杜松子酒復興浪潮橫掃歐洲(1)
The people of Harris, a rugged, windswept island in the Outer Hebrides, held a huge ceilidh, a party with traditional Scottish music and dance, last September, to celebrate the opening of their new distillery.
外赫布里底羣島（Outer Hebrides）中有一個崎嶇而多風的小島，名叫哈里斯島(Harris)。去年9月，那裏的人們舉行了一場規模盛大的傳統聚會(ceilidh)，在蘇格蘭傳統歌舞的伴奏下，慶祝新的釀酒廠開張。
The whisky business will bring in 25 new jobs — a considerable number given Harris’s population of 1,916. Over the past 50 years, the population has halved, and also aged, as young people have quit the island to find work.
這家威士忌公司將創造25個新的就業崗位——對於人口只有1,916人的哈里斯島來說，這是個不小的數字。過去50年，由於年輕人紛紛外出尋找工作，島上的人口已經減半，平均年齡也越來越大。
It'll be around four years until the new distillery starts selling its single malt whisky, The Hearach, but in the meantime, cash flow is being eased by their first product — seaweed-infused gin.
這家新的釀酒廠大概還要再等4年才能開始銷售他們的 The Hearach 單一純麥威士忌。但與此同時，作爲廠裏的首款產品，加入海藻的杜松子酒（gin）已經開始減輕他們的現金流壓力。
“It will be close to a decade before we start making money. Gin helps the situation. It takes days rather than years to produce,” said managing director Simon Erlanger. Under UK and EU law, whisky must be aged at least three years before it can be sold as such. Meanwhile, the distillery’s first product is Isle of Harris premium gin, flavoured with nine botanical plants such as angelica root, orris root and cassia bark. The defining ingredient, however, is sugar kelp seaweed, harvested by a local diver from the Atlantic.
“我們大概要等10年才能開始賺錢，杜松子酒給我們帶來了幫助。這種酒只要幾天就能生產出來，不必等待數年之久。”總經理西蒙•厄蘭格(Simon Erlanger)說。根據英國和歐洲的法律，威士忌至少要經過3年陳釀才能對外出售。在此期間，這個釀酒廠的首款產品則是哈里斯島的優質杜松子酒，其中加入了當歸、鳶尾根和桂皮等9種植物進行調味。不過，最關鍵的還是加入當地人潛入大西洋收穫的糖味海帶。
As the UK’s first "social distillery", funded by private investors and by public money from the Scottish government and the local enterprise agency, it is hoped that the Isle of Harris distillery will stop young people leaving the island for jobs elsewhere and spur business creation, particularly in tourism. By producing premium gin to help get the business off the ground, it is also part of a new economic trend seen elsewhere in Europe.
作爲英國首家“社會釀酒廠”，哈里斯島釀酒廠由私人投資者、英格蘭政府的公共資金以及當地企業共同資助。他們希望這家釀酒廠可以阻止年輕人外出尋找工作，並刺激當地的商業發展，尤其是旅遊業的發展。生產優質杜松子酒不僅可以幫助這家釀酒廠起步，也是整個歐洲的新興經濟趨勢的一部分。
Cheering numbers
銷量增長
Mother's ruin, better known as gin, has undergone something of a renaissance in Europe and has been reinvented as a premium product over the last eight years. The so-called "gin-aissance" is not only winning over style-conscious younger drinkers but bringing jobs and increased tourism, particularly to remoter areas in, for instance, Finland, Portugal and Spain.
杜松子酒又名金酒或琴酒，它正在歐洲迎來複興，過去8年已經搖身一變成了一種高檔商品。所謂的“杜松子酒復興”不僅頗受注重時尚的年輕飲酒者歡迎，還創造了就業，而且提升了旅遊業的收入，尤其是芬蘭、葡萄牙和西班牙等國的偏遠地區。
According to IWSR, a wine and spirits market researcher, total sales of premium gins in 2013-2014 increased in value by 15.5% worldwide, but by an even more substantial 29.8% in Europe, where the market was worth $935m. Between 2015-20 sales of premium gins are expected to grow in volume at a compound annual growth rate of 5.6% worldwide and 6.8% in Europe.
據紅酒和烈酒市場研究公司IWSR測算，全球優質杜松子酒銷量在2013至2014年間增長15.5%，歐洲增幅更是達到29.8%，市場規模爲9.35億美元。2015至2020年間，全球和歐洲的高端杜松子酒銷量有望分別保持5.6%和6.8%的複合年增長率。
In the UK, the world’s biggest gin exporter, the number of brands has more than doubled since 2010 from 31 to 73 driven by demand for locally-sourced ingredients and natural botanicals which create different flavours, according to a government report.
政府出具的官方報告顯示，作爲全球最大的杜松子酒出口國，英國的杜松子酒品牌自2010年以來已經翻了一番多，從31個增長到73個。這一增長源自對當地原料和天然植物的需求，這些都可以創造出不同的口味。
