Shakespeare inspires new Cotswolds aged gin

The Cotswolds Distillery is readying to launch a new barrel-aged gin to mark the 400^th anniversary of William Shakespeare, called 1616 Gin.

Cotswold Distillery’s 1616 Gin is based on 17th century Dutch-style genever

The Warwickshire-based distillery said it is paying homage to its “local bard” by creating a new gin based on 17^th century Dutch-style genever that has been aged in American oak ex‐red wine casks.

Daniel Szor, founder and CEO of the distillery, said: “1616 Gin represents several gin firsts for us; it is made primarily with our own malt whisky spirit (rather than neutral grain spirit, the base used for most gins), it is triple‐distilled with juniper and other select period botanicals and then barrel‐aged in the same American oak ex‐red wine casks we use to age our Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky.

“It is gin as would have been made in the time of Shakespeare.”

Set to be released on 23 April, the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the bottle’s label design is based on The Tempest and features a quote from the play.

Just 2,000 bottles of 1616 Gin will be available through the distillery’s onsite shop, via its website and through select local establishments. The expression will also be available through Selfridges in London later this year as part of the store’s Shakespeare‐themed celebrations.

Cotswolds Distillery launched its inaugural London dry gin in September 2014 and plans to release a single malt English whisky and rye at the end of 2017.