About Us

Our Story

Our story as siblings began in 1993, but our story as Sibling Distillery started in 2014. Below is a timeline of images throughout our time growing up together, along with the story of how we set up our distillery! Also, we are not massive fans of talking about ourselves, so below is a profile of each sibling, written by our Mum!

How it all started

Who we are

We are a team of two brothers and two sisters (Felix, Clarice, Cicely and Digby) and have always dreamt of running a business together! See our story

Meet the siblings

About us

Sibling Timeline

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2013

Sibling launched to the market in June 2014, we are a team of two brothers and two sisters (Felix, Clarice, Cicely and Digby) and have always dreamt of running a business together!

We grew up with our parents running a microbrewery (Felix started working every weekend in the brewery when he was just 12 years old) and we had always admired our parents hard work and determination when it came to making real ales. However, having spent our weekends and bank holidays as teenagers helping out, it didn’t seem like the most exciting business to launch ourselves into post-school!

2014

None of us had gone to university, so had no formal qualifications, but after making and selling Sloe Gin on a farmer’s market a year or two previously (unsurprisingly it sold well a week before Christmas!) we had a belief that with our youthful enthusiasm and creative ideas we really could make a bit of a splash in the distilling world.

2015

Call it naivety or call it ambition, but early on we decided that we didn’t just want to flavour a ready made neutral spirit as is commonplace in the industry, but we wanted to see the process through from start to finish ourselves. We didn’t want all of those years served in the brewery to be wasted! We really didn’t realise how rare this was, but once we had committed to it, there was no turning back.

2016

We spent almost a year working on our botanical mix, trialling hundreds of variations on hundreds of people (it was a pretty confusing spreadsheet!) but once we had agreed on a direction it was time to find a distillery that fit the style of gin that we wanted to make. This was when we met our first major problem. Lack of money.

2017

Distilleries are not cheap, especially the traditional, copper-clad stills (check out the price of Arnold Holstein ‘stills if you want a fright!) but we were determined that we could make this work. We needed an alternative – and luckily one appeared in front of us.

An Australian designer had created a new type of still, made out of mainly glass and stainless steel with copper only where you need it. It was the first of its type in the world and it had only been made on a micro scale before. However, we were prepared to take a punt on it working full scale, so, at a bargain price, we had it shipped over and built it in what was the (rarely used) sales office in our parent’s brewery.

2018

Luckily it worked. In fact, it worked so well that we had weekly emails from other distillers asking to come and visit to see it! The ‘still was special because it allowed vapour infusion of botanicals, which helped us to achieve the light, fresh flavours that we were obsessed with creating. On top of this, it also means we are able to put a fresh set of botanicals in every 18 litres for absolute quality assurance. As a bonus we think it looks pretty cool too!

2019

Once we had the ‘still, the recipe and the bottle (you’ll notice lots of hidden meanings in the bottle design, including everything being based on 4 sided shapes to signify the four corners of our business) we were ready to reveal it to the world.

The early days of our business revolved around walking into bars and trying to convince bartenders it was worth having a premium gin behind the bar and going to farmers markets and giving out tasters to convince the public that premium gins did, in fact, taste different to the most famous, budget brands. It seems like a lifetime ago, now that most towns has its own craft gin brand! But gradually we built a customer base of amazing independent retailers and bars as well as growing our local customer base who would come to see us at our tiny distillery to buy a bottle, or even order a bottle through our website (which had been built by a school friend!).

2020

However, it didn’t take long for things to step up a gear. We were thrilled in our second year of production to win the full 3* at the Great Taste Awards (those who know, will know how tough that is!) and to be named the Cotswolds Local Food and Drink Supplier of the Year. This gave us the confidence to approach some of the most prestigious names in the industry and we ended up selling gin to outlets that left us a little star struck – we even ended up in the Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge Christmas window display – and we have never looked back.

2021

We are so proud to work with some of the great independent retailers, bars and fine dining restaurants of the country, it is something that we never take for granted. We are also so grateful that customers return month after month to our website to continue to buy gin, nothing makes us happier than seeing a familiar name in our orders inbox in the morning!

2022

In late 2019, we moved to our new, purpose built distillery on Coxhorne Farm on the edge of Cheltenham, where we were able to bring our family brewery with us. This is going to be our home for the foreseeable future and we have plenty of growing space here. Although we are just a small, craft business, we do have big ambitions. It has been very important to us not to compromise our ethics of start to finish production, so we have grown at a rate that has allowed this, but as we have become busier we have been able to bring more friends and family into the business. We call it the mad-house, and we love it when our customers drop in to say hello!

The Founders

Digby

Digby, my 6ft 2 inch baby. Tall dark and handsome and with a great sense of humour. Not a day passes when he doesn’t make me howl with laughter. Some people think outside the box, but Digby has never been near the box. Each parent’s evening started with the highlight of “Digby is very polite” and went down hill from there. Always cheeky, he has the classic youngest child traits, and knows that whatever happens we will all stick up for him…I pitied his teachers. He is always very kind and protective, he loves our dogs, the outdoor life, often sleeping in a hammock, rockclimbing, camping, and is a brilliant skier. At work he gets things done with little fuss, he is practical and just gets on with it. He is definitely my favourite child.

Cicely

Cicely, “though she be but little, she is fierce” whilst she is the most thoughtful person you could ever meet, she is also the most assertive of my children. She likes to get things done (her way!) Cicely loves to entertain and cook for everyone she knows and adores and that is a lot of very lucky people. She is the hoste with the moste which is very handy as she organises our events here at the distillery. Always striving to expand her skills, Cicely is forever learning or enrolling on a new course and recently passed her sommelier exams. She loves the outdoors and is also a very good skier. At work she is driven, determined and amazing fun to be with. She is most certainly my favourite child.

Felix

Felix, known by the others as the “golden boy”, is a serial over achiever, (or so he says!) He is HIGHLY competitive and this shows in his many sporting hobbies. He frequently has a black eye from his MMA, which grates after all the years of wrapping him in cotton wool. He loves watching the Cherry and Whites, supports Arsenal and is a huge fan of horse racing, (Cheltenham born and bred). While he’s a massive softy at heart with bundles of love to give, Felix is never afraid of whipping the team into shape (much to his Siblings horror!) but he always brings them back around in the end with his salesman’s charm! He loves to train, ski and eat and drink his way around the world but is never happier than when walking one of the dogs in the Cotswold countryside. He is without a doubt my favourite child.

Clarice

Clarice, my right-hand-woman, has been a mum-in-training since she could walk and talk. Always watching over the others and putting everyone else before herself. Now a real mum of two, she brought us eternal sunshine in the form of two gorgeous Grandchildren, whom the whole family adores.She takes on the part of the business that none of the others wanted, the finances! She is mathsy and meticulous, thank goodness someone is, and loves to read up on all the dos and don’ts that come with a distillery. Clarice has a wicked sense of humour and always lightens the room when she walks into it. She loves to shop and she’s also really good at shopping. In comparison to the others when it comes to skiing, you could say she has all the gear and no idea, but she’s more than happy to come along for the hot chocolate. She has always been my favourite child.