Helford based Monterey Gin recently picked up international recognition after it was awarded 'Gold Outstanding' in the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC).

More than 800 gins were submitted to the competition, with an expert panel of judges.

Co-founder and distiller Simon Finemore told Nub News:

"This particular competition is called the IWSC, it is the premier competition for spirits and wine in the world because it is all blind tasted.

"Gin has never historically scored more than 96 points, this year there were three gins that scored 98, we were very chuffed to get the gold outstanding award for 98/100 points and just this week we learnt we had won the overall London Dry Gin category outright so we were the top of those final three gins.

"The process is two and half years of hard graft, testing and retesting and then developing a recipe and then further developing it and fine-tuning it until you get to a point where you are happy with it and then you put it out to the market and see how it does.

"I thought we would get a medal but didn't expect the top medal so we were very surprised and excited, and to win the trophy this week was very exciting."

After winning the award this week the judges class Monterey Gin as the best London Dry Gin in the world.

The team doesn't intend to stop there and production continues, Simon added:

"Demand has increased significantly, that presents a certain amount of challenges with regard to how we can upscale production without losing the quality because right now everything is made by hand watching every single drop coming out.

"We don't want to compromise on the quality but we want to also to meet as much demand as we can."

Click here to find out more about Monterey.

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