The annual Rye News sloe gin competition, organised by Dennis Leeds-George, took place at the Waterworks on Wednesday 11 March.
The sloe gins and other fruit gins, vodkas, whiskies or liquors were judged blind by a panel of four: Isabel Ryan, Morganne Fiddimore, Heidi Foster and Nicola Hill. Each was given a score out of 10 for smell, taste, looks and smoothness and all the scores added up to find the winners.
There winners for their sloe gin were Nick and Sarah Johnson. The judges agreed that their gin, made from locally picked sloes, had a strong fruity flavour and aroma, a rich red colour and a smoothness that made it stand out from the rest.
There were a variety of entries for the gins, vodkas and others – 9 in all – including damson, rhubarb, gooseberry and plum vodkas, a medlar gin, a mead, a raspberry gin and a calvados. For the second year in a row the winner was Lawrence Wilson with his damson vodka, with joint second place going to Chris and Kev’s calvados and Nick McCrae’s damson vodka and third place going to the raspberry vodka made by Redmond Kingsland, last year’s sloe gin winner.
After the judging was completed and the results announced, the assembled crowd were treated to an opportunity to try out the various entries.
Image Credits: Isabel Ryan , Juliet Duff .