ProWein Dusseldorf March 2018 TIME SENSITIVE
Too small/too late to exhibit atProWein? Not necessarily.
The International Wine And Spirits
Competition (IWSC), are offering to show
gins from Gin Guild members (amongother products – mainly English
Sparkling wines and a couple of vodkas)on their IWSC Stand at ProWein
Dusseldorf (March 18-20 2018.
https://www.prowein.com
ProWein is the world’s leading trade fair
for wine and spirits, the largest industry
meeting for professionals from viticulture,
production, trade and gastronomy and its
three days of concentrated business andancillary programme justify the claim that
ProWein is the No. 1 meeting place forthe industry.
This is a great low cost option for thosewishing to put a toe in the water and has
potential for you to also arrange to meetpotential customers by appointment onsite at this key trade show, with yourproduct available on-site to taste.

If you wish to attend yourself, you willneed to book tickets to attend as soon as
possible (and will need to prove tradestatus which can take a little while toprocess).
Hotels are in high demand, but the event
I am told also has the option ofaccommodation on moored cruise ships
nearby.
There is very high demand for flights tothe city in that period (you may need tofly to Cologne and transfer to Dusseldorfby train).
The IWSC offer is as follows : First comefirst served. Stock is required to IWSC by01 March. Please book direct with Dimple
Athavia, the IWSC Tasting Manager – via
Dimple.Athavia@IWSC.net +44 (0) 1483548 963), before sending samples,:• IWSC are offering this opportunity toanyone who may not have a stand at
Prowein but would like to have apresence at Dusseldorf.
• If you are interested, IWSC would need
2-3 samples of the products you would
like to enter and the entry fee (£99 perproduct) plus any printed productmaterials you may wish to send, and atasting and background note for theIWSC team.
• You will need to check the position on
local taxes on the product as theseusually apply. If relevant tax payment
in advance may be required.
IWSC already have several Guild member
brands lined up. IWSC advise that they
will have a stand dedicated to Gin.

• The IWSC stands
are manned withmembers of IWSC
staff talking about
the products.

Gin is becoming the biggest selling spirit
in the UK

The Gin Industry Annual Dinner atGuildhall London 08 May 2018

Gin is becoming the biggest sellingspirit in the UK, with the UK
consuming the equivalent of 1.12
billion G&Ts in 2016, and with gin
sales predicted to overtake whisky.

Full details have already been circulated
to all members. If you need another copyof the details contact Nicholas Cook.
Bookings this year are on-line only.

The BBC reported that data from theresearch company Euromonitor foundblended Scotch whisky sales in the UKreached £1.28bn last year while salesof gin hit £1.07bn.
However, by 2020 sales of blended
Scotch are expected to drop to£1.17bn, with gin sales set to climb to£1.37bn.
The growth in the sector has been attributed to the increasing
number of micro-distilleries, innovation and experimentation
with botanicals and solid growth in the product across age
ranges.

Please visit
www.theginguild.com/GIAD2018 to bookand pay for attendance. The booking page is only accessible
through direct insertion of the above in your search bar.

Ginposium at the RSA London 07 May 2018
TIME SENSITIVE
Full details and on-line booking at www.ginposium.com Guild
member priority booking period expires on 1 March 2018. Book
now to secure a place. We sold out last year, so if you plan toattend, it is best to book before March. Do tell colleagues andothers in the industry. The footage from last year’s event willappear now in the open area of the guild website.

The Gin Guild is the trading name of The Gin Guild Limited
VAT Number: 155 1522 31 Company Number: 08148932
Registered Office: 1 The Sanctuary Westminster Abbey Parliament Square London SW1P 3JTMembers
NewsletterP r o m o t i n g E X C E L L E N C E I N G I N D I S T I L L AT I O NIssue 14
March 2018

New Years Honours 2018

Nigel John Mills C.B.E.

Desmond George Arthur
Payne M.B.E.

For services to entrepreneurship in theNorth East and Cumbria, including hisco founding of The Lakes Distillery(where he is Chairman), and his work
as chairman of the EntrepreneursForum.

