Raising a glass to annual sloe gin contest
It’s serious business deciding between the many entries in the annual Shireoaks Sloe Gin Competition. But someone has to do it.
A panel of judges sipped, swirled and sniffed their way through this year’s submissions to choose a worthy winner.
The panel comprised Coun Sybil Fielding, Peter Bainbridge and Maxine Seeley.
Rachel Barrowcliffe, who organised the event at the Shireoaks Sports and Social Club, said: “All entries are blind tasted by the judges and they come to a joint decision of who is the best entry in each category.
Afterwards everyone is able to sample the entries to see which is their personal favourite.
“We had a wide range of entries in the ‘any other spirit based tipple’ category, including blackberry whiskey, elderberry liquor, raspberry gin, damson gin and elderflower gin.”
Carol Walker won category one: sloe gin 2012, category two: vintage sloe gin was won by Ada Mee, and category three: any other spirit based tipple was also won by Carol Walker with her elderflower gin.
Winners received a certificate and a cash prize.