A West Midlands couple who launched their own luxury spirits firm say they are bursting with pride after their products picked up two national industry awards in just two months.

Baz and Sunny Kooner, owners of Jatt Life, based in Kingswinford, described the accolades as the perfect reward for their hard work and ambition and a huge first step towards establishing themselves as a major brand in the drinks industry.

Their latest award was a Silver Medal for Jatt Life’s original five-times distilled French grain 40 per cent abv vodka in the Super Premium category of respected industry magazine Spirits Business’s Vodka Masters 2021 competition, which was held earlier this month.

It follows earlier success in Spirit Business’s Whiskey Masters 2021 competition, when Jatt Life’s Irish whiskey came away with a Gold Award in the Blended Premium category.

A panel of expert tasters gathered at a hotel in London to judge the vodka masters and their comments for Jatt Life’s vodka noted that it had a “a clean, neutral nose,” adding: “The palate has a delicious sweetness, with a little peppery spice and a fresh finish.

“Well balanced and classic in style.”

Changing trends and the coronavirus lockdown has seen a huge increase in the number of different brands and flavours of vodka hit the market, with drinkers keen to explore new tastes and enthusiastically mixing their own cocktails at home.

Jatt Life was launched last year and hit the ground running, selling 100,000 bottles in its first year alone, despite the closure of bars and restaurants due to the pandemic.

Earlier this year Jatt Life, which produces four different flavours of vodka alongside its whiskey and its own pink gin called Jatti Gin, moved into its own 15,000 sq ft facility in Kingswinford, which will allow it to bring its entire operation under one roof.

Not only will this allow it to significantly increase production, it will also see the creation of a high-spec vodka bar where it can showcase its products, allow it to expand its 10-strong workforce and even afford it space to store its own fleet of Jatt Life-branded supercars.

Baz said: “Everyone we have sold and served Jatt Life to has loved it, but we’re bursting with pride after picking up these gold and silver medals in the Spirits Business awards.

“To know that a panel of experienced and respected judges has picked out our product for praise is wonderful and it’s an amazing reward after all the hard work that we have put in over the past 15 months.

“The spirits industry is hugely competitive and we’ve had a really steep learning curve even without coronavirus coming along a week after we set the business up.

“Sunny and I are both hugely ambitious and we’ve got some really big plans to establish Jatt Life among the top brands, so to get these awards at this stage is a wonderful achievement.”