Gin Fizz

Flavour, the very thing that once made gin unfashionable, is now the key to the category’s revival. Premium brands are leading the way by delivering style, taste and substance, says Dave Broom

GIN MAKES me depressed." If I had a pound for every time someone has said that to me I’d be sitting on my very own Caribbean island with, well, a "g and t" in my hand.  Right enough, it wasn’t just gin drinkers who were apparently depressed by this spirit.

Most gin marketing people said much the same to me. Off the record of course.  Getting the gin account was, I suspect, a poisoned chalice with juniper in it rather than hemlock. Most "old" spirits have faced hard times since the 1980s, but gin has been clobbered harder than most.

A glance at the current figures suggests that while the decline may not be as precipitous as it once was, gin is hardly inspiring confidence, especially when you measure its performance against the steamrolling progress of vodka.

Why then, when you talk to London’s best bartenders are they so excited about an apparently moribund category? Why are gin’s marketing people so upbeat? The reason for the optimistic feeling about gin lies in the fact that premium gins are building up a considerable head of steam.

(Premium is used here to define imported gins in all markets bar, the UK where premium is defined as a gin at 40%ABV and above.) "Globally, gin has been flat, but premium has been growing by 9% over the past five years across Europe and North America," says Jon Roberts of Diageo’s global gin team.

"We’re seeing the same coming from other markets such as Greece, Italy, and France." For Marshall Dawson, global brand director for Bombay Sapphire at Bacardi, this upward shift is part and parcel of a wider movement.

"In the past decade we’ve seen a general growth in premium spirits," he says, "but importantly this isn’t just a liquor category trend but applies across all consumer goods."

That may be true but not every stagnant category is showing such startling growth. Plymouth Gin’s MD Nick Blacknell has a theory.  "People, especially those playing at the premium end of the market, are seeking more flavour which, I’d argue, is why flavoured vodka is doing so well.

There’s little doubt these are the same people who are now drifting into gin."  Has gin simply piggybacked its way back into fashion? Dawson wasn’t so sure.  "Flavoured vodka has helped, but the growth in premium gin has been led by brands," he argues.

"Gin needed ‘new’ brands and Sapphire was growing before premium vodka appeared."  To put it brutally, gin had to reinvent itself or die.  That meant new (in Plymouth’s case reborn) brands, new packs and a new way of talking about and consuming gin.

It had to be made stylish – and that meant targeting top-end bars in the US and UK, a major shift for a spirit which was either boring and middle-class [UK] or drunk at home by working class African-Americans.

In the US and UK this has been driven by the rise of Bombay Sapphire.  "The people who are rediscovering gin are in their mid-20s," says Dawson. "Vitally, they’re choosing brands which aren’t ‘traditional’, so there is an element of discovery.

Sapphire isn’t in a green bottle and it doesn’t have a typically pungent ‘gin-like’ flavour profile which, in turn, leads to greater mixability.  In essence they have a new, a-typical, product."

The CEO of another drinks firm explained to me recently how every category needed a "super-tanker" to "create a bow wave which allows the other brands to follow".  In the US and UK gin categories this vessel has been Sapphire.

In Spain it has been done by Beefeater. "We’re transcending a category by being seen as a premium white spirit," says Jackie Fionda, global vice-president for Beefeater at Allied.

This does, however, overlook the fact that Tanqueray is still a bigger player in the US and is also enjoying some solid growth.  For Roberts it is all to do with the new consumer wanting brands with flavour.

"What gin offers over other white spirits is taste," he says. "Tanqueray offers the consumer a distinctive taste with substance.  However, building gin bands in a motivating and relevant manner is required."

That means concentrating on bars. "On-premise is key," adds Roberts.  "The increased number of top-end bars and the increase in knowledge and education of bartenders has driven premium gin brands to consumers that are after style with some taste and substance."

Intriguingly, the very thing which put so many people off gin – its flavour – is now the driver for its success and Dawson and Blacknell argue that this generates greater interest in the brand; how it is made, where it comes from, why it tastes the way it does.

