The Ginaissance Period

Uncovering the fascination - Mandy Willson Telford.

Approximately 300 years ago Gin made its first appearance (in a primitive form) here in England. In 1714 it made it into the Oxford dictionary.

Since its humble beginnings, it has enjoyed a chequered history and conjures up many images. For some, it will forever be synonymous with the debauched Hogarth painting. Others see the glamour of Martinis in the Savoy. It has dipped in and out of fashion with reliable frequency.

Up until just before the start of this century, there were just 3 main brands. Beefeater, at the time the only gin distillery within the City of London, Gordons and Bombay Sapphire. During the 80s and 90s Gin was down on its luck and Vodka was calling all the shots (pardon the pun). Then, in 1999, along came Hendricks with its soft rose and green notes. Served with cucumber and not the obligatory lemon wedge. Martin Millers with its secret ingredient (cucumber) and distilled using pure Icelandic water followed soon after. Hendricks with its apothecarystyle bottle was popular with bartenders but it was not until 2008 that it took off with the general public. At this time, Gin had not yet experienced its renaissance period. This was to come in 2009, when a small relatively unknown micro-distillery challenged the current law of not allowing the use of a still that had a capacity lower than 1800lts. This law had been in place for nearly 200 years, created because British tax officials were fed up with illegal distillers who would use small portable stills to make a quick getaway if needed. Sipsmith’s, a 3-man band, decided this should change, and in 2009, after 2 years of lobbying HMRC they were granted a licence to create their gin using the 300lt copper pot still that they named Prudence. The rest is history and the reason here in the UK we are now littered with micro-distilleries and have hundreds of gins to choose from.

I first became interested in Gin back in 2007 when I began working as a taster for the fresh eye Gin u

Gin note:

Gin is English, not Dutch. Genever, a malted spirit that is essentially light whisky with juniper, is the juniper distillate of the Netherlands. Gin was developed in London and is a unique and much purer spirit.