11 minute read
1: Gin
Juniper rising
10 years of gin dominance in London by Emma Stokes aka Gin Monkey
Gin: Issue 1 Autumn/Winter 2011
When it comes to everyone’s favourite botanical spirit, the past 10 years have made quite the difference to the landscape of London. With my Gin Monkey business turning 12 this year, I’ve seen firsthand the extraordinary growth gin has had, and it really has been extraordinary.
Step into a bar today and you’ll be greeted with anything from wide-ranging selections of local drams and international delights, to dedicated gin shelves and even entire back bars of juniper-forward deliciousness. But just 10 years ago, a thirst for a gin was usually met with a choice of two or three: the house, more often than not Bombay Sapphire, and a ‘premium’ offering, probably Hendrick’s; the age of the cucumber was definitely upon us. Cocktail bars may have had a slightly bigger collection, especially if they had both types of Tanqueray! [Tanqueray London Dry and Tanqueray No. 10], but a gin enthusiast would often be found wanting.
However, there was something brewing under the surface. A momentum was building, and an interest starting to pique across bartenders, consumers and entrepreneurs alike. So in 2011, when Ms S and Mr G took a look at gin in London for their first issue of The Cocktail Lovers magazine, they captured those first ripples in the UK’s capital city.
Looking back to that article, the London of 2011 was encapsulated by Sacred Gin to the north and the (still) controversial Hoxton Gin in the east (though it’s made at Thames Distillers, in the south). Bermondsey Distillery, who produce Jensen’s Gin, was in the south too, and Sipsmith, a brand still very much in its infancy, occupied London’s west. Beefeater, forever stalwart, has always been in the capital, the only one of the ‘old guard’ of London Dry gins to continue to be made here. And if we’re talking gin in London then you can’t ignore Charles Maxwell of Thames Distillers. I sometimes wonder just how many gins Charles is making these days – he won’t tell me exactly, but I imagine it’s a helluva lot!
Today there are nearly 20 distilleries producing a huge number of gins within the M25, and many more making gins in the wider sense of the category. These include small independents with tiny stills and big dreams, through to the behemoth that is Thames Distillers, who make all manner of gins from supermarket own-label gins to the big hitters like the brilliant Fords Gin.
Sipsmith laid the foundations for distilleries of the future when they opened in 2009. Wrangling with the licensing authorities to allow their 300-litre still to produce gin (they were deemed too small for a credible operation under the rules at the time), they opened the doors for others to follow in their footsteps, and follow them others soon did.
First there was the City of London Distillery in 2012, then East London Liquor Company followed shortly after in 2013, and before long the London gin distillery scene was looking very healthy indeed.
There are advantages to distilling in London, not least the synonymous nature of the city with gins around the world (not that a ‘London Dry’ has to be made in London, of course). It’s that long history and association that led Portobello Road Gin to make themselves “very proudly a London-born brand which wears its London heritage on its sleeve… it seemed the natural thing to do” – an approach that proved very successful for Jake Burger and his partners. With their new educational Ginstitute already on west London’s Portobello Road, upstairs at the Portobello Star, there “was never any thought to make the gin anywhere else”, as they had a ready-made brand home. They have since expanded and moved to a space more conducive to hosting their fans, though they were adamant to remain on the street that gave them their name.
For Hayman’s Gin, the move back to London from Essex in 2017 felt natural, like coming home. After all, their family began making gin in London in 1863, though with a different name (for those who recognise the date, yes, it is Beefeater – James Burrough is Christopher Hayman’s great grandfather!). “It just felt like where we should make our gin,” says James Hayman.
From London roots It’s brilliant to see those who started out in London move on to ventures around the world over the past 10 years, packing up the knowledge gained from living and working in such a gin-obsessed city and taking it to farflung destinations:
Tim Stones having spent the best part of eight years at Beefeater, moved to Australia in 2017 and can now be found setting up Hickson House Distilling Co in Sydney.
Londoner Alfie Amayo moved into the industry as part of the opening bar team at the City of London Distillery, going on to be their brand ambassador and assisting with distillation runs. You can now find him as Head Distiller of Seekers Spirits in Cambodia, creating delicious gins inspired by the Mekong region.
Perhaps the most travelled is Sussexborn (London-ish if you squint!) Alex Davies, with stints at Chase Distillery and Cotswolds, before moving to Japan for his current role as Head Distiller at The Kyoto Distillery.
One of the newer kids on the block, Victory Gin, didn’t really choose London consciously – it was where the founders worked and lived, and the brand grew organically. But Victory believe that being close to some of the best bars in the world has shaped their products. “We’ve been privileged to remain immersed in the development and culture of our industry,” says founder Max Chater. “It helps us innovate.” The sheer proximity to opportunities for collaborations and partnerships is certainly a positive for being a London-based distillery.
The choice of a capital city to house a distilling operation certainly presents its own unique challenges too, from high rents to simply finding a space big enough to house the stills, bottling line, botanical store room and the other elements needed to run a successful gin distillery.
