The Gin Guild continues to grow
Twenty-four industry experts werewelcomed as new members of The Gin
Guild at the Installation that preceded
the WCD Banquet in October, bringing
total membership to over 100.
The Guild currently has members fromthe UK, Spain, France, Italy, USA, Russia
and Japan. We have current enquiries andapplications from the UK, USA, Germany,
Holland, Ireland and Sweden and haveseveral already booked on the list for the
Guild Spring 2015 installation.
New members took their solemn oath on
joining, before each received theirsterling silver badge, in the form of a
sprig of juniper, to signify theirmembership. Members then attended The
Worshipful Company of Distillers Annual

Banquet in the famous Egyptian Room at
Mansion House.

Gin Guild Inaugural Life Time
Achievement Award

A small selection of photographs areshown in this newsletter. More are shownon the Members only section of thewebsite. Other images are also available
from the Distiller’s own photographer, atwww.stevenmorris.com

The event also saw The Gin Guild’s firstever Life Time Achievement Award, for
dedication to the production andpromotion of the highest-quality gin,presented to Charles Maxwell. Charles’
family has been distilling since the1680’s, and his knowledge and experienceis highly respected around the world.
Charles is a great ambassador of gin and,having started his distilling life in his
family company, continues to distil
numerous gins at his company, ThamesDistillers.

Details of the members joining at the
installation are set out in the members
only area of the website.
The talent and expertise added to our
Guild is growing and the level of new
entrants this year is testament to that. We
hope they look forward to being part of
the Guild, which represents the best of the
trade, with entry strictly for those who
uphold the Guild’s values of excellence.

Charles Maxwell (on right) recieves The Gin
Guild’s first Life Time Achievement Award
presented by David Raines (Master of the WCD)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 3JT

Members
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 5
November 2014

Future Dates
14 May 2015
The Worshipful Company of Distillers willagain be extending an invitation (free ofcharge), to Guild members and theirguests, to its 2015 Annual City Spirits
Debate. This debate, on a spirit-based
topic, brings together city players
analysts, industry representatives,bankers and discerning consumers,
amongst others, to consider views on a
motion and to vote for the winner.
Libations are of course provided. The dateis 14 May 2015, in London. The topic will
be a whisky based one. Further details
will be provided nearer the time.

are limited. Members will be given
priority in allocation, however prompt
booking, once details are circulated, iscritical. Some members have a charming
and laid back view of booking
requirements – but, for these events,
delay may mean they will not get a place.
A brochure, for guest use andexplanation, will be available nearer thedate.

16th October 201513-14 June 2015
This is the date set for Gin Foundry’s
Junipalooza 2015.

28th May 2015
The next Gin Guild event, the Gin
Industry Annual Dinner, will take place inMayfair, London, on 28th May 2015.
Please note that numbers for this event

For details and tickets see:www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/junipalooza2015-tickets-12617656751 Gin Foundry

Gin Guild website – Gin brands
Please check the brand sectionof the Guild website to ensurethat your brand entry is correct
and up to date.
Please note the members only
area on the site. This includes
film clips that are useful for
staff training and reference andmember access to the IWSR ginreport summary and discountoffer referred to in thisnewsletter.

will be releasing a pack to brands as wellas updating consumer information withmore specific information about what toexpect for the 2015 version. They are also
looking into options for the smaller
brands as they have been asked a few
times about similar groupings and will betalking to the Guild to see of we if canplay a role in that regard.

The next Mansion
House event is on
Friday 16th October
2015. A brochure,for guest use andexplanation, is available for this event, in
hard copy and as a PDF.
Please add both the above events to yourdiaries and also think ahead as to any
industry guests you may wish to invite.

just-drinks/IWSR Global Gin Insights
Reportjust-drinks/IWSR earlier this year published the first version ofwhat it described as vital Global Gin (category) Insights, in an easy
to use package, summarising market conditions, providing asnapshot visual view of future category growth hotspots, summary
consumer drivers, product innovation insights and a review ofrecent brand performance across the world. just-drinks/IWSR has
provided a taster of that report to the Guild. The taster report canbe accessed in the Gin Guild members only area of the website.
just-drinks/IWSR are offering a 15% discount to our members on
the cost of acquiring the full report (usually £900).

Access to the members only area is by using the email address
you have supplied to the Guild. The password – input without
spaces - is “juniper”, followed by your initials and then your rollnumber (the number on the bottom of your Membershipcertificate). If you have any problems with access, please email
nicholas.cook@theginguild.com
Please let us have news and event information for the website
and our twitter and Facebook page (@theginguild).

