Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my waffling!
At the start of my last blog I was speaking about the epic journey I’d just taken from York to the distillery via Glasgow and the Isle of Skye. Little did I know at the point of writing that, that I was about to spend the next 6 days isolated at the Distillery without internet due to Storm Kathleen and also without the expected delivery of base alcohol I had made the journey to accept.
It was an incredibly frustrating start to the month as I was aiming to really build up stock ready for the increased number of stockists and the impending show in Manchester. The knock on effect was two more return trips in order to accept the delivery and get the distillations back on track. This once again just sought to remind me of the chaos and difficulties we have and continue to battle with, having the most westerly and one of the remotest distilleries on the UK mainland. But Hey Ho, as they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… if not making you a little more grey in the process.
Thankfully all the doom and gloom soon lifted when we were announced as a Silver Medallist at The London Spirits Competition. We were absolutely blown away to get this award and to now be able to say we are officially an award winning Gin! Then to top it off, last week we were announced as a Finalist at The Gin Guide Awards 2024! Lets keep everything crossed for the results on the 8th of May.
Tomorrow we start what is my favourite month of the year. May is always much calmer and milder on the west coast of Scotland and with Summer only a short time away, the feelings of positivity and enthusiasm prevail. I’ve always loved May, myself and Katie were married at Acharacle a short distance from the distillery on the 5th of May back in 2012 so we always try to spend as much time as a family up there this month as possible. This also allows us to do extra preparation for the busy summer to come.
Last weekend we spent in Manchester at our second ‘The Gin To My Tonic’ event which went fantastic and once again allowed us to get out and about in front of so many new customers and build our confidence. Roughly 2000 visitors over three sessions in Manchester Cathedral was the setup and it truly was tremendous. If any of you haven’t had the chance to attend one of these events yet I would highly recommend them. We will next be attending one in Newcastle at The Boiler Room, so if you have the chance or are local please do come along and say hello!
As well as attending Manchester with TGTMT, we also featured in their April Virtual Tasting alongside four other wonderful distilleries from all over the UK. It was my first time doing anything like this and I didn’t know what to expect, however apart from some minor technical snags it was really fun! I had to present from our ceramic studio as we were still suffering from our internet outage at the distillery, which even as I type is still ongoing! However, this wasn’t really an issue and was actually quite nice to be able to show viewers the other half of the Igneous setup. It has also given me a little idea to do our own little virtual tour of the Igneous Distillery going forward using our drone, so watch this space.
Once again, tomorrow I will be making the journey to Ardnamurchan to our distillery home as I have approximately four hundred bottles of our West Highland Dry Gin to bottle and label. I’ll be getting the sprogs ready for school and then heading out first thing with the aim to get there, get the still prepared and the rested distillations cut back to our bottling strength of 40% ABV. It looks like the weather is going to stunning this week (once again I love May!), it makes things much more pleasant being able to have the roller shutter up and sunlight flooding the distillery and bottling room.
The next blog update I’ll be writing at the end of the month from the distillery as we are planning a family trip there all together, so I’m sure we will have lots of adventures and updates to catch you up on.
Until then, have a lovely May and enjoy the bank holiday!
Miles and Katie x