A SCOTTISH gin which won the "Best London Dry Gin" category at a top international drinks conference earlier this year is to be sold in Manhattan's top cocktail bars.
NB Gin, produced by husband-and-wife team Steve and Viv Muir at their micro-distillery in North Berwick, East Lothian, has stuck a deal with a top US distributor to market the spirit across the Atlantic.
If it goes down well in New York, it will be rolled out to other states.
The arrangement, with Duggan's Distillers, is one of NB Gin's biggest overseas deals so far.
Experiments to produce NB Gin began in the Muirs' own kitchen, using test tubes and a pressure cooker.
The tipple now is made in a custom-made copper still, from pure British grain spirit and a blend of eight "botanicals".
The copperhead still that creates the gin has a flaw -- a kink in one of the pipes -- which the couple say plays a major part in making "the perfection" they strive for.
It is only ever be produced in small batches - no more than 100 litres at a time -- so the company can be sure that it is of top quality.
Duggan's decided to take it on after one of the company's executives tasted it while on holiday in Scotland.
Viv Muir, CEO of NB Gin, said: "As in the UK, the gin market in the United States is becoming more and more focused on small batch artisan brands.
"Stockists are seeking out interesting hand-crafted gins because their customers are looking for variety, quality, authenticity and something which has a different 'story' to the mainstream brands."
Earlier this year (2015), judges at the The World Drinks Awards at the Whiskies and Spirits Conference in London agreed that NB Gin's "botanicals" -- coriander seed, angelica root, grains of paradise, lemon peel, cassia bark, cardamom and orris root -- had all been "meticulously selected to produce a smooth and balanced flavour".