Hayman’s patiently waited for their current site in Balham, south London, to become available as their plans needed a high roof and good access. Jake and Portobello Road face similar problems with access as they’ve increased the number of products being made at their site, which presents some logistical challenges. As he says: “The famous Portobello market is busy most days, and we have visitors all the time, so getting the ingredients and bottles in, and the gin out, is not always easy.” Other brands such as Butler’s and Half Hitch Gin have been creative in how they use their London space, from compounding gins in the city rather than distilling, to splitting the process and adding tinctures to a readydistilled base gin at their London site, with the distillation taking place elsewhere.
Despite the challenges, it’s great to see that the benefits outweigh them, and that gin continues to be made in London to this day, as it was during the first gin craze back in the 18th century, though the quality of the gin has undoubtedly improved! But if things had taken a different turn, where would these owners and distillers choose to be in the world other than London?
Whilst Jake couldn’t imagine producing Portobello Road London Dry anywhere else, he’d be up for doing a guest distiller gin in someone else’s distillery (take note and please make this happen!) And if he wasn’t based in London creating gins, Jake would be “sitting on a porch in Kentucky, sipping a Mint Julep, finishing all the books that I’ve started writing but never finished over the years”.
Max and Máire at Victory would look to combine their love of Italy, aperitivo culture and distilling and end up somewhere in Italy – “Emilia-Romagna or Piemonte, maybe.”
As for James Hayman, though he sees the appeal of cities like New York or Sydney, “it wouldn’t be another city, it would have to be a spot looking at the morning sun glistening over the sea”. And while a spot like that sounds pretty perfect to me, it’s testament to the history, and future, of gin in London that these vastly different distillers have all ended up in the ol’ smoke.
The birth of the gin bar
As the gin category has grown and expanded over the past decade, bars have looked to entice consumers with ever-growing collections and specific gin offerings. London was home to some of the first of these dedicated gin bars, with folks at the helm prepared to explore and search out new gins as and when they came to the market.
Back in 2011, the duo of Sarah Mitchell and Adam Smithson were well into building the gin bar at Graphic (in Soho) to hold the biggest collection in London – and at one point, probably in the UK. “The owner wanted to make a gin bar. I started the collection, and Adam and I took it from there,” says Sarah. “I had the connections, Adam had the brains.” The two made a formidable team, growing the collection to more than 240 gins – small by standards these days perhaps, but an extraordinary assortment for 2011. Combined with the Juniper Society, a consumer-facing collective that brought interested punters together over their shared love of gin, Graphic was undeniably the home of gin at the time, and it was the place where I met many of the great and the good who work in the gin world today.
Sadly, Graphic is no longer there, and the other dedicated gin bar in London at the time, The Star at Night run by Julia Forte, has also closed its doors. But if you’re looking for decent gin collections in London these days, you can’t go wrong with The Gin Bar at Holborn Dining Room or any one of the Mr Fogg’s Gin Parlours scattered across the city.
Marcis Dzelzainis Jake Burger
Stick or twist
A decade on, I catch up with the gin aficionados who shared their thoughts in The Cocktail Lovers’ original article. Will they stick with their 2011 gin of choice, or champion something new?
Jake Burger 2011 choice: Sipsmith 2021 choice: Portobello Road Celebrated Butter Gin
In a move that will surprise absolutely nobody, Jake changed his gin of choice. Though in perhaps a bit of a plot twist it wasn’t to the classic Portobello Road Gin but to their Celebrated Butter Gin! “Last time I chose Sipsmith. I still think it’s a wonderful brand, I even drink it on occasion; in fact I had a horrifically expensive one at the cricket last week! But obviously I now have a different go-to brand. My favourite of our products is our Celebrated Butter Gin, which we make by distilling a finished batch of the London Dry an additional time but with blocks of butter in the still. It’s quite a unique product. It has a lighter, more elegant aroma and flavour than the London Dry but a heavier weight and texture in the mouth. I just love it in a Martini.”
Terry Cashman 2011 choice: Hoxton Gin 2021 choice: Beefeater Gin
Though it seems the gin boom may have broken poor Terry, his choice to change to the classic Beefeater as it “tastes delicious” is one that I’m sure most of us would fully support. The king of the house gins? Quite possibly. I remember pouring more than a couple of Beefeater G&T’s for Terry when I worked at Casita while he was working round the corner at the Hoxton Pony, which possibly explains both his original choice and his updated preference?
Marcis Dzelzainis 2011 choice: Sacred Gin 2021 choice: East London Liquor Company
Marcis is moving his choice closer to home with East London Liquor Company, just around the corner from where he lives, and “really admires what Alex [Wolpert] has done with the brand and the liquid”. Having just launched a complete rebrand, it’s certainly a gin that’s caught my eye in the past few months.
Paolo Tonellotto 2011 choice: Jensen’s Gin 2021 choice: Doghouse Distillery Renegade Gin
Whilst “still in love with anything from Christian Jensen”, Paolo changed his gin of choice to relative newcomers Doghouse Distillery, who launched in 2017: “I’ve been very impressed with the work done by the guys at Doghouse Distillery and their Renegade Gin: from grain to bottle, all by themselves and with a cracking range as result. And they’re absolutely lovely to deal with too.” Whilst the move to produce the spirit from scratch is indeed a risky one (when using a neutral grain spirit as the base alcohol is far easier and more consistent), the Doghouse guys have succeeded with a lovely final gin. JB \ Last time I chose
PT \ I’ve been very