Gin in London – ancient customs
A report arrives of an unusual custom at livery dinners held at
The Clothworkers Company. Guests are asked 'do you dine with
Alderman or Lady Cooper?' Apparently Alderman Cooper died ata dinner in 1664, when, after a fit, he was dosed with brandy byhis hosts. The next day his wife reprimanded the Company's
Clerk saying that, had the Alderman been given his customary
Holland’s gin, he would haverecovered. The widow then gavemoney to provide gin at dinners,
as an alternative to brandy. As aresult at dinners guests areoffered a choice between gin(Lady Cooper) and brandy(Alderman Cooper).

Speaker volunteers
The Guild is again running the Gin Series talks at WSET in
Bermondsey on the evenings of 24 February and 3rd March. The
audience is usually drawn from those in the industry studying
the WSET Spirits exams and also keen gin consumers. If you arenear London and would like to join a panel of volunteers to speak
on one of the short topics that we will cover (well within yourindividual comfort zone), or indeed may be persuaded to speak atother Guild open events (such as the Ginposium), please let us
know as soon as possible.

“The 1495 recipe is notjust the first chapter inthe rich history of gin.
This historic Grapedistillate-based recipe ispart of the very foundationof the category.

By taking this recipe
apart and refreshing it forour era, we will learn somuch more about the longand circuitous journey thespirit has taken throughthe centuries.”
Jean-Sébastien Robicquet

Bids can only be made to the Gin Guild
via the dedicated email address:
1495GINBID@gmail.com.
The 1495 gin recipe was unearthed inan out-of-print, Dutch language, historyof Jenever. The original came from thecook book of a wealthy merchant inEast Netherlands. Today the recipe canbe found in the Sloane Manuscripts
compiled by British physician andcollector Sir Hans Sloane. After his
death in 1753 he bequeathed hiscollection to the nation, providing thefoundation of the British Museum.
These manuscripts are now in thearchives of The British Library.

Emails should contain your bid, insterling, your name and contact
telephone number. The highest bidder
received by 1st December 2014 (subject
to a minimum reserve), will becontacted by us. In the event of bidder
default, or failure to purchase, we willrevert to the next highest bidder, etc.

Place your bids

Above: Philip Duff with the original 1495
manuscript
Below: Jean-Sébastien Robicquet (Président
Directeur Général of EWG)

Gin Guild member EWG
Spirits & Wine, producers
of grape distillate based
G’Vine Gin de France, havere-created this fascinating
piece of history. You are
offered the chance to own
a Limited Edition GIN 1495
set, consisting of the recreated 1495 original recipe and themodern interpretation. EWG havegenerously provided one set for us toauction in aid of The Benevolent, thedrinks industry charity. Full details canbe found on the Gin Guild Facebook
page @theginguild. Check twitter,@theginguild, for bid updates.

www.theginguild.com
Facebook & Twitter @theginguild

Bombay Sapphire’s new home

Visit England/Visit Gin Distilleries
The Bombay new visitor facility, along with distilleries andvisitor experiences at Beefeater, Sipsmith, City of London,
Jensen's, Bramley & Gage, Alcohols Limited, 45 West Distillers,Union Distillers, Warner Edwards, Plymouth Gin, Adnams , The
Cotswolds Distillery and Hayman Distillers, were all detailed in
Guild discussions with Visit England, who have added them totheir tourist information. Thank you to all of the members listed
who promptly responded to the short notice enquiry that the
Guild circulated on that issue in the summer. If others havedeveloped visitor experiences, please let us know and we canpass that information on to Visit England.
Photo: Jamie Stevenson

The new home of Bombay Sapphire and its family of gins is agorgeous setting in rural Hampshire. It is a stunningtransformation of an historic mill which, until the early 1900’s,
was used to produce paper for banknotes across the British
Empire.
This derelict property, discovered by John Burke of Bacardi, hasbeen lovingly and painstakingly renovated and developed under
the careful eye of English Heritage. It is well worth a visit.
The old industrial buildings that house the stills (whichthemselves are a range of old and new) are complemented not
only by the little river of the Test, which has been opened up andmade into a feature bisecting the site, but by two stunning
glasshouses designed by Heatherwick studio.
The glasshouses, juxtapose huge modern trumpet shaped metaland glass shells with the red brick building of a stillroom. They
feature and illustrate key botanicals used in the gin production.
There is a tropical glasshouse and a Mediterranean glass house.
They are heated by excess heat from the stills.
An opening party on 17th September saw gin writers, bar tenders
and others in the trade from all over the world join Bacardi toenjoy their special Laverstoke cocktail, as well as numerous othercocktails and gin and tonic serves, provided from several bars onsite (including one in what was a former vault for banknote paper).
Bombay, having the luxury of designing the site with a visitor
element in mind from the start, have developed an interactive
map with touch microchip facility at key locations with audio
and visual information enabling a self guided tour.

