Double Gin Success for Dundee

Double Gin Success for Dundee

Two gins with strong links to Abertay University hit the right note at the Scottish Gin Awards.

The coveted Gin of the Year award went to Abertay graduate Andrew Mackenzie, whose Verdant Gin is created and sold in Dundee.

The entrepreneur did a Masters in Food and Drink Innovation at Abertay, providing the ideal preparation for his Verdant Spirits business, which only produced its first batch of gin earlier this year.

He said: “Abertay was fantastic. It gave you space to think and reflect and really develop your ideas properly. The course was very well supported.”

There was also success for Angus-based Arbikie Distilling who won Scottish Distillery of the Year.

Kirsty Black, who helped the Stirling family set the company up, said: “My PhD through Abertay University and the James Hutton Institute gives the unique opportunity for normally separate disciplines to cross paths – this results in the unique combination of agroecologists working with zymologists working with distillers and brewers – a combination which is forever producing new and novel ideas.”

Head of the Division of Food and Drink, Costas Stathopoulos said: “Huge congratulations to both Verdant Spirits and Arbikie Distilling on their incredible success at the Scottish Gin Awards.

“At Abertay we work with some of the very best and most innovative companies in the food and drink sector and it is pleasing to see both of these businesses doing so well.”

Abertay’s Food and Drink courses were rated top in Scotland and 9th in the UK by the Guardian Good University Guide 2018.

The Scottish Gin Awards were held in Glasgow on Thursday night by the Scottish Gin Society. ‌

For more information on how your business can benefit from Abertay’s cutting edge new Food Science facilities, visit https://www.foodinnovation.abertay.ac.uk/