Finally; a quiet month. As you all know, the last few months have been pretty crazy. And for all we know the next few months might be crazy too. But August, for me at least, was pretty quiet. And thank goodness for that. I was able to enjoy the family holiday we booked back in February despite everything and, for better or worse, even Instagram refused to work in Portugal giving me a proper break from my blogger duties! That did mean a little more work to pull this together of course but I think it was worth it…

Booze News

Since acquiring Gin Foundry last month, spirits distributor Enotria & Coe has been further boosted by a £6million investment from private equity house Blue Gem Capital, which is backed by Glendower Capital. In an effort to strengthen Enotria’s direct-to-consumer operations, Gin Foundry’s Gin Kiosk has increased their offering to include whisky, rum, tequila, mezcal and more, and – consequently – rebranded as the Spirits Kiosk. Part of the new look also includes impressively transparent information regarding where, how and by whom listed spirits are made.

This month also saw the release of the IWSC Spirits Awards 2020 results including incredibly impressive Gold Outstanding Medals for Withers Gin, Wessex Distillery’s Wyvern Gin and Helford River Distillery’s new Monterey Gin. You can check out all the gin results here.

New Gin Alerts

Three new releases have stood out for me this month; Australia’s Four Pillars Olive Leaf Gin which features three types of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil alongside olive leaf; the fifth in Salcombe Gin’s limited-edition Voyager Series “Restless” – produced in collaboration with world-renowned Michelin starred chef Niall Keating and featuring blood orange kombucha; and Bullards Coastal Gin made using hand-foraged sea purslane, marsh samphire, sea aster and Douglas fir.

My Month in Gin

August was, amazingly and thankfully, dominated not by virtual experiences but by actual, real experiences. Having booked a family trip to the Azores (Portugal) back in February, we held little hope we would go on holiday and, when we did leave the country, we left in the full expectation of having to quarantine on our return. Incredibly, that requirement was dropped while we were overseas leaving us to just really enjoy being somewhere else for a couple of weeks.

I’ll be honest; I didn’t go out of my way to do anything gin-related at all (god knows even a blogger needs a day or ten off!) but I did happen to come across a wonderful watering hole (Pico’s stunning Cella Bar) and some heavenly juniper groves on my travels so it’s only fair I share them with you right?!

Welcome to My Collection

A dear friend bought me a bottle of Silver Fox Gin after tasting it at an event she was attending recently and I can’t wait to try it with Double Dutch Tonic Water as per her instructions (thank you Lucy!). I’ve also been delighted to be gifted Scotland’s Red Door Gin, Foxhole’s new Hyke Signature Series Orange, Martin Miller’s Summerful Gin featuring rosemary and arctic thyme, and Massingberd-Mundy’s new duo too! Now I’m back in the country (and the kids are – hopefully – going back to school) you should be seeing a bit more of them all on my social media channels soon.

In addition to all that, I’ve added a new very old book to my little library (courtesy of my mother-in-law), a stunning Sipsmith gin pin to my pin collection (courtesy of eBay!) and a beautiful smoking dragon Negroni glass to my cabinet (courtesy of The Gower Gin Company). Last, but not least, I received some free cucumber seeds from Hendrick’s Gin which might just, hopefully, appreciate all this wet weather we’ve been having.

Catching Up and Looking Forward

I’ve been saying for a while I want to start writing again and so I have. If you haven’t already seen my review of Sky Wave Liberation Gin or Gwyr Dragon Strength Gin then make sure you catch up now. As for September, it looks like it might be busy… Sadly, but sensibly, Junipalooza 2020 has been cancelled but there’s still Negroni Week to look forward to, as well as a couple of launches… Want to know what they are? Well, I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep an eye on my social media channels and read next month’s Gin Monthly! 🍸🛎🛎