Biggar Gin | Award-winning Scottish craft gin — 98/100 IWSC
Stuart & Euan McVicar · Biggar, South Lanarkshire
Two brothers. One distillery. A big idea from a small Scottish town.
We built The Stillhouse in the place we know best, because we believed the only way to make spirits worth drinking was to make them properly.
How Biggar Gin began
We set out to build a good one.
In 2018, we opened The Stillhouse and distilled our first batch of Biggar Gin. We hadn't set out to build the biggest distillery in Scotland. Small batches, high standards, no shortcuts. We wanted to make a gin we were genuinely proud of — the kind you'd pour for someone who knows their spirits and not have to explain away.
Within months of launching, Biggar Gin won the London Dry Gin category at The Gin Guide Awards. We took that as confirmation we were on the right track. Then came the score that stopped us in our tracks.
Our Biggar Strength Gin scored 98 out of 100 at the International Wine & Spirits Competition — the joint highest score ever given to a gin in the competition's history, from a field of 1,100 entries. Blind tasting. No brand story to influence the judges. Just what was in the glass.
"Blind tasting. No brand story to influence the judges. Just what was in the glass. We're still proud of that number."
Stuart & Euan McVicar
98
Out of 100
IWSC 2021
1,100
Gins entered
globally
140
Max bottles
per batch
3★
Great Taste
2022
Why Biggar
Not the obvious place. Exactly the right one.
Biggar is not the obvious place to launch a craft spirits brand. It doesn't have the footfall of a city, the visibility of an established whisky region, or the infrastructure of a larger town.
What it has is character. The town has always welcomed innovation while respecting its past. It punches above its weight. The Tinto Hills to the north give the area its distinctive landscape. The water is local. The botanicals that inspire our recipes are drawn from the fields and hedgerows of South Lanarkshire.
That sense of place isn't branding. It's genuinely where we come from and what informs every decision we make at the still.
The Biggar Mentality
Small scale. No shortcuts. No exceptions.
We distil in limited quantities to control every stage of the process. We use natural botanicals. We're powered by renewable energy. We use local Biggar water. Shortcuts show up in the glass, so we don't take them.
We're also not secretive about how we work. Our ethos is to share knowledge, be open in our approach, and build real relationships with the people who drink our spirits. We taste constantly. We refine. We take honest feedback seriously and let it influence what we make next.
Every spirit we release is held to the same standard. If it isn't good enough to be proud of, it doesn't leave the distillery.
"Every spirit we release is held to the same standard. If it isn't good enough to be proud of, it doesn't leave the distillery."
The Biggar Mentality
What the judges said
Blind judging. No brand story. Just what's in the glass.
We don't enter competitions for the certificates. We enter them because blind judging by expert panels is one of the most honest tests a spirit can face.
- 98/100 — International Wine & Spirits Competition 2021 — joint highest score ever given to a gin among 1,100 entries
- Three Stars — Great Taste Awards 2022 — one of only two gins in the UK to achieve this that year
- London Dry Gin Category Winner — The Gin Guide Awards — won in our first year
- Recognition from Scottish Field, The Gin Cooperative, and others
Awards don't make a great spirit. But they're a useful signal that the people who spend their careers tasting spirits think what's in the bottle is worth your time.
The range
From one gin to a full range.
That same obsession runs through everything we make — from our flagship London Dry to our ready-to-drink cocktails and Asian Spiced Rum. We've also produced spirits for other brands, most notably Suonare, a commemorative gin created in partnership with Scottish Opera for their 60th anniversary.
Explore the rangeVisit The Stillhouse
The best way to understand what we do is to come and see it.
Six people maximum. Ninety minutes. You'll see the stills in operation, taste from the range including spirits not available to buy anywhere, and leave understanding exactly why this gin scores 98/100.
We also host private events and corporate experiences at the distillery.
Book a tour — £20 per personStill just two brothers from Biggar
The distillery is still in Biggar. The batches are still small.
We've grown since 2018. The range is bigger, the awards cabinet needs more wall space, and people are finding us from further afield than we expected.
But Stuart and Euan are still the ones making the decisions and tasting every run before it ships.
That won't change.
The range
This is what we make.
Every bottle tells the same story — small batches, copper pot stills, and an obsession with getting it exactly right.