From the top: Sipsmith distillery in Chiswick, Jensen’s distillery
Bermondsey, Warner Edwards distillery in Northamptonshire and
The Cotswolds Distillery in Stourton, Warwickshire.
The DG has visited the stills of all of the above.

Seeking writers and topics and press
releasesIf you have a gin related topic that you would like to share withthe membership and beyond, please note that we are looking fordiscussion and thought provoking material on gin, serves, trends
etc. We want to build a panel of topics, writers and materials(subject to editorial review and approval by the Guild board), to
feed to trade and consumer press under the banner of the Guild.
We hope by maximizing the knowledge, and skills of Guild
members that we can regularly supply materials to the media andso can ensure on-going impact (with acknowledgements tocontributors), as well as lodging the features on the Guildwebsite as a long term resource for journalists seeking the latest
gin news or interesting trends and issues.
So be it suggestions for topics or draft articles on aged gin,multiple botanicals, esoteric or local botanicals, unusual serves,
production methodology, cocktails, alcohol base spirit preferred,or comments on the topical craft/artisan/scale of production
debate, or indeed any other topic of gin related interest (but ofcourse avoiding just being an overtly brand led work), please
send them in for review.
Please also add the Guild to your press release circulation so that
we can see what you are all up to, as again this is useful for topic
generation.

Royal Festival Hall 17 July 2014
The Gin Guild joined as co-speakers with Caskstrength, in theMembers Bar at Royal Festival Hall (Southbank Centre), in July,to present a gin appreciation event for consumers. The speakers
were Neil Ridley, Joel Harrison and Nicholas Cook. Attendees
discovered how the aroma and taste of juniper influences theflavour of the gin, both on the nose and on the palate andlearned how the thirst for gin has developed internationally overthe past decade, from the Philippines to Spain. Attendees
sampled a selection of gins and were able to ‘blend’ distilled
botanicals to try to ‘create’ their own gin. Neil and Joel have justpublished their new book “Distilled” (published by Octopus),which has a good chapter on gin.

World Gin Day 14 June 2014
The Guild prepared a press release format, after
discussion with our PR agency, which covered an
approach for member distilleries in London (in aform accessible for London and national media),
and a variant approach for regional distilleries.
We also suggested non distillery owning brands
ensure that they too use a variant of the press release for theirown consumption, as part of their WGD coverage/efforts, as thisincluded reference to the renaissance of gin and to the Guild andmight provide an additional impact, authority and weight. All ofthese were to be timed (along with a press release, with photos,
from the Ginposium), timed to be with media sufficiently aheadof time to get the best chance of coverage. We will see if this canbe adapted or improved for future years.
If members have ideas for this event for 2015, and suggestions as
to how the Guild can generally promote the category for the day,please let us know.

Fever Tree Pop Up June 2014
The DG attended the Fever tree pop up bar in Hoxton. This was a
6 week long version of its one evening event at Chelsea in 2013.
A very popular facility, it focused media and consumer attention
on gin and serves. Over 160 gins on offer – with a variety (allFever tree of course) of tonics. Knowledgeable Fever tree staff
were in attendance and it was a well presented event. There werealso first outings for Tanqueray's Old Tom and Simon Ford's
Ford's Gin. It was an excellent example of aconsumer targeted gin category promotion,
and attracted well-deserved wide coverage.

