Ginposium 2019

16th May, 2022

The 2019 Ginposium (the Gin Guild gin industry annual conference, held on June 7th), was once again an informative day for members of the gin trade, with attendees from international brands to small two man concerns, mixer producers, bottle suppliers, marketing and design consultants, botanical suppliers and others from the industry.

“The Ginposium was a perfect blend of content – from professional advice to thought provoking new products”.

“A very successful Ginposium yesterday covering a wide variety of subjects. All good speakers and many complementary comments heard during the final network session”.

“Very good fun and a great end to another brilliant Ginposium! It is a seriously good event – congratulations”.

Content included: developments in the botanical trade and the effect of climate control and the importance of quality control, the need for innovation in bottle design to ensure shelf and eye appeal, a guide to distillery start-ups and expanding to volume production.

Delegates also enjoyed a technical and very informative session, which was much discussed, on the effect of different stills and production methods on gin production (with comparative samples for consideration) as well as the annual favourite, the new gin release and trends session (also aided by a selection of samples to help focus attention).

The Ginposium included a panel session on the much-debated topic de jour “Innovation in gin (e.g. low abv, fruit, pink/orange etc.) is good for the category and will take it to the next level, or it is blurring the lines of what gin is for consumers?”. The view was that there were products that were blurring what was gin and that there were some that needed to be better explained to consumers in order that they can compare like for like and not just be led by price.

Technical and professional content was also covered with an innovative and well tested sensory training service, reflecting the key importance of ensuring use of a quality base spirit when making a quality gin, as well as a very informative legal birds eye coverage of key issues from a major international law firm, on protecting brand and Intellectual Property rights. A informative session from the Portman Group covered the rules and regulations for marketing in the UK and avoiding complaints and breaches.

Innovation and the effect of new products driving copycat imitators and the damage caused to the industry by some entrants jumping on gin bandwagon with an eye only on short term objectives was a powerful message, as was the session celebrating the longevity of the iconic brand Gordon’s, which celebrates it 250th birthday this year.

The event closed with a splendidly humorous, irreverent and very lively review of the Australian gin scene once again aided by some exemplar products from down under, followed by a networking session over gin and mixer serves provided by the new Suntory mixer brand Merchant’s Hearts who showcased their range of a range of seven spirit enhancers, designed to bring out the great flavours in premium spirits – enhancing, not masking the carefully crafted botanicals and flavours

As ever the Gin Guild will ensure that the quality content is made available to the widest possible audience and that it remains accessible, as part of its mission to educate and inform the industry, media and beyond, by having the event professionally filmed and then placing the edited content on its website www.theginguild.com. While this year’s content is exclusive to Guild members for the next six months, the event handout and presenter slides will shortly appear in the open area of the Guild website, alongside full released coverage from previous years events.