After much anticipation, the Scottish Gin Award winners were announced at a glitzy ceremony in Glasgow last week and we were delighted and honoured to be presenting one of the main awards of the evening for ‘Scottish Gin of the Year’.
With hosts Des Clarke and Catriona Shearer, over 500 guests gathered to hear the winners announced in 15 categories.
The top award, ‘Scottish Gin Distillery of the Year’, was presented to Arbikie Distilling after their mission to create spirits “from field to bottle” was praised by the judging panel. The Arbroath-based farming family fought off seven other distilleries to win the award and they also collected the bronze medal position in the Cask Gin taste competition for their “Cask Aged Kirsty’s Gin.”
However, it was a new gin from Dundee which was the surprise star of the night. Verdant Dry Gin, which created its first batch in May of this year, fought off competition from 16 other contenders to win the gold medal in the London Dry category and went on to win the judges prize for the best gin in the competition sponsored by Geraldo’s. Owner and Managing Director, Toni, presented the award to a delighted Andrew Mackenzie and his wife Judy pictured below.
Other big winners were Edinburgh Gin who collected five medals and the Glasgow Distillery, makers of Makar Gin, who won two gold medals for Makar Old Tom and Makar Cask Aged Gin, Matured in Oak. Popular and established producers such as Caorunn and Eden Mill also won medals, while some smaller batch new arrivals in the market barged into gold medal positions after scoring very highly. NB Gin’s Navy Strength won gold for their super strength product while El-Gin from Elgin won gold for Distilled Gin of the Year.
Awards were also presented for business performance covering business growth, innovation and marketing with the popular Isle of Harris Distillery winning the highly sought-after Excellence in Branding award.
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners. It was the perfect night to celebrate innovation and excellence in gin distilling in Scotland and recognise the hard-work of the people behind their gins. We were thrilled to be part of it! Congratulations also to founder Stephen White of The Scottish Gin Society and KD Media for an excellent evening.
We can safely say that the GINdustry is booming!
