A UNIQUE gin business which captures the spirit of Ulverston's lupine past has beat hundreds of entries to win a prestigious award.

Wolftown Citrus Gin came out a winner in The Flavoured Gin category at the sixth running of The Gin Guide Awards 2022.

The company, whose shop is based in Ulverston's Market Place, also won a bronze medal at the fifth London Spirits Competition.

Hundreds of gins from more than 30 countries around the world took part in The Gin Guide Awards 2022, in categories based on the most popular styles of gin and their countries of production, as well as design and branding and environmental sustainability categories.

The winners are selected through a rigorous blind tasting process conducted by an esteemed panel of distinguished gin experts, including spirits buyers for retailers, distillers, authors, and mixologists.

Each gin’s appearance, aroma, flavour, mouthfeel, finish and overall quality and market appeal are assessed to determine the highest scoring gins, based purely on the spirit itself and with no influence from branding, marketing or country of origin.

Head judge Paul Jackson, the founder and editor of The Gin Guide, said: “Huge congratulations and credibility go to all the winners, highly commended gins and finalists.

"The Gin Guide Awards names a very small number of winners in each category to ensure genuine exclusivity and to protect the value of the awards and its proven ability to guide trade and consumer buying decisions. 

“There were plenty of fantastic entries in the Flavoured Gin category and the Judges all very much enjoyed Wolftown Citrus Gin."

John McKeown, founder of Wolftown, said: “We got notice that we were a finalist in the Flavoured Gin category at The Gin Guide Awards and having seeing the other finalists, I thought there was no chance of being a winner and was happy enough with that.

"Iʼd even sent artwork to the printers that had the finalist badge on, though thankfully, HSP Milners were able to add the winners badge at the very last minute.

“We are so proud that Wolftown Citrus Gin has achieved this recognition from two different gin competitions.

“We created such a unique tasting and multi-award winning first spirit with our Wolftown Signature Gin, that we knew it would be a hard act to follow, so we created something that was true to ourselves and with broad appeal.

“My wife Helen is a travel agent and we were missing visiting our favourite Mediterranean destinations in lockdown, so we wanted to create a drink with a flavour that reminded us of those places.

“Itʼs a very summery drink that makes a really refreshing G&T and proudly, itʼs the inclusion of organic oats from Little Salkeld Watermill, in our home county of Cumbria, that has made it the silky smooth spirit that is now gaining accolades from the drinks industry.

“Weʼre now looking forward to serving plenty of Citrus Gin at our small bar in the centre of Ulverston and planning what will hopefully be our next award winning spirits."