Shakespeare Distillery has been shortlisted twice in the prestigious West Midlands Tourism Awards. The independent artisan spirit producer based in Stratford-upon-Avon has been shortlisted in the Experience of the Year and Small Visitor Attraction of the Year and is one of only a small handful of businesses to be shortlisted in the Stratford-upon-Avon region. The awards are being held in March and regional winners will automatically be put through to the national VisitEngland Awards for Excellence in June.

The Distillery is up for Experience of the Year for their Gin School, which was launched three years ago, and ran for almost a year before the first national lockdown. The Gin School enables visitors to try their own hand at being a distiller and create their own gin using a miniature copper still and an array of botanicals, alongside expert tuition. At the end of the 3-hour session, visitors will have distilled, blended, bottled, sealed, and labelled their very own unique bottles of gin to take away with them.

Some of the recent 5-star reviews on TripAdvisor say “It was a brilliant and fun experience. You can make whatever you want, under the guiding hands of the staff. Really nice and charismatic, entertaining guys, with lots of anecdotes about gin and the history of distilling, which all helped to make the afternoon a great experience”, “Fabulous experience, guides were so friendly, and the spirit tasting was so much fun! Can’t recommend enough”, “The distillery tour was really interesting & fun! And ended with tasting some amazing gins/rum. Great team at the distillery who gave us a fun couple of hours. Really enjoyable”.

The awards are supported by the West Midlands Growth Company, one of the partners responsible for delivering the 3-year Business and Tourism Programme which aims to leverage the profile of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to attract more tourists and events to the West Midlands and UK. Pre-pandemic, the tourism sector contributed £13.1 billion to the West Midlands economy, attracting 134 million visitors, and supporting more than 137,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

Peter Monks, Director at Shakespeare Distillery said “We are absolutely thrilled to have been shortlisted twice in these Awards. Having established our business six years ago, our gins and rums have gone from strength to strength, and we introduced our distillery tours and gin school three years ago with plans to further develop our visitor experiences in Stratford this year. Winning either of these awards would be testament to our brilliant team who work incredibly hard in producing high quality, locally made handcrafted spirits and delivering a five-star visitor experience”.

Becky Frall, Head of Visitor Attraction at the growth company, said: "The West Midlands Tourism Awards will celebrate the venues which, despite working in an often-unpredictable climate, have consistently delivered a first-class welcome for our region's visitors. This year, more than ever, major global events such as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Birmingham 2022 Festival and the culmination of the UK City of Culture in Coventry are set to produce lifelong memories for everyone who comes to the region".

Shakespeare Distillery is no stranger to winning awards, in 2020 the company won gold in the New Tourism Business category in the West Midlands Tourism Awards on its last outing. The Distillery was also awarded the Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice Award 2021 and a silver medal in the International Wine & Spirit Competition 2021 for its Jester White Rum.

For more information about Shakespeare Distillery please visit https://www.shakespearedistillery.com/ For more information about the West Midlands Tourism Awards visit https://westmidlandstourismawards.com/