Edinburgh Gin wins complaint against Pickering’s

The Spencerfield Spirit Company, maker of Edinburgh Gin, has claimed success in its complaint against Pickering’s Gin, which described its production site as “Edinburgh’s first gin distillery in over 150 years”.

The maker of Edinburgh Gin has won its complaint against Pickering’s Gin with the ASA

Spencerfield complained to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that Pickering’s claim that its Summerhall Distillery was the “first gin distillery in Edinburgh for over 150 years” was “misleading”.

Pickering’s Gin made the claim on its website, Twitter feed and in local media. Set up in 2013, Summerhall Distillery is based on an arts centre and brewery in central Edinburgh.

However, Pickering’s Gin responded to the complaint, arguing that while the Spencerfield Distillery predates the build of Summerhall, its distillation and bottling takes places outside of the City of Edinburgh Council boundary.

Pickering’s also argued that only wine merchants, whisky blenders and “general” distillers had operated in Edinburgh over the last 150 years, but added that these were not exclusive gin producers, and were first established more than 150 years ago.

“They said they did not dispute that gin was made in Edinburgh within the last 150 years, but that this was not what their claim stated,” the ASA said.

“Rather, Pickering’s stated that they were the first dedicated gin distillery established in 150 years, and there was no evidence of there being another sole purpose, bricks and mortar gin distillery having been built in Edinburgh in the last 150 years by anyone other than them and, subsequently, Spencerfield.”

Nevertheless, the ASA has upheld Spencerfield’s complaint, and ordered Summerhall Distillery not to claim to be the first gin distillery to be established or operational within Edinburgh since 1863, unless it can prove this is the case.

“We noted Pickering’s statement that their claim related to the establishment (not just operation) of a gin distillery, but considered that this was not made clear in the claim and that consumers would not interpret it in this way,” the ASA said.

The authority also found that Pickering’s had not referred to its distillery as the first “exclusive” gin distillery in its advertising materials, and that documents provided by Spencerfield showed gin had been distilled in Leith in the 1930s.

“We considered that linking the product to the heritage of the spirit trade in Edinburgh and to imply that it was related to a revival of this industry was likely to be of particular interest to some consumers, and that its provenance in this context was therefore material information,” the ASA concluded. “Because the claims had not been substantiated, we concluded that the ads were misleading.”

On its website, Pickering’s Gin now describes Summerhall as “Edinburgh’s first exclusive gin distillery in over 150 years”.