The prestigious award is given to businesses that earn consistently great reviews on Tripadvisor from guests who visit them. Travellers' Choice award-winners are among the top 10% of listings on Tripadvisor and the award is given to the places that consistently demonstrate a commitment to hospitality excellence. The winners are determined based on the quality and quantity of reviews and ratings posted on the Tripadvisor website over the previous 12 months.
We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded this and would thank every one of you who have been and joined us on a tour, or come to an event, and subsequently left us a review.
Want to see what all the fuss is about?! Book on one of our tours or events then! We have a wide range of events coming up in our new events space - Gin & Yoga, Sip & Paint, Afternoon Tea & G... plus more to come! Click the 'EVENTS' link on the menu at the top of this page to read more about them and book your space
]]>DISTILLERY SHOP
Our Distillery Shop will be CLOSED during the week (Wed / Thurs / Fri) whilst we are away.
The shop will be OPEN from 10am - 1pm on Saturday 3rd June and Saturday 10th June.
Normal opening hours will resume from Wednesday 14th June.
DISTILLERY TOURS
All Distillery Tours whilst we are away will go ahead as planned. If you are attending one of these tours, Keeley will be your host for the event and she is looking forward to meeting you and telling you all about Stockport Gin!
ONLINE SHOP
Our online shop will remain open whilst we are away and we have Steph working hard to pack and send any orders that come in. Please note though, that during this time, orders may take a little longer to be sent.
CLICK AND COLLECT ORDERS
Orders can still be placed for 'Click and Collect' but rather than collecting them from the Distillery Shop, they will be available to collect from Old Town General Store, 51 Great Underbank, Stockport, SK1 1NE. This is located just a short walk from the distillery.
We thank you for your understanding during this time and we look forward to seeing you once we are back, refreshed and ready to do what we do best again!
]]>When we finally managed to speak to someone, we were told they were too busy to collect from ANY of their account holders. (bearing in mind we have spent thousands of pounds with them over the years)
We had a weeks worth of parcels building up, emails coming in from our customers who need their orders, and when we asked DPD if we could then take the parcels to them ourselves to save them a job collecting - they said NO.
They then told us that they won't be coming to collect from us now until at least January. Meaning unless we take our business elsewhere, no one is getting any Christmas presents, and we potentially have to lose all of our Christmas income in refunding people's orders.
When we asked our account manager what the solution was - her reply was 'go and find another courier!'
We were told by DPD that they have double the amount of parcels than normal at this time of year, due to more people using couriers due to postal strikes. However, it's no excuse for them to treat us and our customers like that.
So whilst DPD are raking it in, they have ditched the people who regularly spent money with them over the years.
We pride ourselves on our customer service - unlike DPD, and these delays in getting parcels out are affecting our business and customer service.
We don't have time now to set up another account with another courier a week before Xmas, so our only option now is to put them into the Royal Mail postal system using their 24 hour tracked priority service.
ALL orders received up to today (Tuesday 13th December) will be sent TODAY and should be with you ASAP.
Due to planned RM strike action, we are now having to say that ANY future orders will be sent and 'should' arrive before Christmas, but we are no longer guaranteeing Christmas delivery on future orders. So please order at your own risk, or use the free Click & Collect service.
We will continue using the Royal Mail Tracked 24 Priority service to send any orders out but again, we cannot guarantee delivery before Christmas on orders placed from this point on. We do apologise for this but it is completely out of our control.
Once again apologies for the delays, and thank you to everyone we have contacted for being so understanding!
Paul & Cheryl
]]>Both events will be held at our town centre distillery and promise to be great evenings with both gin and food on offer.
The first is on Friday 19th August at 6:30pm and is to be a Pink Gin Cocktails and Tapas Event. The event includes 2 pink gin cocktails, cold tapas sharing platters, a chance to look behind the scenes at our distillery and win prizes in a charity raffle.
The second is on Sunday 16th October at 4:00pm and will be a Gin and Mezze night. the event includes 2 Gin and Tonics, mezze sharing platters, a chance to look behind the scenes at our distillery and win prizes in a charity raffle.
Tickets for both events are priced at £30 per person with £10 from each ticket sold going directly to Mentell.
To buy your tickets and to find out more about the events and Mentell, click HERE.