For Blacknell this is a chance to move gin forward generically.  "We always taste Plymouth against other gins and consumers are amazed at the different tastes.  That makes the wheels start turning – if these products taste different then there must be differences in how they’re made, they must be handcrafted.

Today, spirits need to have a story behind them.  Gin needs to pick up on this and prosecute it almost in a generic fashion.  We need to get people to understand gin isn’t flavoured vodka but an artisanal product which is actually closer to malt whisky.

Getting the message across will define the new gin sector."  The rise of premium in the UK does make the decision by many brand owners to reduce the strength of their gins to 37.5% seem a touch foolhardy. Gordon’s (at 37.5%) may be Britain’s biggest-selling gin, but sales are continuing to slide while premium brands are on the rise.

For Beefeater’s master distiller, Desmond Payne, once again it is to do with flavour. "The taste of gin is a vitally important consumer issue and aromatics are not held in the gin if it is bottled at below 40%," he explains.

"There’s a significant consumer reward in a gin at 40%."  So could he see Gordon’s swallowing its pride and upping strength?  After all Plymouth has done just that. "I suspect they’d like to," he says.

But would they do it? "Probably not. You’ll see more emphasis on Tanqueray instead." The irony is that while premium sales are growing in the off-trade – we’re even seeing supermarkets introducing premium own-label gin – and in the topend bars, the mainstream on-trade has stuck resolutely to sub-40% brands. 

"The average UK pub isn’t the best place to enjoy gin," says Jackie Fionda.  This she feels has hit Beefeater particularly hard.  "We’ve struggled in the UK," she admits, "mainly thanks to the British habit of not calling [asking for a brand by name].

It’s a hard market to break into, but we wouldn’t walk away. We’re beginning to see Beefeater and tonic being served icecold and in a proper measure and people suddenly realising it is a sublime drink!"

Plymouth, too, is targeting the mainstream off-trade.  "The irony is that you can buy Plymouth in Tesco but can’t go to your local or a hotel and buy it at the bar!" says Blacknell.  A major push is planned for next year.

Gin, which has spent years hiding behind net curtains and a screen of leylandii, is becoming fashionable again.  "That’s a bit unfair," says Fionda.  "The ‘g and t‘ never went out of fashion.

Gin didn’t go away.  People have just realised that it is glamorous, grown-up, sophisticated."  "Actually," chips in Blacknell.  "I think that gin has been so unfashionable for so long that people have forgotten that it’s unfashionable!

The new gin drinkers don’t have any of that baggage.  It’s a true rediscovery."  The clincher to gin’s long-term recovery is the emergence of a small, prestige category comprising higherstrength established brands (Sapphire and Beefeater are both at 47%ABV in the US) and high-strength "traditional" gins such as Allied’s Crown Jewel and Greenall’s Quintessential.

This small sub-category has been woken up by the arrival of new generation/boutique gins like Tanqueray Ten and Wm Grant’s brand Hendrick’s.  Production of both includes not simply re-distilling botanicals but blending in distilled infusions of essential oils (Hendrick’s uses cucumber and rose petal).

It not only shows confidence in the category, but a spirit of innovation that most had thought had been left in the 19th century.  "It’s a small category," says Diageo’s Roberts, "but if the growth that has been experienced at the top end of the vodka market in the US and Europe is replicated in super-premium gin then this will encourage consumers to reappraise gin."

They’ve been joined by Allied’s new entrant, Wet by Beefeater which is infused with pear.  "It challenges traditional perceptions of gin," says Fionda.  "It’s an attempt to bring notes of gin to a new audience – and we wanted to have a bit of fun."

There’s little doubt that there’s a new buzz about gin.  "I think we’ll see continued measured growth over the next few years," says Dawson.  "Old gin markets [the US, Spain and the UK] are seeing sustained growth in premium while we’re seeing growth in countries with no history of domestic gin production.

Gin has reinvented its image.  The future’s bright."