Mackintosh Gin wins gold and silver medals at the 2020 Scottish Gin Awards

Family fun business, Mackintosh Gin, won two awards in this year's Scottish Gin Awards.

Published 16th Nov 2020
Updated 21 st Sep 2023

Mackintosh Gin have added further awards to their trophy cabinet after winning a gold and silver medal at the recent Scottish Gin Awards.

The awards, which celebrates excellence in Scottish gin, named the winners as part of its 4th annual competition, which this year was held online.

The Scottish Gin Awards is the largest gin competition in the UK and revealed its winners following a rigorous judging process involving 38 leading experts, the assessment of 85 written entries and the blind tasting of 194 gins, all distilled in Scotland.

Mackintosh Gin collected the Gold Medal for the Old Tom Gin of the Year with their Pineapple & Grapefruit Old Tom Gin and the Silver Medal for the High Strength Gin of the Year (50% ABV and over) with their Mariner Strength Gin.

The family run brand also won Gin of the Year with their Pineapple & Grapefruit Old Tom Gin - this award was for the gin which scored the highest average mark in the competition.

194 gins were analysed based on a 5-point scoring system with judges recording scores for aroma, appearance, taste, and an overall score.

The results were compiled using these four scores, plus an average score taken from the appearance, aroma, and taste marks. The gins were then ranked based on their overall score average to produce the winners.

Only three medals are presented in every category making the Scottish Gin Awards tough to win and highly sought after.

Co-founder James Mackintosh said “We are delighted with the silver medal for our Mariner Strength gin in this competition.

"We wanted to add a higher strength version of our London Dry gin to be enjoyed in cocktails where the gin wasn’t muted by other spirits.

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"We experimented with different strengths and at 59% we found it was the perfect balance with the grapefruit really singing.”

The Pineapple & Grapefruit Old Tom gin was created to satisfy the growing number of fans who don’t like tonic water.

Co-founder of Mackintosh Gin, Deborah Bowie added: “We are thrilled to receive these awards for our Old Tom gin, and we are excited that the judges scored it so highly.

"With every tasting event or festival we attend, we meet more and more fans who say they like to enjoy their gin with lemonade, so our goal with the Old Tom was to create a gin that could be enjoyed this way as well as with tonic”

The newly launched Mariner Strength gin and Pineapple & Grapefruit Old Tom gin were released this year to sit alongside the brands award-winning London Dry gin, which launched in October 2018.

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Both new editions were created in collaboration with Lewis Scothern of Distillutions Distillery in Arbroath and build on the brands London Dry recipe.

The Mariner Strength shares this recipe but is bottled at 59% ABV whilst the Old Tom has fresh pineapple added to the botanical list and candy syrup added post distillation before being bottled at 40% ABV.

The Mackintosh team recommend serving the Mariner Strength in a Martini or Negroni and the Old Tom over crushed ice, topped up with lemonade and a pineapple chunk to garnish.

Both new gins are available online as well as local independent retailers.

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Known for cake making, experimental jam recipes, Champagne, whisky and gin drinking (and the inability to cook Gnocchi), Rosalind is the Food and Drink Editor and whisky writer for The Scotsman, as well as hosting Scran, The Scotsman's food and drink podcast.
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