]]>Having been named a winner of the Traditional Gin Under 42% ABV category for the 3rd consecutive year, the gin has gone on to impress a larger judging panel than previous years, including a host of new judges, to be crowned ‘Best in Britain 2022’.
This year’s awards had the highest number of entries from Britain to date but our Twist of Lime Edtion Gin achieved exceptional scores from every judge to receive the accolade of being able to claim being the best of them all.
We are absolutely delighted, and a bit in shock, to be told that we produce the best gin in Britain! Just knowing that people love our gins makes everything we do worthwhile.
As well as the awards for our Twist of Lime Gin, our Sustainable Edition was also crowned a winner in the same category and our Pink Grapefruit & Pink Peppercorn Edition was Highly Commended in the Flavoured Gin category.
This is the 3rd consecutive year our gins have won awards at The Gin Guide Awards, and the 2nd in a row where multiple gins have won, but to be crowned Best in Britain is incredible.
Our Twist of Lime Edition is a London Dry Gin that we distil with fresh lime peel to give a wonderful, crisp, zesty citrus gin. It started life as a limited edition gin but grew in popularity so they continued to make it.
THE GIN GUIDE AWARDS
Now in its 6th year, The Gin Guide Awards is an independent, celebration of the historic, diverse and growing worldwide gin industry. Recognised and respected globally by the trade and consumers alike for its rigorous and quality-focused approach and industry-leading judging panels, The Gin Guide Awards serves to highlight the exceptional products, distilleries and people within the gin industry across the world. Keep an eye out for 2022 Winners and past Winners displaying their Awards proudly on their bottles, packaging, exhibition stands and marketing materials.We were shortlisted for 3 awards this year, which in itself is an incredible achievement for us. They were Most Promising Young Business, The Taste of Stockport and The Stockport Award.
We were absolutely delighted to win not only 1...but TWO awards on the evening!!! We won the Most Promising Young Business Award and The Taste of Stockport Award. We were up against some amazing other businesses in all the categories so to come out on top makes us even more delighted.
In one of our acceptance speeches, we mentioned the fact that we couldn't have achieved anything without the help and support of all our friends and family, but most importantly the people of Stockport who have been behind us from day 1 on our journey. So once again, thank you to everyone!
Onwards and upwards now!!
Find out who all of the winners were right HERE!
]]>The Great Taste Awards are known as the largest and most trusted food and drink awards on the planet and this year had 14,113 entries from 108 countries. Of them, just 5,383 products recived a star rating, with just 1,138 of them receiving 2 stars - thats less than 10% of entries!
A 2 star award is used to describe a product that is "above and beyond delicious" which i'm sure you can agree...our Original Edition Gin is certainly that!
Some of the judges comments on our gin we're great to hear...
"A very grown up gin, with a long warming finish. Excellent."
"We loved the balance, along with the citrus notes and how the pine anchored it into place."
"A pleasant juniper aroma with distinct notes of both lemon and orange underneath"
Why not grab yourself a bottle right here on our website?!
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During this time we have also removed the Click and Collect option from our online store.
Our online store remains open, but any orders received won't be dispatched until we return on Wednesday 1st September.
In the meantime, if you need any of our delicious gin then CLICK HERE for a full list of local stockists who will be able to help you with your needs!
We thank you for your patience and look forward to welcoming you back in September!
Paul & Cheryl
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Our new location is 19B St Petersgate, Stockport, SK1 1EB!
The shop was officially opened at and event on Sunday 4th July by the Mayor of Stockport, Cllr Adrian Nottingham. We were delighted he could join us and open the new premises officially and are looking forward to now welcoming everyone else!
You can come and visit our shop Wednesday - Saturday between 10am and 4pm. Our shop will have our full range of products on offer to buy as well as products from other local producers and a guest gins from further afield!
We will soon be announcing details of our distillery tours, once the lifting of restrictions is confirmed by Boris, and these will be available to book on our website.
