SOLWAY Spirits in Annan are raising a glass after being awarded not one, but two separate awards for their house gins.
The distillery and shop received a gold award for their Cortes Gin at this year’s Scottish Gin Field Challenge, as well as two stars for their popular Ginsignia at the UK-wide Guild of Fine Foods Awards.
Commenting on the latter award, distiller at Solway Spirits, Andrew Emmerson, said: “I was really amazed at winning that in all honesty, because there’s only one, two, or three stars. There was 12,700 products in that competition and only 800 products got any stars at all.
“We entered them back in January, but with Covid everything got knocked back – to tell you the truth I’d actually forgotten about them.”
Despite being excited to receive the recognition for their boutique gins, Andrew admitted that staff had not yet had a chance to celebrate due to how busy the shop has been.
Throughout the pandemic, the distillery continued business online and used their equipment to produce their own hand sanitiser to give to frontline workers for free.
And as the festive season looms, preparations are underway to prepare gin hampers and ensure the shop is adhering to ongoing restrictions. Looking to this particularly busy time of year for the business, Andrew said: “I don’t like to be negative but you just don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s very very uncertain but fingers crossed, I’m looking on the positive side and I think it could be very busy.”
