Double success in London for Scottish gin distillery

A Scots distillery is celebrating after winning two awards at the London Spirits Competition.

Isle of Skye Distillers’ Misty Isle Gin won a coveted Gold award, while the distillery’s Tommy’s Gin took home a Silver award.

The London Spirits Competition looks to recognise, reward and help promote spirit brands that identify with, and target specific spirits drinkers.

In contrast to other spirits competitions where distilling ability and technical expertise sometimes receive primary consideration at the expense of drinkability, the goal of the London Spirits Competition was to award and celebrate the spirits that spirits drinkers actually want to buy, whether at a retail store or when ordering from a menu.

Spirits were judged by a panel of industry experts with commercial buying responsibility on the basis of three primary criteria – quality, value and packaging.

Entries were then scored on a 100-point scale; spirits which scored more than 90 points were awarded Gold medals, while spirits which scored between 76 and 89 points were awarded Silver medals.

Alistair Wilson, managing director at Isle of Skye Distillers, said:
‘We are absolutely delighted to take home not only one, but two prestigious awards from the London Spirits Competition.

‘For Misty Isle Gin to be awarded Gold by this competition is just amazing, and we’re thrilled that Tommy’s Gin has been awarded Silver, too – all while the brand is less than six months old.

‘Performing so highly in a competition like this helps to show we’re on the right track, producing gins which have such a wide appeal.’

Sid Patel, CEO of London Spirits Competition event organiser Beverage Trade Network, added: ‘At all the other major competitions, spirits are judged solely on the quality of what’s in the bottle.

‘We wanted to take a different approach, by asking our judges to look at spirits the way spirits drinkers do, adding appearance and value for money into the mix.’

Isle of Skye Distillers was founded in 2016 by brothers Alistair and Thomas Wilson. An independent, family-owned distillery, Isle of Skye Distillers is the first, and currently the only, producer of gin on the island.