Distiller, Beefeater London Dry Gin.
For services to the British Gin Industry.

HRH The Princess Royal opens Chatham’s Copper Rivet Distillery
On Friday 1st December, HRH The Princess Royal officiallyopened Gin Guild Copper Rivet Distillery, in Chatham’sHistoric Dockyard. The three founders, Gin Guild Warden
Rectifier member Bob Russell and his sons Matthew andStephen welcomed her to their beautiful distillery before
introducing her to the team.
Copper Rivet Distillery is one of only very few distilleries tocontrol the whole distillation process from grain to glass. Inaddition, it has agreements with local farmers on theneighboring Isle of Sheppey to grow their ‘Holy Trinity’ ofwheat, barley and rye allowing them to them control every
aspect of the flavour of their spirits.
Copper Rivet Distillery opened its doors in October 2016. Itsaward-winning Dockyard gin had the honour of launching
HMS Medway, the first ship ever to be launched with gin.

Media & Enquiries

EU Gin Regulations

We have had a busy time with responses andcommunication with the media, including acouple for the BBC (online magazine and radio)
and Channel 4. We have also produced andcontributed to a number of articles, including
several for travel companies wanting gin
distillery tour information, as well as the usual
trade magazines. Much interest in the last few
months from several areas of the media,
including Grocer magazine, about compounded‘hand-crafted gin’, jumping on the distilled product bandwagon
and the disingenuous (yet legal) marketing and often inflated
pricing, demonstrating the need to educate consumers.

As advised in the last edition, HMG staff
attended EU meetings on this issue at theend of 2017.

We also regularly receive tour requests, which we try to place,including one for 75 guests from a French bank wanting a UK gin
distillery tour. The stress of Brexit is clearly driving them to drink.
Possibly, given the similar Brexit stress for many in the UK, thisexplains the huge UK growth in distilleries and gin? As a merchantbanker once advised: “Always go into a recession with a new car
and a full wine cellar”. Gin now appears to be the latter substitute!
Our social media profile has continued to attract visitors, helpedby fresh news and articles and features on the website and by
December’s daily twitter Gin Advent Calendar coverage.

The view of responding Guild members
was that the key issue was the need tocontinue to include all elements of the required alcohol
provision in the definition, rather than leaving that to asecondary definition elsewhere. The view was that many will
only refer to the one clause and that needs to be clear andinclusive.
Although not on the EU agenda, several members raised (and wepassed that on), whether there needs to be a clarification in thedescriptors used to describe gin made through the cold
compounding process to ensure and clarify in the minds ofconsumers what exactly they are purchasing and that they buy
on a like for like informed basis. Consumers unknowing of thedifference are often paying prices for compounded gin at a levelcharged by small craft distillers for their distilled products. We
also passed on (but again for background, not for EU work at thistime), that we were told that fruit and highly flavoured gins, andsome wooded/aged/cask rested gins are also an issue for sometrading standards officers, with consequential varying standards
and interpretation of the ‘predominant Juniper' rule.

Gin Magazine
Riding the wave, issue two of theParagraph Publishing magazine (it does
what it says in its name), saw Charles
Maxwell dragged, kicking and screaming,
into their Hall of Fame as an Icon of Gin.
Given the success of gin we can only hopethat he will not be alone in there for longand that other worthy members of theindustry will join him in years to come.
The award was made at the magazines
first Gin Awards Dinner held at the HAC
in London, with awards being awarded ina number of categories from gin to designand marketing, to retailers etc. Awardees
were from around the World includingSouth America, the USA and Sweden.

Other Guild winners at theis event included Caorunn, Hendrick’s
Leslie Gracie, Haymans, Edinburgh Gin, Martin Miller’s and Bombay
Sapphires Laverstoke Mill and more. May 2018 Guild inductees who
also won include McQueen and, from the USA, Jos Magnus & Co
(host of last years US Gin Summit in Washington DC).

