November has been mostly about judging for me but I’ve also received some lovely additions to my collection, and there are some nice new gins for the festive season too, so do read on.

Booze News

The industry welcomed, with relief, the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Autumn Statement decision to freeze alcohol duty until August 2024. However, coming off the back of the biggest alcohol tax hike in nearly 50 years in August this year – and following the multiple challenges of Brexit, Covid, and the cost-of-living crisis – times are still undoubtedly very challenging for producers and many continue to campaign for more support for the industry and fairer taxation on spirits.

New Gin Alerts

As you’d expect at this time of year, there are some tempting seasonal releases out there including Papillon’s Cask Aged Sloe Gin, Orkney Gin Company’s Christmas Old Tom and Portobello Road’s Mince Pie & Sloeberry Gin. If festive spirits aren’t really your thing Portobello Road have also just released their Director’s Cut No. 5 Five Juniper Gin featuring juniper from the UK, US, Macedonia, Italy and Albania and in greater quantity than in their classic London Dry. If you really want to push the boat out though, why not check out Cambridge Distillery’s Americas Herbarium? Part one in their Darwin Collection, this gin features juniper, cinnamon leaf, barberry, wild strawberry and baccharis magellanica (a ground-hugging evergreen shrub) to represent the South American leg of Charles Darwin’s historic voyage aboard HMS Beagle, and comes in at a hefty £195!

My Month in Gin

November kicked off with a lovely day of judging for the second Gin Masters with Emma “Gin Monkey” Stokes and Allison “Gin Squares” Strydom at East London’s TT Liquor. With a nice selection of samples on our table, and some outstanding spirits up for the Taste Master award, I can’t wait to see all the results soon.

I also spent three days in Norwich with the World Gin Awards, working my way through in excess of 100 gins, across 7 different categories, from all around the world including Argentina, South Africa, China, Korea and Vietnam. It was, at times, challenging – and pretty tiring too – but I was with a great panel and we still managed to have a whole lot of fun! Keep your eyes peeled for the first round of results early next year and good luck to everyone who entered. 

Welcome to My Collection

Please welcome to my collection Salcombe’s Four Seas (a collaboration to celebrate the RNLI’s 200th anniversary), Melifera’s new Edizione Corsa, and the complete collection of James Gin (including Asian Parsnip and English Mustard!) as imagined by James May and created by Downton Distillery. Thank you also to the lovely and generous Dima for his Ukrainian Vodka and cocktail book, and also El Rayo Tequila for a bottle of their limited edition collaboration with artist Alejandra Garcia y Gutierrez.

I also can’t wait to try the limited edition range of Mr Lyan x Whitebox cocktails including a Stonewashed Cosmo and Bulletproof Espresso Martini. And thanks to Belu for the selection of their tonics and mixers, to Artisan Drinks for their new Tailor Made Lemonade, and to Jettywave Distillery for their fabulous pins inspired by my very own collection!

Catching Up and Looking Forward

There’s not a lot to catch up on at the moment but do keep an eye out for my December Drinksbiz column (especially if you’re intrigued by all things agave), and enjoy the countdown to Christmas with Negroni Club’s Negronivent on Instagram. I hope you have a wonderful festive season and I’ll see you on the other side!🍸🛎🛎