High Profile Award For Two ‘Outstanding’ Yorkshire-Made Gins

Late in the day on 30th July came the news that two gins produced in our region had won the prestigious GOLD – OUTSTANDING in the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) 2019. York Gin’s Old Tom gin and Mason’s Tea Edition were given the award just before Yorkshire Day and represent a growing trend in Yorkshire’s drinks industry towards high quality, characterful products.

The IWSP has been recognising excellence in quality wines and spirits since 1969. It currently judges products from over 90 countries. This year, it judged only 8 gins GOLD – OUTSTANDING. Mason’s Tea Edition and York Old Tom were the only two English gins to be so awarded. Mason’s tweeted last night “It’s truly incredible to get such great feedback from critics and to see that our Tea edition is still affirm favourite among our customers.”

I called into York Gin’s city centre shop this afternoon to meet head distiller Harry Cooke and find out more about the award and the gin that won it. “It makes us doubly proud,” he said, “and is very special just before Yorkshire Day.” He told me the Old Tom gin was a natural development of their product line. They focus on classic English gins - dry and smooth. Once they had the classic gin, a fruity (but still dry) Roman Fruits gin and the navy strength ‘Outlaw’ gin, the Old Tom seemed the natural next step. Old Tom is an older style than the London Dry we all know. It’s sweeter and more complex in flavour, and the cat connection fits perfectly with York Gin’s brand mascot, Rutterkin.

In order to get the flavour right, York Gin turned to Michelin-starred chef Andrew Pern, who was already a great supporter of the distillery at his nearby Star Inn the City. Andrew and his team took them to see his garden and kitchen at Harome. There, he and his team created a flavouring syrup for the gin: bronze fennel, star anise, angelica, pink peppercorns and – of course – white rose. Everyone notices something different in the gin. That’s down to the expert balance, Harry tells me: “The team there are so skilled at understanding flavours.” Getting the alcoholic strength right was a matter of having blind tastings with staff and friends. Oh, to be a member of staff at such an enterprise!

Harry told me with justifiable pride that York Gin employs around 20 people in the city. They’re a small distiller, producing gin in small batches with top quality ingredients. Each gin is hand bottled and hand labelled. Such care and attention doesn’t come cheap, but their approach certainly doesn’t result in challenging products for rarefied tastes. Harry describes the gins they produce as “something we’d want to drink at home.” They aim to make their gins smooth enough to drink neat, and a brief guided tasting in the shop certainly bears that out, even the navy strength. I could certainly imagine drinking it with just ice and a slice of lime.

The directors of the distillery love to get out and meet their drinkers face-to-face. The Old Tom gin was launched at this year’s Junipalooza festival, a weekend celebration of all things Gin in London. There, they were able to meet customers and fellow-distillers alike. Harry told me it was good to get positive feedback from others in the industry. It certainly seems a supportive industry. Since Mason’s had their disastrous fire earlier in the year, they have been inundated with offers of help. There’s certainly no rivalry between Yorkshire’s two GOLD – OUTSTANDING winners: the York Gin shop will be selling both award-winning gins for Yorkshire Day, with a special, celebration discount. “Considering they year they’ve had,” Harry said in congratulations to Mason’s, “it’s amazing to see they’re still producing outstanding quality gins in Yorkshire.”

I’ll add my “cheers” to that!