As part of the upcoming overhaul of its portfolio, Instil Drinks Co is adding five gins to its portfolio next month. Proving once again Scotland’s growing presence in the gin category, three of the five additions are Scottish. Rock Rose is produced by Dunnet Bay Distillers, which claims to be the northernmost mainland distillery in the UK. NB Gin hails from North Berwick, made in a modified pressure cooker by a husband-andwife team. Eden Mill, meanwhile, is made in St Andrews, in an old paper mill that describes itself as the first craft brewery and distillery in Scotland. Eden Mill produces a number of gins, including one made to resemble the aroma profile of a golf course…
producing, as their name suggests, organic spirits – including the gin that’s being brought here.
Oban Little Bay reaches the UK Diageo has unveiled the latest NAS whisky in its portfolio, this time from the tiny Oban distillery on the west coast of Scotland.
Instil is set to relaunch in spring with a new and improved range of not only spirits but beers and ciders too. The company will unveil a total of 14 new brands on 1 March, joining existing brands in the portfolio such as Crystal Head, Estrella Galicia and Coopers.
‘With the gin revolution going from strength to strength and more and more craft distilleries opening every day, we were truly spoilt for choice when it came to selecting our new line-up,’ commented Instil MD Mark Johnson. ‘We only picked the highest quality artisan gins, making sure they all had something distinctive to offer our portfolio. From the iconic Jensen’s, from London’s Bermondsey to Scotland’s most Bermondsey, is also joining Instil, with its focus on historic gin styles. northern mainland distillery, we have a variety of flavours and styles And from across the pond comes to tempt our customers.’ Minnesota-based Prairie Organic,
Called Oban Little Bay, it was first launched in the US last year, and is finally making its way to the UK’s shores. The liquid is a combination of very lightly peated whiskies aged in European sherry casks, refill bourbon casks with heavily charred ends and refill hogsheads. These liquids are then married together and further matured in Diageo’s smallest American oak barrels. All that American oak has resulted in a whisky heavy on sweet vanilla notes, with plenty of butterscotch and fudge on the nose, before a grassier element and some citrus come through. It’s a gentle, sweet dram on the palate, with those vanilla characters augmented with some clementine oils and a whisper of charcoal smoke on a relatively dry finish. It’s an easy-drinking drop that’s a great introductory whisky, or one to have with dessert. Keep an eye out for Little Bay coming ashore in mid-February. Price TBC, 43% abv, Diageo, 020 8978 6000
Super bot creates beer that tastes of optimism and joy High Peak Brew Co and data experts claim to have created a beer that tastes of joy and optimism, using IBM’s super bot Watson. Customer engagement agency Havas helia worked with IBM to capture the ‘mood’ of the nation during the New Year party season by analysing thousands of social media messages. These were then matched with emotional states, the most shared emotions being love, joy, harmony, cheerfulness, optimism, resolution and excitement. The Watson computer – which is programmed to glean insights from large amounts of unstructured data – then used Watson’s Personality Insights, a tool that analyses language to produce a personality
profile. Havas helia used this to categorise 2,800 existing beer recipes according to different human characteristics, such as assertiveness, friendliness or intelligence. The top 10 beers that matched the most shared New Year emotions were identified and the recipes combined to find the most common ingredients. These were honey which denotes love and cheerfulness, the Nelson Sauvin hop for optimism, imagination and resolution, and the Hallertauer hop for excitement and emotion. All were used in the final brew, called 0101.
to interpret something abstract such as positive feelings and emotions and turn it into an experience. We thought what could be better than a beer that lets you drink in the optimism of the New Year?’ The Peak District-based High Peak Brew Co was chosen to brew the unfiltered beer.
Steven Bennett-Day, group executive creative director at Havas helia, said: ‘We wanted to use data and technology
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March 2016 EAT. DRINK. SLEEP
Instil adds five gins to its portfolio
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