Ginposium 2023
Friday 9th June 2023
£140.00 – £180.00
The Leading Gin industry event where some of the world’s most respected personalities and experts from the drinks and gin trade come together to discuss the state of the gin industry in 2023 and share their knowledge and expertise on all things gin, in the Tenth annual Gin Guild organised Ginposium event.
Speakers include:
- Desmond Payne MBE – interviewed by Gin Guild Chairman Christopher Hayman
- Chris Pitcher, Redburn – The State of the Gindustry
- Sandrine Ricard – Pernod Ricard’s approach to sustainability
- David Thompson, Milaco – Best distillery safety practices and learnings from other industries
- Vanessa Piromallo and Julia Nourney – Salt (yes salt!) in Gin, the trend (with Samples)
- Nolan Kane, Verallia UK (Allied Glass) – How the Glass industry is addressing sustainability in 2023
- Prof. Matthew Pauley, Heriot Watt University – Juniper research 2023 update
- David T. Smith, Summerfruitcup.com – Tutored Tasting: What’s New & Retro Revival (with samples)
- David Boyd-Armstrong, Rademon Estate Distillery – Sustainable Foraging
- Rosie Milsom, ATOM Brands & Sarah Miller, Gin-a-ding-ding – 2023 Sustainable packaging update
- Keli Rivers, Sipsmith – History of the Martini
- Anand Virmani, NAO Spirits – The Rise of Gin across Asia
- Panel – The impact of the Scottish Alcohol Advertising restrictions and Deposit return scheme
Full Schedule of Ginposium presentations:
8:50 Registration – with Coffee and Networking
9:25 Opening remarks and introduction to the Gin Guild
Lesley Gracie, Grand Rectifier of the Gin Guild and Master Distiller of Hendrick’s Gin
9:30 A 2023 Update on Juniper profiling research
Matthew Pauley, Assistant Professor at The ICBD at Heriot Watt University
Juniper is key to gin. The identification of specific markers for juniper. An update on Guild sponsored research.
Matthew’s research funded by the Gin Guild is part of industry leading work concerning the sensory performance of gin in association with the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, by using techniques usually applied to the field of medical research, he is able to look at the patterns of perception and look for signals, trends and, in time, correlations and causations within the data using algorithmic techniques previously out of the reach of this project just two years ago.
9:50 Best Distillery safety practices and learning from other industries
David Thompson, Director at Milaco
This session will highlight events that have occurred in other industries, particularly those involved in ethanol, to provide useful learnings for distillers. He will provide simple steps for new distilleries to ensure safety in a cost-effective way, and for established operators he will provide a framework that should be in place to ensure continued safety which can be easily managed.
David has 25 years experience focusing on hazardous areas. He’s been involved with numerous installations, specialising in risk analysis and area classification. He’s worked in high-risk offshore assets for oil companies.
10:10 Pernod-Ricard’s approach to sustainability
Sandrine Ricard, Deputy Director of S&R for Pernod Ricard in the UK
Sandrine was appointed Deputy Director of Pernod Ricard in the UK in July 2022. Previous roles include Head of Sustainability at Chivas Brothers where she spearheaded the implementation of Good Times from a Good Place strategy.
Previously, she was Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility at parent company Pernod Ricard where she helped create a centralised Sustainable department to generate wider impact, developed a new structured sustainable strategy, a CSR leaders network in all Pernod Ricard affiliates, as well as created a unique global event “Responsib’All Day” and new tools such as a global responsible drinking app.
10:35 Coffee and Networking
11:15 Salt In Gin (with samples)
Vanessa Piromallo, Founder of ilgin.it and Julia Nourney, Independent Spirits Consultant
Founder and Editor in Chief of ilGin.it, the most read Italian website about Gin, Vanessa has been writing about gin and spirits since 2014. With her company, That’s the Spirit, she founded GinShop.it (Best Online Retailer 2020 at the Icons of Gin Awards by Gin Magazine) and helped many producers and brand owners with the launch of their products in Italy. Read more…
Julia Nourney is an independent spirits consultant based in Germany who has been involved with spirits for 30 years. For the last decade Julia has been a spirit judge for both IWSC and ADI. She has a fantastic palate and she regularly co-teaches a Nosing for Faults seminar with Nancy Fraley. Julia is a Rectifier of the Gin Guild. Read more…
11:35 Sustainable and Responsible Botanical Foraging
David Boyd-Armstrong, Co-Founder of Rademon Estate Distillery
David gives an insight into have to ensure you respect the local environment, have consistent flavour and take into account any health and safety considerations when foraging for Gin botanicals. A regular contributor at spirits events around the world he is co-founder and Head Distiller at Rademon Estate Distillery, home of Shortcross Gin, Vice-Chair of Drinks Ireland and a Warden Rectifier of the Gin Guild.