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Have we got news for you!! A few weeks ago we were super excited to hear that 3 of our gins were finalists in The Gin Guide Awards 2021. The competition is strongly recognised and highly respected by the trade and consumers across the world. Finalists and Winners of the The Gin Guide Awards are selected through a rigorous blind tasting and unique scoring process. To present the most rounded and widely relevant results, the carefully selected and expert judges bring together specialisms in gin distillation, spirits retail, mixology, events, distribution, marketing and PR. This competition received hundreds of entries from over 30 countries around the world, so to be announced as a finalist was incredible.... imagine how excited we were when we only went and WON! The Twist of Lime Edition Gin was a winner in the Traditional Gin category, and the Pink Grapefruit & Pink Peppercorn Edition Gin was a winner in the Flavoured Gin category. This year’s winning results follows on from the success in the 2020 Gin Guide Awards, where our Pink Edition Gin won the Flavoured Gin category. |
Pink Grapefruit and Pink Peppercorn Edition - Silver Medal in the Flavoured Gin Category
Twist of Lime Edition - Silver Medal in the London Dry Gin Category
Sustainable Edition - Bronze Medal in the London Dry Gin Category
The World Gin Awards was launched 8 years ago as part of the World Drinks Awards and commends the best gins in 11 different categories covering both style and production methods. Entries from across the globe are blind tasted by industry experts and from their scores the medals are awarded.
To say we are happy with our achievements this year would be a huge understatement!
If you are enjoying one of our gins this weekend...you can once again tell everyone it is an award winning gin!
Have a great weekend.
Paul & Cheryl
]]>Some of you eagle-eyed readers may have noticed our announcement on social media at the weekend!
We've been working behind the scenes on this for what seems like forever, so it’s amazing to be FINALLY able to tell you all our exciting news...
We are now the proud residents of our very own shiny new distillery!!!
Since our launch in March 2019, we have worked from our modest garage distillery, but it is safe to say we very much out-grew this small space quite some time ago.
For a while now we have been looking for somewhere bigger to move our distillery to, and last year we finally found the PERFECT place! We now have the keys and work will start next week to get it all ready to move in.
Our new distillery will be located right in the heart of Stockport Town Centre and will not only house our distillery, but also a shop where you will be able to come and try and buy all of our gins plus many other amazing products.
We will also be able to offer distillery tours and hold small events... when we are allowed to anyway!
For now, there is a fair bit of work to be done so make sure you follow us on our social media channels for regular updates on progress.
We can't wait to welcome you all to our distillery in the near future!
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Not that there was anything particularly wrong with the old website...we just wanted to give it a fresh update! We hope you will find our new website more informative, interactive and easier to navigate and use than our old one was.
Our new site is something we have been working on in the background for some time and all the credit for the design of it must go to the guys at Create8. We first started speaking to them about 12 months ago as they are another Stockport based company and we knew that when the time came to sort our site out, they were the perfect people to do it! They've been great to work with and their expertise has been invaluable - thanks from us to everyone at Create8!
We are also planning to regularly use our blog to keep you updated on us, what we are doing and any news we have so make sure you keep checking for any new posts!
And if you dont already, make sure you follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter (dont worry, we dont bombard you with hundreds of emails...we dont have the time to write that many!). The links for these are at the bottom of the page!
Cheers!
Paul & Cheryl
]]>First of all, as always, health and hygene is of the upmost importance to us and what we do as a business. Please rest assured that we are taking all necessary precautions in line with all relevant official advice and will continue to do so for as long as it is required.
As it currently stands, the government have advised that all public gatherings should be avoided unless necessary. However, they have stopped short of requiring all pubs, bars and restaurants to close which leaves a lot of small businesses in an awful position. Do they continue to trade and hope that people continue to support them or do they close in the hope that they can see this crisis through and continue to operate once we are over it? These small businesses are what we rely on for orders and to help us promote ourselves through their venues so whatever their decision, it will impact us. Whatever choice each and every business chooses to make we will of course fully support them as we know whatever it is, it won't have been taken lightly. We know the public will support them in the same way and in turn, continue to support us.
Alongside this, we regularly attend events such as markets, gin festivals, exhibitions and taster nights. This week, again in line with government advice, the vast majority of these have been cancelled which means our main platform for getting out to meet you all and talk about what we love best, our gin, is no longer availble to us.
Fortunately, at the moment, as we operate on a small scale behind closed doors we are very much business as usual in terms of production. As well as this, Royal Mail are continuing to operate which in turn means our online shop remains open for orders. We appreciate all the messages of support we have received and orders that have been placed to help support us through these difficult times so we have decided to provide the following offer on our website...
