By Sacha Delfosse
Hand crafted, small batch spirits will always be of a better quality than those that are mass distilled, argues Sam Galsworthy, one of the owners of UK boutique distillery, Sipsmith Independent Spirits.
Launched in 2009, Galsworthy said Sipsmith aimed to bring a "sense of craftsmanship" back to gin.
"Fundamentally when you make spirits by hand in really small batches the quality is better – you can control it more," he said, on a recent visit to Australia.
"The smaller the yield then the bigger the richness, the character and the complexity. We throw away quite a lot of alcohol as a result, we only use that central bit of the heart cut, which is paramount to the quality." [continues below]
Sam Galsworthy of Sipsmith Independent Spirits
The distillery uses a specially designed copper still named 'Prudence' that can produce 300 bottles a day, six days a week. The demand for its London Dry Gin – as well as its Barley Vodka and Sloe Gin – has been so great that the distillery will be introducing another replica still next year.
"The problem we have is that we are absolutely at capacity, so markets are all on allocation. What we will never do is grow in a way that compromises the way we do things."
With the new still the distillery will double its capacity, while still maintaining its 'philosophy of craft', something Galsworthy believes both consumers and bartenders are embracing – especially in Australia.
"We have been in the Australian market for under a year and we are ahead of where we thought we'd be. I'd rather not give away how much we have actually sold but we have done a lot for a small distiller," he said.
"We want Sipsmith to be this premium craft, 'go to' gin for top end bartenders. My key message to people is that craft production always wins in quality – small batch is better."
Sipsmith is distributed locally by Hippocampus Memorable Drinks, which was set up by Little Creatures founders – Howard Cearns, Nic Trimboli and David Martin – in May this year.