Craft Distillers Corner - two minds are better than one
As mentioned in the last newsletter, a number of Craft Distillers
have said how they love the general networking between
members but would love to be able to have an even more frankexchange of views, information and brain-picking within theirpeer group. Many are at a similar stage of growth, many are notso distant from their own start up that they remember their own
experiences and many of course are more geographically
restricted than bigger distillers. If there are members who would
be willing to share their own experiences with members (all ofwhom of course have already proved their gin credentials as partof the membership criteria), and be willing to help by pointing
members with specific queries in the right direction, or who havea problem or query and would conversely welcome theopportunity to “ask a friend”, please make yourself known to
Nicholas Cook, who will try to broker interplay between relevant
parties (preserving anonymity if wished). This could form afuture Q&A section of the web site members area if found to beof use.
Many of you have also said that you are receiving a number ofenquiries from people “wanting to set up a distillery” andwanting the inside track without doing much researchthemselves and lazily seeking to piggy-back on your hard work.
We hope to put a short guide to the subject on the website toprovide members with an escape, by simply enabling you to refersuch enquiries to the site.

IWSC/WCD Spirits and liqueurs tasting

Martin Miller’s 17-19 August 2014

23 July 2014.

The DG attended a press tour to Iceland
to see the source of the special water thatis used in Martin Miller’s. The tour
included an introduction to the history of
the gin and commentary on the water andits special qualities and effect. Attendees,in the spirit of research, also tried locallymade soft drinks and beers to ensure they
had a full understanding of the effect of
the water on Icelandic drinks and were as
impressed by these lesser beverages as
they were with the effect on the gin.
Miller’s provided a tour of the bottlingplant, a visit to the water source andthrew in a visit to the steaming thermalareas and a cross-country lava fieldcrossing by jeep. Over 300 earthquakes
were recorded over the duration of thetour, as one of the countries ever present
volcanoes prepared to spring into action.

We circulated Guild members with details of this event, as the
Master of our parent company, the Worshipful Company ofDistillers (WCD), invited Guild members and their guests toattend. The sell-out event brought together some of the world’s
top spirits with many of the winners of the IWSC spirit
competition. It provided an opportunity to sample andappreciate a wide range of top spirits. This is the WCD’s seventh
year of hosting this splendid tasting. There were up to 200
different spirits on offer. Look out for the 2015 date for thispopular event.
The IWSC used the occasion to announce the Medal Winners,
including the two Guild sponsored Gin Awards. The London Dry
gin award was won by See-Gin Bodensee Dry Gin, from
Steinhauser GmbHaward, Germany. The Contemporary gin award
was won by Big Gin Barrel Aged, from Captive Distilling Seattle
in the USA.
The Guild (as in 2013), ran a gin bar to precede/supplement the
tasting.

The Cotswolds Distillery 22 July 2014
The Cotswolds Distillery opened in
Stourton, Warwickshire. The DG wasinvited to join press and media at the
opening in July. This is a new build
project, with a first phase investment of
4 million pounds. Daniel Szor, thefounder (and new Guild member), is
working with a number of distillers: Alex
Davies, a Heriot Watt graduate withexperience at Chase, along with Shaun
Smith, consultant Master Distiller Harry
Cockburn and Expert on Ageing, Jim
Swan. Stills are 2,400, 1,600, and 500
litres. Gin sales commenced in September
2014 and the gin has just won a 5* review
from Difford’s Guide. The distillery aims
to create quality whisky, gin and liqueurs
with artisan provenance, and to pioneer
the production of quality spirits from the
Cotswolds.

Smith & Harris of Hatton Garden
Members proudly
wear their Gin Guildsterling silver“juniper sprig”. They
may be interested toknow that our Hatton Garden
silversmiths were also responsible for thedesign of the bronze Gin Guild Lifetime
Award. The start of that story was a pencil
sketch. The basic shape was turned from apiece of wood. The inscription was drawn
up and cut into the wood. 25 grams ofjuniper berries were then added to the‘recipe’, providing the rather nice ‘hidden’reference to juniper on the underside of
the award.

The juniper sprig was modeled in wax
onto the wood, a mould was then taken of
the entire piece, and a wax version made.
By the ‘lost wax process’, the wax pattern
was 'invested' into plaster, burnt out, thenreplaced by molten bronze, and thepattern became bronze.
The bronze was filed up, sprues (thefeeder channels) were removed. The
inscription and decoration were then overchased with small steel chisels.
The whole was then patinated with
noxious chemicals to find a colour close
to juniper berries, before a final polishand waxing.

Craft Distillers Expo
London 7-8 October 2014
The Guild had a limited presence at the
Expo due to Mansion House date conflict.
We co-presented a ‘meet the makers’
session, taking along a number of member
gins as selected by the expo organisers.

Heals
Heals store in London, as part of London
Design Week, held some parties in-store.
At very short notice Heals asked if a brandwould like to support their event. The
Guild offered various brands to thecompany and they chose some they would
possibly like to work with and, having
approached some brands, G’Vine stepped
in to help.

