Lancaster spirits company's English grain vodka wins international award

The International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) is an annual wine and spirits competition founded in 1969 by Anton Massel, which has grown to become one of the largest such competitions in the world.

During the first two weeks of March, 120 of the world’s leading spirit experts gathered in London to assess more than 4,100 entries from 98 countries.

The vodka category was particularly strong this year, producing seven of this year’s gold outstanding awards, as well as 19 gold medals, 86 silver and 64 bronze.

The category judging panel, made up of members of the IWSC’s spirits judging committee and industry experts including David T Smith, Rose Brookman, Sarah Miller, Noel Sweeney and Matias Luciani, presented Lancaster Spirits Co’s debut vodka with a bronze medal, awarding a score of 85 out of 100, described the drink as ''warming and characterful'' in their tasting notes.

Gerard Evans, the consultant distiller at Lancaster Spirits Co, said: ''I’m thrilled that our first vodka iteration has received this award.

"It’s a product we’ve created completely from scratch, using a secret blend of wheat and rye grains and water from our own artesian well.

"The resulting award-winning spirit is one for connoisseurs to savour, perfect for creating the ultimate vodka martini.''

Phil Simpson, founder of the Lancaster Spirits Company, said: ''Collecting this award is fantastic, especially coming off the back of the award Firecracker our debut gin received late last year.

"Receiving international recognition like this is the icing on the cake and recognises the hard work and dedication of everyone in the team.

"It also shows that as a distinctively different distillery we are heading in the right direction, our unique climate friendly, grain to glass ethos is fast becoming a beacon of excellence as part of Lancashire’s proud and highly successful food and drink offering.''

Housed alongside the home of multi-award-winning Lancaster Brewery, The Lancaster Spirits Company is a grain to glass distillery, utilising decades of brewing know-how and a painstaking distilling process, to produce premium quality, small-batch gin and vodka.