ALL ORDERS PLACED ONLINE OVER £30 WILL NOW RECEIVE FREE SHIPPING AND FREE TONIC.
This will last as long as it needs to and be supported by ongoing offers on other products, details of which you will be able to find on our social media platforms.
Finally, we just want to say thank you once again to everyone for your support. It really is very much appreciated. We also hope you continue to support all your other local businesses who also need it as much as we do.
Stay safe and be kind.
Paul and Cheryl
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Our 6 gins are all new flavours and we will be donating 10% of the sale price of each bottle directly to Millie's Trust. They are produced in 50cl bottles and are 37.5%ABV. Each gin also has its own fantastic label design! The flavours are...
Winter Berries
Blood Orange
Sweet Violet
Spiced Orange and Cranberry
Pink Grapefruit and Pink Peppercorn
Rhubarb and Ginger
We have worked closely with Stockport based artist Eamonn Murphy on this project who has designed 6 different labels for the 6 different gins. Each label contains Eamonn's iconic artwork of buildings in and around Stockport and we can't thank Eamonn enough for the work he has put into this project. As soon as we approached Eamonn to work with us on this project he has been fully behind it and also designed the labels free of charge which has been amazing. In conjunction with the Gins, Eamonn has also produced limited edition prints of each label design that are available to buy from his website (link below) and again, a percentage of all sales will be donated by Eamonn to Millie's Trust. Click HERE to visit the Exvista website.
These gin's are VERY limited edition and will be released in 'waves' over the coming weeks so once the are gone...they are gone!
Millie's Trust are a fantastic charity who we are delighted to be supporting. For more information on them and what they do please visit their website below.
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Following on from finishing in the top 3 last week in the Most Promising New Business category at the Stockport Business Awards, this morning we received the news that we have been shortlisted for yet another award.
This time we have been shortlisted in the New Business category at the North West Business Awards!
We are up against 4 other brilliant new businesses and are delighted that our hard work and progress in only 6 and a half months has been recognised by the judges and once again gives us a real boost to continue our progress.
The awards night will be held on 27th March 2020 at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester when we will find out who has won the award but before then if you want to find out more information on the awards click HERE.
Fingers crossed!
]]>We received an overwhelming amount of emails about one charity in particular, which really stood out, and it is evident that they have touched the lives of a huge number of people in Stockport and beyond!
After helping numerous charities and worthwhile causes over the last 5 months, we are delighted to announce that we have chosen Millies Trust as our exclusive charity, and have an exciting project coming up which will allow us to make regular donations to Millies Trust.
As parents ourselves, of 2 young girls aged 4 & 5, the work that these people do is absolutely invaluable and they give so much after experiencing such heartache themselves.
Millie's Trust was created by the parents of Millie Thompson who tragically passed away in a choking incident in October 2012.
"As parents of a child ourselves we believe that everyone should have access to First Aid Training no matter what their situation in life is. We aim to make First Aid training readily available for minimal costs and in as many places as possible."
Joanne and Dan Thompson.
Millie's Trust allow you to attend a First Aid course at the lowest possible cost. They provide First Aid awareness courses if you are pregnant, have a child under the age of 12 months or are struggling to find the funds to attend. They want everyone to be able to learn the skills that not only may help you to save your child's life but also your friend's, parent's or partner's. They also provide a 12-hour Paediatric course for nurseries to ensure more nursery staff become trained.
For more information about Millies Trust, what they do and how you can help them visit their website.
We look forward to working with everyone at Millies Trust over the coming year and announcing more news soon!
Paul & Cheryl x
Last week we heard the news that we have been shortlisted in the 'Most Promising Young Business' category for the 2019 awards. As you can imagine, after only launching at the end of March we are over the moon to be given this recognition of our success so far and we can't wait for the awards night...fingers crossed!
It has been a crazy few months for us both and to have the recognition from the judges that we are suitable to be on the shortlist against other great young businesses it fantastic and gives us a real boost to continue our progress.
The Stockport Business Awards is an event organised by Clarke Nicklin Accountants, with the aim of celebrating business excellence within the Stockport Borough and continue to grow the business community in the area. The awards night is being held in October at Stockport Town Hall and we are very much looking forward to it!