11:55 The State of the Gindustry
Chris Pitcher, Partner at Redburn Partners
Three years on from the pandemic, Chris’ presentation will map the performance of gin consumption, focus on the recent evolution in consumer trends by the key markets, and summarise where we are in the investment cycle.
While there are some compelling structural reasons for gin’s recent renaissance, he will also look at some of the challenges potentially facing the industry.
12:20 Scottish Panel Discussion – What we know, June 2023
12:50 Lunch and Networking
13:50 The Rise of Asian Gins (with samples)
Anand Virmani, Chairman and Co-Founder, NÄO Spirits
Gin Guild Warden member Anand Virmani, of Goa based NAO Spirits & Beverages, presents a view on these new challengers, including those of his own company, from the country that launched the winning combination of gin and tonic.
14:20 Meeting Desmond Payne Q&A
Christopher Hayman, Chairman of theGin Guild meets Desmond Payne, industry icon
50 years, eight gins, a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Gin Guild, an MBE and now the Ambassadorial role of Master Distiller Emeritus at Beefeater’s Gin, Desmond Payne still isn’t quite ready to put his feet up.
He started out as a 19 year old management trainee with Seager, Evans & Co, a London-based wine and spirits company which owned Plymouth Distillery which put him on a path to Beefeater Gin.
14:55 Sustainable packaging update 2023
Rosie Milsom, Global Head of NPD at ATOM Brands & Sarah Miller, founder of Gin-a-ding-ding
Sarah from Gin-a-ding-ding, a Gin-based blog and Rosie Milsom Global Head of NPD at ATOM Brands talks us through a hands on sustainable packaging and transport update. Sarah is founder of ginadingding.com which launched in 2016. She is a spirits judge – regularly joining panels at the World Drinks Awards, the IWSC and The Global Spirits Masters – and also writes for The Gin Magazine, Spirits Beacon and Club Oenologique.
Rosie Milsom is Global Head of NPD at Atom Brands and Scrum Master for Atom Labs, with a demonstrated history of working in the spirits industry. Self-confessed packaging geek and flavour enthusiast, delighted by beauty, functionality and taste. With more than 10 years of dedicated service at Atom Brands, taking ideas from simple concepts through to award winning physical products.
15:45 Tutored tasting of Gin 2023, What’s New and Retro Revival (with samples)
David T Smith, Spirits Author and Gin Judge, Summerfruitcup.com
Not requiring an introduction to many Ginposium regulars, David leads his annual tasting of what’s new and looks at a retro revival in the world of gin. It’s a fast-paced environment with constant innovation and there have been many new releases since last year’s Ginposium. This session looks at some of the more interesting new releases, as well as older Gins being revived on which to keep an eye.
16:10 How the Glass industry is addressing sustainability in 2023
Nolan Kane, Head of emerging brands at Verallia UK (Allied Glass)
Nolan will discuss how the glass industry and the Verallia Group are working towards a lower carbon footprint, and will talk about some very exciting developments throughout the group around sustainability. Heading up the Verallia UK Emerging Brands team, Nolan works with some of the industry’s most exciting brands, creating sustainable iconic glass packaging from UK manufacturing sites in Yorkshire.
16:30 Exploring the heritage and future of the Martini (with samples)
Keli Rivers, Senior Brand Ambassador at Sipsmith
Giving a potted history and the future of the Martini, it would be humble to say that Keli Rivers has been very lucky in her gin immersed career – from curating the largest gin and genever collection in the Americas for San Francisco mecca, Whitechapel to being named by Gin Magazine’s Iconic Awards; Gin Ambassador of the Year (2021) for the pioneering craft brand; Sipsmith – but honestly, she has worked her butt off to get to where she is.