our spirit of choice, it was unlike anything else we had seen or tried. It was love at first sip. The fact that it was made in Scotland just added an extra layer of feeling connected.

Fast forward to 2014, enjoying the holiday of a lifetime at a rooftop bar at the Hudson Hotel in New York, we discovered a bottle of Hendrick’s behind the bar. There was something special about being in a bar on the other side of the world from Scotland and seeing a bottle of Hendrick’s Gin. We chatted with the barman and a few of the locals and told them how amazing it was to see a Scottish Gin behind the bar. That holiday involved visiting many great cocktail bars, and everyone had a bottle of Hendrick’s Gin. It planted the seed that one day we would start a business that would showcase and promote Scottish Gin.

It is immeasurable the impact Hendrick’s Gin has had on not only the world of Scottish Gin, gin and wider spirits industry and it’s all thanks to one distiller who was tasked by her boss, friend and mentor Charlie Gordon, the great-great-grandson of William Grant to “Create a gin unlike any other — something peculiar, distinctive, and built around rose and cucumber.” It would also involve commissioning two stills, a 1860 Bennett and a 1948 Carter-Head, that Charlie had secured at an auction in London in the 1960s and had sat in a warehouse awaiting their call to action. This was in the late 1990s, and although the Hendrick’s Gin brand is now known around the world, Lesley’s has continued her exploratory journey through the world of botanicals and plants to create Scottish Gins and spirits that take the drinker on a voyage of the senses.

Lesley and Hendrick’s Gin and the subsequent Hendrick’s Gin expressions showcase that a gin can pay respectful homage to its roots, firmly being from Scotland, but Scottish Gin can also forge its own path, tell a story, invite and open the door to a world of flavours, aromas, imagination, making the liquid in your glass, more than just a spirit.

A big thank you to the teams at Hendrick’s Gin and William Grant and Sons for helping us co-ordinate our award presentation to Lesley at the Hendrick’s Gin Palace in Girvan and managing to keep the award a total surprise.

We also extend our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Lesley for her warm hospitality and hosting us. From the private tour of the distillery, the one on one Hendrick’s Gin tasting tutorial, talking all things Hendrick’s Gin, Scottish Gin, gin, absinthe, distillation, botanicals, dogs, guinea pigs, terroir, petrichor, rainforests… for us as a business and personally, it was a once in a lifetime experience, amazing from the first ring of the door bell seeing Lesley’s face appear from behind a very large wooden door and being introduced to Pepino, we knew we were somewhere unlike any other distillery we had visited in Scotland, with a very special host. Thank you.

Seasonal Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

New for 2025, the Seasonal Scottish Gin Award. The Seasonal Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three seasonal themed Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

Seasonal Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Misty Isle Mulled Spice Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Silver Award – Stirling Winter Gin (Stirling Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Tyree Spiced Gin (Isle of Tyree Distillery)

London Dry Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

London Dry Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three London Dry Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

London Dry Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Nose of The Fairy Hill Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Silver Award – King’s Hill Sea Buckthorn & Kelp (King’s Hill)
• Bronze Award – Floating Kirk Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Great Glen Premium Scottish Gin (Great Glen Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Isle of Harris Gin Tidal Strength (Isle of Harris Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Shetland Reel Filska – Shetland Reel (Saxa Vord Distillery)

Distilled Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

Distilled Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three Distilled Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

Distilled Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Misty Isle Classically Aromatic Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Silver Award – Nostalgin (Isle of Cumbrae Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Gargowan No.35 Gin (Isle of Cumbrae Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Foghouse Small Batch Gin (Foghouse Spirits)
• Highly Commended Award – LoneWolf Original Juniper Gin (Brewdog Distilling)
• Highly Commended Award – Stirling Winter Gin (Stirling Distillery)

Old Tom Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

Old Tom Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three Old Tom Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

Old Tom Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Biggar Old Tom Gin (The Biggar Gin Co.)
• Silver Award – K-ola (Orkney Gin Company)
• Bronze Award – Rock Rose Pink Grapefruit Old Tom (Dunnet Bay Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Kirkjuvagr Beyla (The Orkney Distillery)

Navy Strength Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

Navy Strength Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three Navy Strength Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

Navy Strength Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Biggar Strength (The Biggar Gin Co.)
• Silver Award – Kirkjuvagr Arkh-Angell (The Orkney Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Badachro 57° Storm Strength Gin (Badachro Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Rock Rose Navy Strength Gin (Dunnet Bay Distillers)

Flavoured Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners

Flavoured Scottish Gin Award is awarded to the three Flavoured Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging.

Flavoured Scottish Gin Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Misty Isle Mulled Spice Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Silver Award – Shipyard Gin Hale Moku (Shipyard Gin)
• Bronze Award – Great Glen Premium Scottish Pink Gin (Great Glen Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Coorie Gin (The Wee Farm Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Hebridean Pink Gin (Isle of Tyree Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Persie Herby & Aromatic Gin (Persie Distillery)

Industry Judges Award 2025 Winners

Industry Judges Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging, scored by the Industry Judging panel.

Industry Judges Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Coorie Gin (The Wee Farm Distillery)
• Silver Award – Great Glen Premium Scottish Gin (Great Glen Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Kirkjuvagr Aurora (The Orkney Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Badachro 57° Storm Strength Gin (Badachro Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Biggar Strength (The Biggar Gin Co.)
• Highly Commended Award – Floating Kirk Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – LoneWolf Original Juniper Gin (Brewdog Distilling)

Community Judges Award 2025 Winners

Community Judges Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging, scored by the Community Judging panel.

Community Judges Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – Nose of The Fairy Hill Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Silver Award – Lussa Gin (Lussa Drinks Company
• Bronze Award – Misty Isle Classically Aromatic Gin (Isle of Skye Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Biggar Strength (The Biggar Gin Co.)

Consumer Judges Award 2025 Winners

Consumer Judges Award 2025 – sponsored by ScottishGin.com, our sister company, The specialist online Scottish Gin shop.

Consumer Judges Award is awarded to the three Scottish Gins with the highest combined scores for taste neat, taste as a gin and tonic, and packaging, scored by the Consumer Judging panel.

Consumer Judges Award 2025 Winners are:

• Gold Award – 1984 Gin by Lussa (Lussa Drinks Company)
• Silver Award – Kirkjuvagr Arkh-Angell (The Orkney Distillery)
• Bronze Award – Floating Kirk Small Batch Scottish Gin (The Strontian Distillery)
• Highly Commended Award – Battle Strength Stirling Gin
• Highly Commended Award – King’s Hill Sea Buckthorn & Kelp (King’s Hill)
• Highly Commended Award – Rock Rose Navy Strength Gin (Dunnet Bay Distillers)
• Highly Commended Award – Shetland Reel Filska – Shetland Reel (Saxa Vord Distillery)

Judges Feedback

We will provide all entrants with the judges feedback about your Scottish Gin entries this year in due course.

Thank You

To all the brilliant Scottish Gin brands and producers who took the time to enter the awards this year, thank you. To our amazing judges for their hard work, time, energy and support with this year’s judging, thank you. To all our super sponsors from across the Scottish Gin and wider food, drinks and spirits supply chain who have supported this year’s awards, thank you.

Congratulations

Congratulations once again to all The Gin Cooperative Awards 2025 winners and finalists, see you next year.

The Gin Cooperative Awards Sponsorship Opportunties

Sponsorship package’s are available for The Gin Cooperative Awards, contact us today to learn more about how your business and brand can be involved. Email: martin@thegincooperative.com