Thanks to everyone who has helped and supported us so far on our journey.
To find out more about the awards and others on the shortlist click HERE.
]]>When we first launched Stockport Gin 2 months ago we were very conscious about costs, not only for us but for you too, the people who actually buy our gin and pay for postage and packing.
We looked at a whole host of packaging options, but to start with, in a bid to keep costs down, by far the most cost effective way was using the plastic air-pack wraps for the bottles to keep them safe during transit.
However, this didn't sit well with us and how we want our business to operate, as we were fully aware that single use plastics are NOT GOOD and that in the future we would need to make a decision on how to move forward with this and change our ways to do our bit for the environment.
Luckily sooner rather than later, we are in the fortunate position that we can make this change NOW after just 2 months of trading, and from now on you will now start to see your online orders arriving in 100% RECYCLED AND RECYCLABLE cardboard bubble wrap with made with biodegradable materials. We will no longer be using the single use plastic air-packs.
All of our packaging boxes we have used from the start are 100% recyclable, and from responsible sources. We also only ever use paper cups & straws at events, and paper bags (branded of course!) when we sell our gin at markets and events - no plastic bags here!
Is the new packaging more expensive? Yes.
Will postage costs be increasing? NO!
As a company, no matter how big or small, we feel it is our responsibility to make changes like this to benefit the world we live in. You only need to google ‘single use plastics’ to see the damage these items are causing to the environment and when you look at the type of items that cause this, it's clear to see that if change started at the top, from the people who insist on using these materials for their products, it would happen a lot faster.
The time will come when single use plastic is banned and it can’t come soon enough. We just want to make sure that even before this, we are doing all we can to reduce its use.
As well as this we are also currently looking at a number of other areas where we think we could improve our products and processes to be much more environmentally friendly. Watch this space for more news soon!
Paul & Cheryl
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Having launched officially last Friday at the Stockport Gin Jamboree, our website went live at 7pm on the Saturday. As soon as we were online the orders were flying in and by Tuesday our first batch had completely sold out! Wednesday saw us spend the evening bottling and labeling batch 2 and sales of that are now well underway. We always thought driving sales of our gin would be the hardest part but at the moment its keeping up with demand that is difficult but don't worry, we have plenty in stock!
We've had a lot of local people asking where they can buy a bottle in person rather than online to avoid the postage costs and we can now confirm that we are stocked in Bargain Booze Davenport (named by the Manchester Evening News as the best Bargain Booze in the World due to their large range of craft beers and gins) and Foragin in Marple. Jacks Bar and Grill in Hazel Grove have also stocked us in their bar so if you want to try before you buy go and see Emma and Mark. Great food and great Gin all in one place! We will be adding to that list of stockists very soon so keep an eye on the page on our website for details of where you can get hold of some if you are local to us!
The feedback we have received this week too has been incredible so thank you to all the people who have taken time to send us a message or tag us on Social Media with your fantastic comments. Hearing that people love what we are doing makes it all worthwhile!
Onwards and upwards now and into Week 2!
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After months of hard work, early starts, late finishes, mountains of paperwork for various licences and approvals and lots and lots of taste testing, Stockport Gin is finally here!
We officially launched last night at the Stockport Gin Jamboree held at Stockport Town Hall. We were very lucky and proud to sponsor the event and use it as our official launch so many thanks to Andrew and all the guys at Gin Jamboree for your help and support. It was also great to meet so many people there and talk about our Gin. The feedback we got was brilliant so thanks to everyone who came! We were also honoured to have the Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport, Councillor Walter Brett and Maureen Brett, attedn the launch and to celebrate with us so again, a huge thank you to them for attending.
Whilst on the subject of thanking people, we just want to take a quick moment to thank everyone who has helped us reach this point. We have had amazing support from family and friends as well as some invaluable help from others in the industry. We won't name everyone individually as it'd take far too long but you all know who you are so again, thank you.
Anyway, back to the gin! Use the online store via the website to get your first bottle now. Numbers of bottles from our first batches are limited so be quick! Don't worry if you dont get one though, the next batches wont be far behind!
We really do hope you like it as much as we do!
Make sure you tag us in any posts on Socail Media to help us spread the word that Stockport is now well and truely on the Gin Map!
Cheers!
Paul and Cheryl