Category Archives: Top Ten Gins

My Top Ten Gins of 2022

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Some of the gins featured were kindly gifted. Article contains affiliate links.

This year’s top ten strikes me as rather different to my last six, with notably fewer new releases, so it seems as good a time as ever to clarify how I’ve gone about choosing these gins over the years. It goes without saying they need to be exceptional (in my personal opinion!) but beyond that the only other (self-imposed) rule is that gins can only feature in my top ten once. Ideally they are gins I know well (which, more often than not, means I have a bottle in my collection) but they don’t have to be new releases; just new(ish) to me. So, with that (hopefully) cleared up, and without further ado, here are the top ten gins I enjoyed last year (and a few honourable mentions too)…

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My Top Ten Gins of 2021

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Some of the gins featured below were kindly gifted. Article contains affiliate links.

2021 was another odd year for just about everything and the gin category was no exception. While less gin may have been sold in 2021 than 2020, last year also saw the opening of 110 new gin distilleries (bringing the total number in the UK up to an incredible 820, according to the Office for National Statistics). To truly understand what all this means check out Olivier Ward’s insightful article What happened to gin last year? on Spirits Beacon. What I’ll say, is that there was definitely plenty to get excited about in 2021, and plenty of reasons to feel positive about gin’s future. So, without further ado, here are my top ten gins of 2021; technically not all were new to the market in 2021 (though most of them were) but they were all new to me and all stood out for different reasons.

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My Top Ten Gins of 2020

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Some of the gins featured below were kindly gifted. Article contains affiliate links.

What a year 2020 was. And what resilience, generosity and determination distillers have demonstrated; adapting events to online experiences, turning their hand to sanitiser production and continuing to not only make our favourite spirit, but create new ones too! Unsurprisingly, most of last year’s releases were line extensions rather than new brands, but my goodness, there were some crackers in there. So, without further ado, here are my top ten of 2020.

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My Top Ten Gins of 2019

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2019 was yet another remarkable year for gin, which is predicted to overtake vodka as the UK’s biggest-selling spirit a mere ten years since Sipsmith, the instigators of the craft gin revolution, were granted the licence that opened the floodgates. And, with flavoured gin seeing 300% growth year on year (compared to gin’s modest 11%) – and WSTA playing catch-up with a new category definition – those floodgates are well and truly open. But amongst all that there was also innovation (in the ready-to-drink and low-alcohol markets), environmentalism (with Greensand Ridge leading from the front), fun to be had (who can forget #GinADayMay?!) and some really, really cracking gins. So, after much consideration, here are my favourites:

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My Top Ten Gins of 2018

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What a year 2018 has been for gin! Sales have been rocketing and the bubble isn’t going to burst any time soon. We’ve seen, as a consequence, every ‘gin’ imaginable join the fray, from Hubba Bubba Bubblegum Gin to shimmering spirits and, of course, sugar-saturated pink gins galore! But, for now, let’s forget the ridiculous and focus on the sublime. Here are my top ten for 2018 and this year it was harder than ever to pick them! Keep reading for your chance to win a bottle of Brentingby!

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My Top Ten Gins of 2017

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Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin
Turncoat Cascade Gin
Wrecking Coast Cornish Clotted Cream Gin
Napue Gin
Conniption Navy Strength Gin
That Boutique-y Gin Company Cherry Gin
Inshriach Original 43%
Colonsay Gin
Kirkjuvagr Orkney Gin

Another year has flown by and what a year it was! Both for gin as a whole and also for my more personal gin pursuits. It has, on the whole, been an outstanding year for the industry with sales reaching an all-time high and gin being declared the most popular spirit in the UK. But, with the highs of sales in excess of 47m bottles of gin, came the inevitable lows as people looked to sell out and cash in. The wonderful gin community rallied though and, desperate to protect our sacred spirit, the #StopFuckingWithGin hashtag was born! While The Pool asked if the gin joke had gone too far, and Gin Monkey – rightly – reminded us to use the hashtag with due respect, there were plenty of offenders who deserved little sympathy – such as gin and tonic tea bags, crisps and, quite possibly the worst of them all, G&T fun buns!

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My Top Ten Gins of 2016

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Cotswolds Dry Gin
Warner Edwards Victoria’s Rhubarb Gin
Makar Glasgow Gin
Zymurgorium Manchester Gin
Trevethan Cornish Gin
Tarquin’s Single Estate Cornish Tea Gin
Poppies Gin
Gordon Castle Gin
Fifty Eight Gin 58% Limited Edition
X-Gin

I began 2016 with a relatively well-stocked gin cabinet (compared to most) and no gin blog. And ended it with a, frankly, ludicrous amount of gin by anybody’s standards and a blog that is going from strength to strength and, more importantly, giving me (and hopefully you) a lot of pleasure. So thank you all for all your support in 2016.

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