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Find out what it's like to be a professional gin expert at Craft Gin Club!
Jul 9, 2021
Gin lovers and gin nerds, listen up! If you’ve ever wondered how we select our dreamy gin in each of our Gin Of The Month boxes - you’re not alone - it’s one of our most asked questions here at Craft Gin Club. So we’ve got a sneak peak into our top-secret, rigorous process. But that’s not all - it helps to have a team of industry experts that are seriously (g)in the know, too.
If you’ve ever looked at your bottle of gin lovingly, or know that kid-at-Christmas excitement when your Gin of The Month box arrives at your door, it’s only right we introduce you to one of the stars behind the scenes: gin extraordinaire, Peter Downes. He’s one of our gin connoisseurs that helps source, pick and ensure world-class quality and flavour.
So, the burning question is: what does a day in the life of a gin expert look like? Well you’re about to find out…
Sourcing gin is a key part of the job, following the gin renaissance across the world so as the movement takes hold in countries further afield, I’m making sure we are finding the best of the best for the club!
— Peter Downes, Distillery Partnerships Specialist at Craft Gin Club
And, of course, tasting is another vital element… (Tough job, right? But we guess someone has gotta do it!)
Tasting is the most important part of the job, we taste and feedback on hundreds of gins each year, helping distillers perfect the art of gin.
— Peter Downes, Distillery Partnerships Specialist at Craft Gin Club
We bet there are a few volunteers that’d help with that! And trust us when we say we’re a hard nut to crack - only around 30% of entries get past our first round of tastings.
Another part of Peter’s job? Judging professional spirits competitions - and by keeping an eye out for what’s happening in the wider world of gin, he makes sure our standards at Craft Gin Club are even higher. It’s a win-win!
Spy Peter in the fluorescent yellow trainers! Credit: The Spirit Business
Sounds like a pretty cool job, hey? Peter recently sat as an expert judge at the prestigious The Gin Masters 2021 (ooer!). He was amongst other leading spirits specialists, who judged the gins in a blind tasting (so he felt right at home - as this award process is very similar to what we do each and every month here at Craft Gin Club).
Excitingly, the tasting marked the biggest competition in The Global Spirits Masters series to date, (we’re talking a lot of tasty gin) - that were awarded Silver, Gold and Master medals.
There was consistently a really high standard across the competition. It says a lot about gin - it keeps getting better and better. Flavoured gins have stepped back from the heavily sugary category, and it’s great to see that gin is still innovating and changing.
— Peter Downes, Distillery Partnerships Specialist at Craft Gin Club
Pssst - fancy a flavoured gin recommendation from connoisseur himself? Three Wrens Apple Crumble Edition was one of the standout gins, (which you can buy it right here). “The flavoured category is easy to get wrong, but easy to shine through if you nail what you’re aiming for. Distillers need to know that end result and get the flavour profile right, like the apple crumble.”
Other fun insights from the industry? Gin popularity is showing no signs of slowing down (yay!), with retailers in the UK experiencing a 30% spike in sales in last year, as the category reached £1.3 billion – equal to 80 million bottles.
And flavoured gins sales soared by 37% - that’s around 30m bottles snapped up over the year! We’re not pointing any fingers, but we bet you clubbers have got something to do with that…
It feels good to know you’re in good (ginny) hands, right? To find out more about the awards, click here.
