It’s been a long old month and I haven’t even been attempting Dry January (although I have been enjoying a little of Lyre’s non-alcoholic Coffee Originale, which I discovered at the Spirits Masters Low & No Masters 2022)! If you’ve stayed sober, hats off to you. Meanwhile, I’ve been quietly busy with lots of writing and a little bit of judging. To find out more, read on…

Booze News

While my favourite headline of the month has to be “Hamsters handle their booze better than elephants” – and I was interested to learn that Eden Mill has sold a majority stake in the company to investor Inverleith – if you really want to understand the category you simply have to read Olivier Ward’s insightful article What happened to gin last year? on Spirits Beacon.

New Gin Alerts

I’m intrigued by Beefeater’s new Zesty Lemon Gin and Hernö’s Slow Sloe Gin, but sadly neither of those look like they will be hitting UK shores anytime soon (if at all). What you can get your hands on is Bathtub’s Grapefruit & Rosemary Gin – a result of their crowdsourcing flavour campaign on Instagram last summer – and Adnams’ brilliantly named Smidgin; a 50% ABV gin packed with 10 times the normal botanicals, meaning a small 2.5ml serve still packs a punch of flavour without all the booze. I also love the look of The Highland Liquor Company’s Isle Martin Gin, created only with botanicals foraged from the community owned island, including juniper, burdock root, angelica root, bog myrtle, cypress and lemon balm.

My Month in Gin

I’ve spent most of this month writing (you can catch up with everything I’ve written here) but I took a well-deserved break to judge the World Gin Awards 2022 Finals. Congratulations to all the Round 1 Country Winners and good luck to the finalists in each category, the winners of which will be announced on 24th February 2022.

Welcome to My Collection

Thank you to France’s Gin d’Azur for this sample of their beautiful Mediterranean Gin, and also to WL Distillery for their rather early and very unexpected Valentine’s gift!

Catching Up and Looking Forward

If you’ve not already had a read, why not check out my look at the French gin scene for Club Oenologique, and my deep dive into the sustainability of spirits’ packaging for Spirits Beacon? And I’m just putting the finishing touches to my Top Ten Gins of 2021, so keep an eye out for that too! 🍸🛎🛎