A recent poll I ran indicted that only 8% of my Twitter followers intended to attempt Dry January, with the vast majority opting instead for a boozy Ginuary! However, with more and more so-called millenials cutting down their drinking in favour of a more healthy lifestyle and plenty of other reasons to decline a double G&T – pregnancy, designated driver duties, marathon training or simply a nasty hangover – there is increasing demand for booze-free adult-style drinks.
I love gin. And I also love writing about gin. It’s not just about the spirit for me though. Yes, of course, I love interesting botanicals and a delicious drink. But I also look for a good story, and a stunning bottle. And, according to The Gin Guild, I’m not alone. Truth be told, it’s pretty rare to find a gin that really ticks all the boxes. Rarer still to be asked to review one. Ladies and gentlemen, Trevethan Cornish Gin is, for me, that gin.
Rich, warming and slightly spicy sloe gin is, for me, the quintessential festive tipple. It is also the perfect beverage to have in your cabinet at this time of year; a highly versatile drink that can add Christmas cheer to any number of cocktails but is also deliciously comforting, and still rather special, served neat. I love making (and serving) my own sloe gin but it does require a little organisation and a lot of patience. And, although there are ways to improve the standard of your homemade sloe gin, there’s no guarantee of quality or consistency. If it’s quality you want, where better to go than to Sipsmith where the craft gin renaissance began, and where I also happened to begin my own gin journey.
Think of Switzerland and you probably think of chocolate, watches and cuckoo clocks. You probably don’t think of spirits. And yet Switzerland has a relationship with absinthe that rivals that of the UK’s with gin. Absinthe originated in Switzerland in the late 18th century and rapidly earned itself such a reputation for damaging public health that it was officially outlawed in 1910. The ban on the sale and production of absinthe wasn’t lifted until 1 March 2005, during which time the spirit had become the pride of local bootleggers!
It is not an easy task to keep up with the new distilleries, and new gins, being launched at the moment. Nor can it be easy, as a small batch distillery, to get your name out and your voice heard above the din of the competition. Some things help though: a good story; a beautiful bottle; a sell-out first batch! Avva Gin had all this, and more, as they wisely teamed up with The Juniper Club to become the gin subscription service’s second gin of the month in November 2016.
Recent years have seen the craft gin market grow exponentially. And the truth is that while some new gins are exceptional, many are not. And while many new gins embrace an ever expanding list of increasingly unusual botanicals, some work and some don’t. Some gins taste distinctive but many don’t. That doesn’t necessarily make them a bad gin of course, but without seeing the bottle some gins are just not that easy to identify, particularly when mixed with tonic water. It was this that Dale and Vicky McQueen wanted to address when they launched McQueen Gin. From the very beginning they were determined to create something different and distinctive. McQueen Gin was never going to conform.
It must be easy, when you create an award-winning, best-selling spirit, to rest on your laurels; to take it easy, sit back and let the money roll in. This, I would suggest, is an alien concept to Alex and Jane Nicol, founders and co-owners of The Spencerfield Spirit Company. Prior to setting up Spencerfield Spirits, Alex Nicol, a keen whisky aficionado, held executive directorships at Glenmorangie and Beefeater Gin (amongst others). Now a close-knit, family-run business, the story of Spencerfield Spirits, and their passion for continuous innovation, dates back to the mid-1700s.
Since publication Sovereign Sprits has rebranded as Clipstone Park.
Gin liqueurs don’t always get the attention they deserve in this juniper-crazy market. Given the number of new gins coming to the market every week, perhaps it isn’t surprising that gin liqueurs can get overlooked, but they offer something just as special as their more alcoholic counterparts. A good fruit liqueur drunk neat makes a wonderful warming winter tipple, or can be lengthened into a refreshing summer spritzer, added to a G&T, a cocktail or a glass of prosecco. The possibilities are endless.
It’s always good when a friend casually mentions that their brother-in-law makes gin. It’s even better when you find out that they don’t just play with primitive homemade gin but make real, proper award-winning gin! This is how I was introduced to Hawthorn’s London Dry Gin, but the real story is even more of a family affair.
There is, I think, a fine line between being brave and foolhardy, determined and bloody-minded. For better or worse, perhaps they are all necessary character traits to build a business and to succeed with spirits. There is, after all, a lot to get right when you launch a new gin: the branding; the bottle; the marketing; and the product itself of course. JJ Lawrence certainly got his teeth stuck in when he decided three years ago to follow his passion and produce a new luxury British gin and he didn’t let anything stand in his way.
Gin A Ding Ding 