Life before Gin...

Once upon a time we were Wine Merchants... oh how that has changed!

The story for us started back in 2004 when John and Diane sold Aitch's Wine Bar. They didn't want the late nights anymore and as such they decided to go step sideways into the wine trade. We say a sideways step, as they had always been passionate about wines and had a small side-line wholesale business off the back of the restaurant anyway.

And so the business started… 10pm – 4pm 5 days a week, a nice little retirement project – or so they thought. Now they have a team of 8 people, have a busy retail, trade and online business and have many regional awards to their name.

One of the most interesting developments has been our growth of spirits… and by spirits we mean GIN! Back in 2004 when Aitch's was alive and kicking, customers had the choice of Gordons, Tanquery and Bombay – a sign of the times as those Gins aren't even stocked by us anymore - yet plenty of others are.

We have been astounded by the emergence of this market and the customers who have followed, driven mainly by the Millennials. You can now find dedicated Gin Bars from London to New York to Bakewell – there is just no hiding the spirit. And for those of you who don't like Gin then there is probably even a Gin for you.

There is no exact recipe for Gin (it just has to be predominantly juniper flavoured), so it lends itself to the craft approach with different botanicals and unique flavours enticing a new breed of drinker and rivalling the bigger, more traditional distilleries.

A few years ago we dipped our toe into the Gin market when John Cherry, founder of Sir Robin of Locksley Gin approached us to represent his product in the Peak District. Now we stock over 100 spirits and this is growing.

At present one of our most popular lines is the Warner Edwards Rhubarb, in December the Telegraph sited the gin had seen a sales increase of 355% in the past 12 months and 8650% increase since 2014… incredible for a small family run estate and all those Rhubarb farmers out there!

As you can imagine if people are splashing out on premium Gins then they are going to need something equally crafted to go with it. Last year tonic sales topped £116 million, a rise of 37% on the previous year.

Watch this space… it's all go in the spirits world and what could be next… tipped to be Rum but we can talk about that on another day! 

For a sneek peak at our Gin portfolio click here, however we do have more awesome gins in store!