Spirits Summit
21 October 2014
Congratulations to the Morning
Advertiser for organising the Spirits
Summit. A very entertaining andinformative line up and a very busy day.
Much mention of gin of course and theneed to make sure that bars etc. offer achoice of gin to customers and that they
serve it with pride and with a quality
serve. If they do, the statistics show
increased sales and more loyal customers.
Well done to Diageo as main sponsor andto their BarAcademy - a programme fortraining bar staff. A well presented
Tanqueray was enjoyed!

Fake Gin
A consumer raised a query with the Guild
having purchased a bottle of ‘branded’ gin(of a discontinued name) in Northern
Cyprus. Having checked the brand after
purchase he discovered it was
discontinued, so wondered if it was
genuine or not. We raised the enquiry withthe manufacturer of the genuine brandand it became clear that the bottle was a
fake, as there was at least one error on
the label. On-trade substitution was oneof the topics discussed at the Ginposium,counterfeit gin, especially given press
coverage of a recent fatal case in the far
east, with the additional potential for
reputational damage, despite being
blameless, is obviously also of concern. If
members would like this as a future Guildseminar topic, please let us know.

Gin news summary
Please see the Members only area of thewebsite for a snapshot of reported gin
news (June to October). If members havegin news and or events and wish to sharethese with other members, or would likethem featured in the open area of thewebsite, for consumers to see, please let
the Guild know.

Questionnaire/Member
comment
We are planning our activities for 2015. If
members have ideas or thoughts on how
they would like the Guild to help theindustry (and them), to promote gin, suchas seminars, or social ideas, or sharedproduct launches or articles, for the tradeor consumer press, or consumer events,that they would like to provide jointlywith the Guild, please let us know.

Guild future plans
Other than the two set piece dinners in
May and October, we are hoping toarrange the following:
A further Gin Series in February/March
2015 in London in association with
WSET, aimed at spirit students and thevery keen consumer. If any members
within easy reach of London would liketo volunteer for a panel from which we
can secure our speakers, please let us
know as soon as possible.
The first of what we hope will be a rollout programme of Bartender training
with a simple/basic bar staff training,
focusing on new/young staff) toensure that gin was offered, served andpresented to its best advantage. This
will it is proposed comprise a numberof elements:- Gin history and styles- Key brands and the additional
interest in small/craft/local brands- A basic but correct G&T serve- Advanced serve (including
matching with tonics andgarnishes)- Classic gin cocktails and gin
production
The intention is that this would bebar-based and that the Guild would
partner with experienced bar operators
to produce training.
Expanded activities to boost direct
Consumer interest and consumer
education.
- The Guild will seek to be a sponsorof opinion formers and secure
articles/materials etc. forpublication for press, influencers
and targeted groups. Potential
authors and views for this element
would be welcomed from members.
- Attendance proposed at some key
consumer food type events, as aseries of trials, with a Guild ‘Gin
Palace’, providing a shared base for
And finallyThank 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 anda number of volunteer brands topool resource and to showcase theirgins and to talk about theirproduction etc.
Bogart to Bond and Beyond - “ThePerfect Martini” - ‘Shaken but notslurred’ (for London Cocktail Week2015), is the current working title andconcept. This is likely to be a small
event aimed at the press and bar
tenders in a central London venue(given that Cocktail Week again
clashes with our annual Mansion
House event). Members interested inparticipating/supporting with their
Gin Ambassadors should contact the
Guild so that the event can beformulated. Please note that the latest
Bond film is due out in November
2015, so the timing would be
fortuitous.
A Members tour of one of the larger
gin distilleries, with added detail andelements not seen by the public,
hopefully with an informal industry
networking meal element as well.
Ginposium 2015 – possibly at a more
technical level than 2014 and for atargeted audience of distillers.
Members are invited to suggest
content requests or alternative target
audience and topics and to offer
themselves for consideration andselection as speakers please. Possible
topics could include:- Botanical sourcing, storage anduniformity and their effect- Finance, conventional andalternative finance/crowd funding
etc. workshop – a very topicalsubject and of interest to new startups.
- Craft distillers – a possible talk by
still manufacturers and recent
purchasers of stills as to the pro’s
and con’s of respective
manufacturers.
tribulations of a new start up or any other items
gin related that may be of interest to members.
Email articles of not more than 100 words, witha picture where available tonicholas.cook@theginguild.com