A glam rock legend has raised a glass to the success of one of the country’s best-loved Christmas tunes by creating a special gin to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Wizzard frontman Roy Wood has worked with Nelson’s Distillery and Gin School, based in Uttoxeter, to create his gin ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, named after the festive favourite.
He created the gin, which is described as tasting “like Christmas cake” in a bottle, with the help of Nelson’s founder Neil Harrison, using only the finest botanical ingredients, including cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mulled spices, orange, pink peppercorns and juniper.
It is then distilled in-house and a limited number of bottles will be going on pre-sale this Friday, September 29. The first 20 bottles will be hand signed by Roy.
It is not the first time that Roy has created a gin with Nelson’s, as previously he created a special Christmas Cheer brew and another called Blackberry Way, based on a hit song from his days with The Move.
However, his new tipple marks the milestone anniversary for his best-known hit, which first hit the charts in 1973 and has been a cornerstone of the Christmas countdown ever since.
Roy said: “Neil got in touch a couple of years ago to see if I would be interested in creating my own gin. Nelson’s is a great gin school and so I came along to help design something very special.
“Because the first one we did was so nice, we thought we’d have a go at another Christmas one. The special anniversary gin is fruity and I want you to close your eyes to enjoy it as it tastes like Christmas cake.
“It is what you want at Christmas. It’s a reasonable alcohol percentage as well.”
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday famously features Roy singing accompanied by the vocals of a children’s school choir and, despite the passing of the years, has graced many a yuletide celebration over the past five decades.
Roy said: “It’s strange to think it’s the 50th anniversary of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. It was a shock when people were coming to me at the beginning of the year to say this, it’s amazing.
“Time has just flown by. Because it’s a Christmas song, it doesn’t date which is why I think it is so well-loved still. It’s great as an artist when young people are singing along to my song after all this time.”
Mr Harrison said: “I think this is the most Christmassy gin we’ve ever made. It’s the strongest Christmas gin we’ve made as Roy likes it strong, it has more botanicals in than the other gins.
“It truly is something very special and we think it is the taste of Christmas.”
The limited edition ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ gin has an alcohol ABV of 45% in a 50cl bottle. It costs £38 and is available by visiting Nelson’s Distillery at Nelson’s Distillery & School (nelsonsdistillery.co.uk).
