Where to start? 2019 was a busy one for Team Slingsby but we enjoyed every gintastic minute! There were just so many highlights, including our fourth birthday, that we couldn’t resist writing a round up of the year just passed. Relive 2019 with us below…
Our first partnership of 2019 really set the bar for the year ahead as we worked with Michelin Starred restaurant, The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds, to create a limited-edition, one-of-a-kind caviar and plankton gin. Created to pair perfectly with the Michael O’Hare’s imaginative menu, the gin is now the house pour and bottles are available to purchase exclusively from the restaurant.
In February we collaborated with the prestigious London bakery Maître Choux, producing a delicious Rhubarb Gin éclair. The eclairs were filled with a rich Rhubarb Gin infused cream, and topped with photo-worthy pink icing, rhubarb treats and golden flakes. The sweet treat was extremely popular with Instagrammers and was sold at Maître Choux’s Soho and Kings Road stores.
Next up, travellers went giddy for our new Gooseberry Gin as we launched the spirit with activations at Manchester airport and within World Duty Free stores. Slingsby Gooseberry Gin is now listed in 15 World Duty Free stores and you can also find bottles of our newly introduced 50cl bottles of Gooseberry Gin in Tesco and Morrisons.
Our Gooseberry Gin continued to grow in popularity as Gin Foundry declared, “Flavoured Gin is proving a bit of a challenge for the gin world, with the treasure getting lost amongst the trash, but this doozy from Slingsby proves that it's worth sifting through the rubble. It's bright, beautiful and refreshing, perfect in a G&T.”
With a growing taste for travel, we went big with an ambitious events programme for the spring and summer seasons. The Slingsby Garden was born ready for Chestertons Polo in the Park, Slingsby cocktails were enjoyed at the star-studded Serpentine Summer Party and guests at the BMW PGA Championships watched Rudimental on the Slingsby Showstage.
Team Slingsby set sail at Cowes Week, one of the oldest and most respected regattas in the world, as Official Gin of Cowes Week and Ladies Day sponsor. We enjoyed a night of glitz and glam serving Slingsby cocktails at the Attitude Awards. Then we finished up our events programme by rubbing shoulders with stars on the red carpet at the British Fashion Awards. Celebrities quaffed Slingsby G&Ts whilst enjoying a spectacular show celebrating outstanding contributions to the fashion industry.
Back on home turf (good old Yorkshire!), we created some fantastic experiences at local events and venues. We created a replica of our store at the Harrogate Spring Flower Show, and at the Great Yorkshire Show we set up a Slingsby bar, chill out area and installed a gigantic Slingsby ferris wheel. Taking over the fashion lawn at York Racecourse Ebor Festival was a highlight, as was serving G&Ts as a 2019 sponsor of the Rhinos at the opening of the new Headingly Stadium, and partnering with The Ivy Leeds for their Pride Brunch.
2019 was the year that Yorkshire played host to two world-class cycling events. Team Slingsby joined the Tour de Yorkshire caravan in our Slingsby Defender and the team had fun handing out goodies to cheering crowds. Then in September, the UCI World Road Cycling Championships came to Harrogate. To commemorate the occasion, we launched our ready to serve gin and tonic, Solo, with five flavours to choose from featuring our London Dry, Rhubarb, Gooseberry and Marmalade gins.
June saw us host our very first charity golf tournament at Rudding Park, raising over £6000 for GroceryAid. We also proudly supported a number of charities to help raise funds for some fantastic causes including: Mind, Variety, Barnardo’s and Sparks. And we donated over 3700 bottles of gin as raffle prizes for local causes too (we like to do our bit!).
During August we realised that time really does fly when you’re having fun as we celebrated our fourth birthday by launching our limited edition Marmalade Gin and preserve exclusively in our Harrogate store and online shop. We invited local customers to sample the new gin and join us for marmalade on toast at our Breakfast at Slingsby’s birthday event.
Gin-lovers rejoiced in September as we teamed up with Brigit’s Bakery in London on their Gin Lovers Afternoon Tea bus tour. Slingsby is now plastered across the side of a classic Route Master London bus and guests can take in London’s top attractions whilst tucking into gin infused sweet treats and sipping gin serves paired with London Essence mixers.
In total we scooped 17 awards across the Slingsby range, taking our total awards to a whopping 45, including gold wins for our Gooseberry and Navy Strength Gin in the Gin Masters, and another gold for our Marmalade Gin at the Luxury Spirits Masters.
To finish the already amazing year off on a high, we collaborated with Clerkenwell Boy to host a four course dinner at Petersham Nurseries. The dinner was attended by press and influencers (because we’re planning world domination for 2020) and each course was paired with a Slingsby cocktail.
During December the Slingsby Winter Terrace arrived at Revs de Cuba in Newcastle, transforming the roof terrace into a magical winter wonderland. Our mixologists created a special Slingsby cocktail menu for the partnership and the terrace was adorned with festive foliage, and cosy cushions, candles and blankets.
Lastly, Slingsby Gin was featured in Christmas Gift Guides of GQ, Stylist, Grazia, Delicious, The Sun, Great British Food and Women's Own Magazine. Our Gooseberry Gin featured in the Fever-Tree and Ginvent advent calendars, and we launched a limited edition Barrel-Aged Christmas Pudding Gin. It was a merry ginmas indeed!
Happy New Year from all of us at Spirit of Harrogate! Thank you for your support throughout 2019 and here’s to another year of delicious award-winning gin!