What is Spirits Beacon?
Our mission is simple – to help you navigate through a sea of spirits.
Too often spirits writing gets fragmented, with invisible borders drawn around being intended for either trade or consumer audiences, specialised on individual spirit categories, or a perceived need to pick a lane and opt for frivolous and flippant, reactive but superficial, or slow to the story but serious in nature.
As a platform we don’t accept this. We’re for drinks enthusiasts who want a mix of content about spirits presented in all kinds of ways. We work with journalists who also believe there’s a need to look at subjects from all the different angles to tell the most interesting stories.
We’re guided by a shared curiosity of what lies beneath the surface of the liquid in our glass and a love of the amazing drinks, industry and community that can be found circling the world of spirits.
What we know to be true is that good spirits are more than just distilled flavour. They are about the people, the place, the process and the passion. This is what we cast our light on through our articles.
How do we do it?
We do this in three ways.
- We create articles about the latest releases, spotlight brands to look out for in short thematic features and act as a hub for the most up-to-date news via social media.
- Working with a talented pool of writers, we commission longer format journalism that takes the shape of opinionated insight, deep dives into spirits, helpful “how to” guides, as well as reviews of both new brands and old classics.
- Last but not least, we have a library of articles intended as a repository of information for those curious enough to want to delve beneath the surface. These range from cocktail recipes and ideas, an entire glossary that bust all the trade jargon and what it means, as well as producer profiles that contain all the vital fact-checked info about who they are and what they make.
Who is behind it?
Spirits Beacon is a part of Enotria&Coe, a London-based drinks distributor. This platform is intended for editorial and educational purposes, with retail and trade operations running entirely separately and not influencing the decisions made here.
We work with talented writers from across the world (you’ll spot them in the bylines of the articles), while our Editor, Olivier Ward, has spent the past ten years working in the spirits industry. Olivier has taught dozens of producers how to build their distilleries, helping fine-tune recipes that have gone on to win top international honours.
His Botanical Tasting Wheels, infographics and Annuals pioneered new forms of education and storytelling within spirits, and in 2018, his book Gin Distilled was published with Penguin Random House. Olivier is Channel 4’s resident Gin Expert on Sunday Brunch, having also regularly presented sections on gin cocktails for ITV’s This Morning, the BBC and commercial radio stations.
