Hello!

Now I realise it's the 1st of February today so I'm running a little behind (again). But to say I've struggled to get back into my rhythm since the festive break is an understatement.

I've wanted so badly to get back, distill, craft bottles, and sell our beautiful gin to the world, but the delightful trend of Dry January and the stormy winter weather that has been battering the Ardnamurchan Peninsula and the distillery are but a couple of things that have slowed our journey into 2024.

That's not to say that we haven't been hard at work behind the scenes. Katie as usual has been working like a trooper crafting a great stock of bottles to be filled in the coming months. Casting and hand-finishing each bottle takes so much time, but Katie can make about 60 bottles a day and finish about the same with a little help from yours truly. No other Distillery in the country has a process like Igneous, to be able to say the same couple that hand makes the bottle also makes the Gin that goes in it.

Alongside the crazy casting of the bottles I have been focusing on the mundane task of yet another planning application and licensing journey, all in the aid of making our distribution a smoother and easier to manage scenario. Progress has been made and hopefully, by the end of March, we will be all set.

I'm heading to the distillery in the coming days to get a distillation done in preparation for our highly anticipated aluminium refill bottles making an appearance. I'm pleased to say we are down to weeks now rather than months and success is on the horizon. We decided we wanted a whole new postal box designed for the refill to match its more sleek and modern appearance, whilst still obviously being the Igneous brand.

Looking forward to the not-too-distant future now, we are both really excited for our first The Gin To My Tonic event at Liverpool on the 2nd of March, albeit feeling completely out of our depth when we look at some of the other amazing Distilleries that are showcasing. We possibly may be overthinking how we are going to do at these events this year; obviously really hoping we take the Gin world by storm but at the same time have basically no experience when it comes to exhibiting at events like these, so it will be an eye opener for sure.

Since my last blog, we got the news that we had been awarded a 90-point score by the Independent Drinks Specialists (IDS) which absolutely blew us away. We were so proud to get into the 90 bracket and hopefully, this will be a sign of things to come for industry recognition in 2024.

On a different note, we have been asked a couple of times recently if we are going to be releasing a new product line. The simple answer… Yes, but not anytime soon. Both myself and Katie have strong feelings about creating worthy spirits/products. We took nearly 4 years to get the West Highland Dry Gin recipe pinned down, I'm sure the next product won't take as long, however, we want to give it the thought and attention it deserves. Passion, Quality, and Provenance are at the heart of Igneous. To create something that is never ever ordinary we need to carve a new idea that fits our mantra.

But don't despair, as we will always endeavour to keep things exciting and fresh, on that note keep watch of our socials in the coming weeks and months as we have plans!

Thank you for reading and a gentle reminder… it's the 1st of February. Dry January is behind us!

Miles and Katie x