Sweden, now the producer of a growing
number of excellent gins, deserves
particular mention due to theextraordinary success of the Master
Distiller at Herno, Jon Hillgren, who once
again impressed the judges and walked
off with a number of awards including
World’s Best Old Tom and Worlds BestGin. Guild member Master of Malt andAtom, led by Ben Ellefsen, no stranger
themselves to the awards podium, wereagain also a multiple award winner.

The Craghoppers Film Prize 2018

Future Trade show participation

Craghoppers the outdoor clothing
brand working with Discover.Film
seek to reward short filmmakers
from around the world, recognising
filmmakers of all experiences,including students.

Following the Guild provided joint stand at the Berlin conferencein 2016, which successfully enabled many in that experience tomove onto hosting their own stands in 2017, some members
enquired as to whether we could do the same for Düsseldorf.
Unfortunately interest was too late to secure availability.

The Discover Film Awards - April &October London UK 2018. They arelooking for a gin brand to support(in place of champagne). Are there
any gins with an ‘outdoor’ image
that might want to consider thisopportunity?
https://www.craghoppers.com/filmprize/London Wine Fair
21-13 MayTIME SENSITIVE

LWF have at Guild
request and suggestion
agreed to provide a 15%
discount for UK Guild members wishing to exhibit at the show inthe spirits element of Drinks Britannia. This will apply to all
three of the options for exhibiting that LWF offer.
Members should book directly with LWF.
Contact Sales: Jamie Hough j.hough@londonwinefair.com
or Event Director: Hannah Tovey h.tovey@londonwinefair.com

Any members interested in a joint/sharedstand at, for example,
Bar Convent Berlin in
October 2018, ProWinein 2019, or potentially Bar Convent in New
York in 2019, should let the Director Generalknow in order that timely enquiry can bemade as to availability and cost.

Coaching tips
Earlier this year we were approached by Blueprint travel media,
who advised that they were to produce a travel title for grouptravel guide for the British drinks trade – to include distilleries.
Our on-line interactive gin distillery mapping was key to this, as
was our provision of content to the company. The title waslaunched in November and Gin has key
coverage. Hopefully those featured andlisted will reap the benefits.

Distributors
One of the more frequent member requests that we receive is for
distributors for gin that are not already holding a full gin
catalogue. If you know of a distributor, UK or international, thatwould like to extend their gin range, to include UK and/orinternational products, please let the DG know.

Hat Trick
The drinks industry came together in November for theInternational Wine & Spirit Competition’s Annual Awards
Banquet at Guildhall. With over 400 gin entries from 35 different
countries, this year’s IWSC awards proved the gin bubble has yetto burst, with submitted entries containing weird and wonderfulbotanicals, from ants, to seaweed and clotted cream.
The Gin Guild sponsors three of the gin-based trophies at theIWSC international competition. Interestingly the number ofcategories expands year-on-year as the category and varieties
diversify and have style extensions. Extraordinarily, and bear inmind that the taste tests are double blind tastings, one brandwon all three of the sponsored trophies. An extraordinary
performance by one of the Guild’s members Atom Brands, whohave this year also extended, with some very interesting
variations their own gin range through the Boutique-y GinCompany.

ATOMThe Gin Guild sponsored trophy for London Dry Gin went toAtom Brands for a collaboration between Boutiquey Gin andmulti-award-winning Hernö Gin, for Swedish Rose Gin
The Gin Guild sponsored trophy for Contemporary Gin went toAtom Brands for Bathtub Gin Navy Strength, whilst the Guildsponsored UK Gin Producer of the Year trophy was also secured
by Atom Brands. The International Gin Producer of the Year
trophy went to Hernö. As Herno were sharing a table with Atom
this was starting to creak under the sheer weight of their
combined trophy wins. Many congratulations for such anexceptional achievement.

London Dry

And finally Thank you to those who have supported the Guild and its
events to date. We look forward to your continuing support. Please let us
have ideas for future newsletters (and the website), such as development of
new products, or the trials and tribulations of a new start up or any otheritems gin related that may be of interest to members.
Email articles of not more than 100 words, with a picture where available tonicholas.cook@theginguild.com