A very proud moment for all of us at Isle of Barra Distillers.
On Sunday evening, Co-Founder Katie, alongside her brother and our Head Distiller Andy, attended the prestigious awards ceremony in San Francisco to celebrate Isle of Barra Gin being named Best Overall Gin at the 2026 New York World Spirits Competition.
This follows our Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2025 and another Double Gold in New York in 2026.
To achieve back-to-back Double Gold awards at two of the world's most respected spirits competitions is something we're incredibly proud of. To then go one step further and be recognised as Best Overall Gin is quite remarkable.
When we started Isle of Barra Distillers back in 2017, we had a simple ambition: to build something special on our wee Island and take a little piece of Barra to the rest of the world.
We certainly didn't imagine we'd be competing alongside some of the biggest names in the global spirits industry, let alone receiving recognition at this level.
2026 has also marked the beginning of a very exciting chapter for us in America.
In June, we launched Isle of Barra Gin with Total Wine & More, making our gin available across 28 states. For a small, family-owned Scottish distillery from an island with a population of just over 1,000 people, this is an enormous opportunity.
We want to say a genuine thank you to the team at Total Wine & More for their support, belief in our brand and the opportunity they've given us to introduce Isle of Barra Gin to American consumers.
We are still very much at the beginning of our journey in the US, but with the recognition we've received and the partnerships we're building, we're incredibly excited about what lies ahead.
Most importantly, a huge thank you to our team and everyone who has supported us along the way. These achievements belong to all of you. We have a long way to go and plenty of hard work ahead, but moments like this remind us why we started.
Not bad for a wee gin from the Isle of Barra.
Not bad for a wee gin from the Isle of Barra
