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New craft
whisky distillers cash in on Gin boom by
anchoring their business with Gin
revenues.
 The demand for the new generation of not
so traditional versions of Gin is
booming and this booming demand has been
a gift for Scotch whisky makers,
including some new smaller craft
distilleries that have anchored their
business with gin revenues while waiting
for their Scotch to mature.
Demand is booming for some strange brews
of Gin such as Gin produced using
seaweed, rhubarb, Christmas pudding and
believe it or not even ants - all
ingredients used by a new generation of
gin makers enjoying a booming British
market.
Gin can be produced in about a week
whereas Scotch whisky takes a minimum of
three years, but in practice most Scotch
Whisky matures for much longer, anything
from five to thirty years and sometimes
longer. The equipment needed to make Gin
and Whisky, alcohol stills, is the same.
Scotland which is famous for producing
whisky, also makes about seventy percent
of the gin consumed in the UK, and
produces its three leading brands.
"It's essentially the same thing. You
track whisky back and its root is
basically gin," said Tony Reeman-Clark,
who set up his Strathearn distillery in
Perthshire in 2013 with about 250,000
pounds in financial backing via friends,
family and a loan.
While waiting for his whisky, Reeman-Clark
has made, among others, an after-dinner
gin to be sipped neat, matured with the
stave of a whisky barrel in it for
flavour.
There has been a surge in small artisan
distilleries in the UK, and of 250 of
them almost 100 have opened in the last
two years.
"It's well known, there is always a
market for gin and you could see it was
starting to change because people were
bored with the big-boy gins,"Reeman-Clark
said.
The amount of gin being drunk in bars
grew 14 percent by volume and 19 percent
by value in the year to October 2016,
according to the wine and spirits trade
association.
But whisky sales in the UK are still
worth more than twice those of gin. The
overall British spirits market is
growing at 3 to 4 percent annually,
ahead of overall economic growth of
about 2 percent.
Last month the Strathearn distillery sealed
their first 100 bottles of whisky which
were three years and a day old. The first
half litre of it sold in an online
auction for £4,150 to a collector of
special whiskies.
Other producers such as the Harris
Distillery in the Hebrides, at the
north-western tip of Britain, and the
Cotswold Distillery in the heart of
rural England, are doing essentially the
same thing, producing quality gins which
are distinctive while they wait for
their whisky to come of age.
Brands like Gordon's are still popular
but are certainly losing share to these
new craft distilleries, the question is
how long the newcomers can last
producing gin and just how much whisky
are they producing to mature to be sold
in years to come.
You will find a great range of craft
Gins such as
Strathearn Gin available from
most of the online specialist whisky
shops including
Master of Malt
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