Previously having run the production side of Edinburgh Crystal, Matt is now a gin distiller, one of two business partners behind the dramatic rise of Edinburgh-based Pickering’s Gin.
”Two guys who knew nothing about gin apart from drinking it decided to build a gin distillery”. We thought it was going to be a hobby, that we were maybe a bit late to the gin revolution.”
Pickering’s launched in March 2014 and was quickly made the official gin supplier of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Royal Yacht Britannia.
Having produced several limited editions that became product lines in their own right Pickering’s Gin, their original product is still their biggest seller with Pickering’s 1947 picking up behind it and The Navy Strength, or ‘the strong one’, which is 57.1% proof and is more of a bartenders choice. They also produce a sloe gin, distilled in the traditional manner, a pink grapefruit and lemongrass liqueur and have launched five oak-aged gins from five whisky regions of Scotland – Speyside, Lowland, Highland, Island and Islay.
The business has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years and Pickering’s is currently exporting to more than 25 countries worldwide.