Bored of the mundane, monotonous advent calendars that appear every year and to celebrate our upcoming first anniversary, we decided to create an advent calendar with a twist. We’ve been known to be a little extremist in our undertakings, but this truly marks the most ambitious project to date -
The Gin-vent Calendar measures over a meter wide and a meter high and has 25 bottles of gin separately hidden behind each of the 25 closed doors. Each day a door will be opened to reveal a different gin in the run up to Christmas. The calendar itself (images arriving soon!) can be seen and admired for the duration of December in Graphic Bar, London, home to the famous Juniper Society. Those who come to Graphic Bar during this time will have the amazing opportunity to win all 25 gins featured in The Gin-vent Calendar.
To be entered into the draw to win all of the 25 Gins – all that is required is to sign up to the Juniper Society mailing list. For those who have never been down to a Juniper Society night (where have you been all this time?) here’s a little info about them… It was created in July 2010 by Sarah Mitchell in order to give a forum for gin brands to showcase their products to a wider audience – and for those interested in the gin category; (consumers, industry professionals, connoisseurs and complete novices) to meet, learn, share views and ideas. The informal, fun and informative events happen once every two weeks (on Monday nights) and have featured some of the biggest names in the business such as Desmond Paine, Sean Harrison, Joanne Moore and many others all sharing their insight into Gin.
The lucky winner of all 25 gins (a prize worth over £600) will be announced on Boxing Day.
Not content with just giving out all 25 gins to one person, we will also be hosting a daily Twitter competition where someone will have the chance to win the gin that is revealed behind the door of that day. For a chance to win, followers of The Gin Blog Twitter account (@theginblog) will have to respond correctly to a gin related question posted each morning… So get browsing around our posts and swat up before it all begins!
The gins involved with our Gin-vent calendar read as a veritable who’s who of the gin scene, with both established and younger brands all involved. They range from traditional London Dry to vapour infused modern classics, and from juniper centered to botanically diverse– the 25 gins are a testament to how versatile and diverse the category has become. Whatever your palette, mood or preference, there is sure to be many gins in this selection that you will make you frantically tweet responses for a chance to get your hands on one.
In no particular order (as to not spoil the surprise) the gins involved include the following: Beefeater & Beefeater 24, Tanqueray & Tanqueray No.10 Gin, Geranium Gin, No.3 Gin, Sloane’s Gin, Hayman’s Old Tom & Hayman’s 1850 Reserve Gin, SW4 Gin, William’s Gin, Greenall’s Gin, Bloom Gin, Berkeley Square Gin, Sipsmith Gin, Whitley Neill Gin, The Botanist Gin, Sacred Gin, Darnley’s View Gin, G’Vine Nouaison & G’Vine Floraison Gin, Caorunn Gin, Plymouth Gin, Edinburgh Gin and Bombay Sapphire.
We would like to say an enormous thank you to all those involved in making the Gin-vent Calendar happen. From the distillers, brand managers, ambassadors, PR’s, fellow bloggers, the team at Graphic and all the gin fans in between – it has been such a joy to have developed this with you all. Whilst we are always talking about the gins, their flavour profiles and the tantalizing libations they create – it is actually you who make being part of this category so interesting and so much fun. Thank you so much for all your support. Now…. let get giving away this GIN!
Here are a few T&C’s to be as transparent as possible…
The daily Twitter competition -
The competition runs from 9am until 5pm each day starting 1st December 2011
Winners are selected at random from those that respond correctly and are announced each evening
The competition is open for UK residents only
We do not guarantee delivery of the gin bottle before Christmas itself (but we’ll try our best!)
All entrants must be over 18 years of age
The 25-gin competition –
The competition to win all 25 gins in one go is run in partnership with Graphic bar
One person will win all 25 Gins inside the calendar
The Gin Blog will announce the winner on Boxing Day
The winner will be selected at random from those that applied
For a chance to win, entrants must sign up to the Juniper Society mailing list before 24th December 2011
Entrants can sign up to the Juniper Society mailing list at the bar
The winner will have to collect the gins from Graphic bar before the 15th January 2012
All entrants must be over 18 years of age
