The show must go on: the Ginposium seminar goes online

15th September, 2023

Ginposium, the annual gin industry seminar organised by the Gin Guild, and one of the gin industry’s annual highlights, is to be held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of performing in front of an audience, this year’s keynote speakers have created a series of videos which will be available on the Gin Guild’s website at www.theginguild.com from 12th June.

Gin Guild Director General Nicholas Cook said:

“We may not be able to meet in person but we felt there was absolutely no reason why the excellent content created by the speakers should not be heard by as wide an audience as possible, globally.

“Given the renown of this annual gin industry event we had delegates booked to attend from as far away as the Philippines, so felt we still needed to ensure that the content was heard.

“Right now, as the association for our industry, we see our role as providing as much support and information to our members as possible – and we are delighted that putting Ginposium 2020 online is one way of doing this.

“We appropriately launch the content, which this year we are immediately making available to all, on the eve of World Gin Day. This will hopefully bring some cheer to the gin industry which has, alongside all in the beverage business, been very badly affected by the virus lockdown. Licensed outlets are still some way off being permitted to open. Many outlets have sadly been commercially damaged and may yet find the new distancing requirements unworkable.”

Among this year’s presenters are Dr Anne Brock, Grand Rectifier of the Gin Guild and Master Distiller at Bombay Sapphire, who will be leading a recorded panel discussion via Zoom on how the industry is working through Covid-19. Her guests include speakers from the U.S, India and Australia, giving a global perspective of the pandemic’s impact.

American Master Distiller Stephen Gould, the founder of the Golden Moon Distillery in Colorado, will also be casting an eagle eye over the U.S. gin scene in a separate video.

There will even be a gin tasting with a difference, led by Ginposium regular David T. Smith from Summerfruitcup.com, who is a spirit author and gin judge. His panel, also recorded via Zoom, are giving their verdict on some of the latest gins released in 2020, along with gin trends.

Joanne Moore, Master Distiller at Quintessential Brands, will be talking about the importance of a ‘mindful innovation’ approach for flavoured gins and the roles of botanicals and flavours within this ever-expanding category.

Meanwhile, Alice Pearson, who works in new product development at the Cotswolds Distillery, gives her views about the wider application of the Gin Guild’s own trade-marked Gin-Note flavour profiling methodology – and how they use it during their own distillery tours and tastings.

For those interested in finding out how Bombay Sapphire built their iconic brand, Global Vice President Natasha Curtin will be stirring in a dash of creativity into the mix.

As for those looking to develop a distillery, Will Edge from the Greensand Ridge Distillery will be explaining how sustainability can be integrated into the process.

Safe operating of distilleries, given the risks of working with high proof alcohol, is always of critical importance, so Professor Scott Allen, who runs Allen Associates (HPE) Ltd, will provide details about safety compliance by design, focusing on how the dangers associated with storing and producing high ABV spirit can be mitigated.

Finally, Licensing Barrister Gary Grant, from the Francis Taylor Building, Inner Temple will be talking about licensing issues in the time of coronavirus, focusing on the opportunities and challenges that this presents.

Gin Guild Members who will miss the always keenly anticipated networking aspects of the Ginposium are also being invited to an online networking session on the evening of 12th June, giving them an opportunity to catch up face-to-face, albeit in the virtual world.