Scots are raising their glasses – and it’s not with whisky

Scots are swapping their whisky for gin, according to sales figures from a supermarket.

Sales data from Aldi has revealed that gin is Scotland’s tipple of choice, outselling Scotch whisky in stores north of the border by nearly 38%.

Aldi tracked its in-store sales to reveal the nation’s favourite drinks, discovering that gin is Scotland’s top-selling spirit with 9300 bottles sold each day, followed by vodka (7460 bottles a day), Scotch whisky (6700 bottles a day), and rum (4780 bottles a day).

Elsewhere in the UK, Scotch whisky continues to outsell other spirits proving to be the tipple of choice for shoppers in the north west of England and the Midlands.

Gin is Aldi’s top-selling spirit

Graham Nicolson, group buying director for Aldi in Scotland, said: ‘Our latest sales data has shown a resurgence in the popularity of gin, with more than 9300 bottles sold in Aldi every day across Scotland.

‘We’ve invested heavily in our range of gins from Scotland and recently held our first in-store Scottish Gin Festival to give even more distilleries the chance to showcase their products to our shoppers.

‘The popularity of gin shows no signs of slowing down, with a “ginaissance” well and truly underway. In spite of this, whisky remains a firm favourite and rightly so, with customers consistently enjoying our award-winning range of Scotch.’

Aldi cemented its reputation as market leaders with significant award wins this year, including being awarded Supermarket Own Brand Spirits Range of the Year and scooping 20 product medals at the International Spirits Challenge 2017.

As well as this, Aldi was named Quality Drink Awards Retailer of the Year 2017 at this year’s Quality Drink Awards, winning 22 product medals in the competition, and was also awarded Spirits Buying Team of the Year at the International Wine & Spirits Challenge 2017.