Shakespeare Distillery is celebrating after scooping two recent awards despite a very challenging year which has seen the business go from strength to strength. The independent artisan spirit producer has been awarded the Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice Award 2021 and has also been awarded a silver medal in the International Wine & Spirit Competition 2021 for its Jester White Rum which was the joint highest placed British made unaged white rum.

The Rum was awarded a high scoring 90 points out of a possible 100 and the judges summed up the rum as being “highly drinkable and packed full of tropical fruit flavours”.  Shakespeare Distillery launched their Jester White Rum in April followed closely by their Jester Spiced Rum in June. The Distillery is proud to be one of only a handful of distilleries in the UK to create their rum in its entirety onsite. British molasses is slowly fermented in their large fermenter ‘Titania’ to craft a flavoursome base rum, before being twice distilled to create a very smooth, handcrafted British spirit.

Each year, Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel website, pulls together all the reviews and ratings that travellers share from across the globe and uses that information to spotlight the best. Traveller’s Choice recognises businesses that earn consistently great user reviews and winners are ranked among the top 10% of businesses on Tripadvisor. As challenging as the past year was, Shakespeare Distillery stood out by continuously delighting travellers. 96% of visitors have rated their experience as ‘excellent’. The experiences at the multi-award-winning visitor centre are now running at normal capacity and these include Distillery Tours, Gin Schools, Cocktail Masterclasses and River Avon Gin Cruises.

The Distillery has also recently released two distillery specials – Limoncello and Orangecello. The team have been busy experimenting with different flavours and spirits to create these delicious new spirits which are a limited edition. The Limoncello has a sharp lemon taste with mild sweetness and the Orangecello, captures the sweet nature of delicious Mediterranean oranges.

In addition to their onsite distillery shop, Shakespeare Distillery spirits can be purchased at their No 1 High Street store in Stratford. The Distillery opened this new shop at the height of the pandemic last year and were one of a handful of independent retailers opening in

Stratford town centre during this time. This resulted in a recent recruitment drive which has included the employment of two distillery assistants through the Government Kickstart Scheme.

Peter Monks, Director at Shakespeare Distillery said “Our growing team are absolutely delighted to have won these two awards and have something to celebrate. We are immensely proud of the positive feedback that we have received and would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to leave a review on Tripadvisor. Winning silver in the IWSC is testament to our brilliant team who work incredibly hard in producing a high quality, locally made Rum. As one of the few producers making rum completely from scratch, considerable time, effort, and passion has been invested in the creation of Jester White Rum and this recognition is testament to that”.

Shakespeare Distillery is no stranger to winning awards, last year the company won the New Tourism Business Award in the West Midlands Tourism Awards for their destination distillery experiences.

For more information about Shakespeare Distillery please visit http://www.shakespearedistillery.com/