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GIN: Gin fashion

01 July 2008 By db staff writer

Whether it be for the newly defined London gin style, or for any of the category’s myriad other flavour profiles, gin is having a moment – that shows no sign of ending. By Clinton Cawood

While the definition of London gin has been tightened up recently, it seems the primary effect it is likely to have is on labelling, and, to some extent, on producers. As the premium market continues to grow, both in terms of new entrants and volume, the specifics of various gin styles have little to do with the ongoing resurgence of the gin category, at least as far as consumers are concerned.

The new definition for London gin, established earlier this year, establishes a number of conditions for inclusion in the category, but without any geographic stipulation – a coup for real London gins, but not necessarily a coup for London. It is also unlikely to have any effect on consumer choice, particularly given the number of new entrants to the gin category that do not have “London dry” on their labels.

Realising potential
As the master distiller of the only major gin brand still produced in the city, Beefeater’s Desmond Payne acknowledges the potential of gin in general, not just for the London style. When it comes to new additions to the category, he believes “the potential is immense”, adding, “Consumers will drink what they like the taste of.”

Speaking for a well-established brand outside of the London style, Plymouth’s brand manager, Andrew Jack, believes that there is still potential for the London style, saying: “I think there is a lot of scope for varied styles of gin. The ‘London’ moniker can be applied to any gin regardless of where it is made, so every London gin has a different set of botanicals with a different flavour profile.“

There has been no shortage of entrants to the gin category in recent times, London gin or not. Audrey Fort, business development director for EWG Spirits and Wine, the company behind French gin brand G-Vine, comments: “There is definitely space for new entrants. Some of the new gins are an answer to the ever-increasing consumers’ quest for new qualitative products and experiences.” For James Longley, brand developer at Hi-Spirits for new entrant 209 Gin, “The variety of botanicals and methods of distillation allow gin to become a category characterised by diversity not only in purity and base ingredients, but also by distillation method, variation in botanicals and, most importantly, taste. The introduction of super-premium gins presents the consumer with an entirely different set of options in terms of trading-up, meaning that the addition of new brands doesn’t simply equate with contributing to saturate the environment, but rather with creating another tier.”

Straying beyond the confines of London gin allows for greater freedom for the distiller and, consequently, greater potential in terms of flavour. Richard Storer, international brand director for Right Gin, defends the use of practices outside those under the new definition. “We deliberately do not use this method as we believe that distilling the component parts individually affords the master blender more control over the final flavour profile. Ultimately, it’s about the taste.”

Conversely, another relatively new entrant, Bulldog, specifically trades on being a London gin (interestingly, it was launched in the US market before its recent UK debut). CEO Anshuman Vohra explains: “The London dry style is the most common in the western world. It’s also the most versatile.”

42 Below representative Jacob Briars (the company’s portfolio includes South Gin), splits the new entrants to the category differently. “Right now the gin market seems cleft in two, as far as new releases go,” he says. “There are those which seem to be taking gin in new directions. The other trend is to look back and try and reinvent a ‘golden age’ of gin that may or may not have existed, either focusing on gin as the quintessential English spirit or as the true spirit of the 19th century’s great cocktail drinkers.”

Briars goes on to say: “I think London dry has lost nearly all meaning, both in terms of geography and in terms of applicability to consumers. I don’t think bartenders order on this basis, and nor do consumers. An example is the success of Miller’s, which is neither particularly dry, nor is it from London, but it certainly is delicious.”

Definition aside, there is certainly no shortage of new entrants to this category, particularly at the premium end of the spectrum. Payne believes that “some will survive, and some won’t. NPD is always an ambitious thing. There’s always a risk. However, it’s good to see new brands”.

The gin category provides a number of criteria for new brands to differentiate themselves by. As Payne explans, “People are always looking for new and interesting botanicals.” He warns that “there’s the temptation to use things because they sound good. You should use a spirit because of the taste. There’s a danger in trying to be too exotic.”

COCKTAIL CREDENTIALS

Gin is inextricably linked with cocktails and mixed drinks. It is integral to a number of classic cocktails, and certainly benefits from the ubiquitous G&T.

Referring to the way it is produced, as well as the final product, Beefeater’s master distiller, Desmond Payne, comments: “Gin’s a sociable drink. It mixes well – it was brought up to.”

For Whitley Neill’s Johnny Neill, the prevalence of cocktails such as the Martini, as well as the G&T “is a good and a bad thing – it does get volume for brands. There’s a renaissance in classic cocktails, though, and there are several twists you can do with the Martini.” For Neill, the challenge for gin is to diversify further: “can we get people over to drinking gin Mojitos – that would be a positive thing.”

The G&T may be firmly established, but Gonzalez Byass’s Andrew Sinclair believes there’s more work to be done. “If you look at G&T – unless the on-trade can raise the quality of the serve, there might be an issue. I’m often reticent to order a G&T. I think with the gin and tonic there still needs to be more work on perfect serve, making sure the implementation gets to the consumer.”

However, Jacob Briars at 42 Below (and South Gin), comments: “The G&T will continue to be the world’s great staple highball, and the Gin Martini is returning to favour. But the horse has bolted, if you like, as newer lighter gins allow a much more diverse range of flavours to be used.”

G-Vine’s Audrey Fort confirms this, saying: “The Martinis and G&T remain predominant, especially in markets less cocktail-sensitive.”

Gin is benefiting from those markets that are making progress in terms of cocktails. Plymouth’s Andrew Jack is particularly optimistic: “Gin is having something of a renaissance in cocktail terms. It seems to be overtaking vodka in terms of its flexibility and uniqueness within the classic cocktail world. Sinclair thinks it’s an exciting time for some of the slightly forgotten cocktails, “like the Tom Collins, which has loads of potential. And the Negroni.”

According to Nick Williamson of William Grants (responsible for Hendrick’s gin), the on-trade is primarily to thank for this. “Almost all trends in the spirits market start in the on-trade – and it’s good to see more focus on gin. There are bars with a big focus on gin. Some of that will move to the off-trade.

The way Briars sees this is that: “Gin has not so much gained ground, as been ‘rediscovered’. If you look back to the great cocktail books, and the great cocktail bars, of the 1920s through to about the early 1960s, a huge proportion of cocktails were based on gin. Thus there is a renewed appreciation of the classic cocktail, and gin’s role here.”

Bulldog’s Anshuman Vohra believes that while “G&Ts are important, other mixed cocktails with gin will continue to drive growth. Given that some of the newer, more boutique gins are much smoother, I can see a market for ‘sippable’ gin growing in the future as well”.

Neill agrees that mixing isn’t everything, saying: “What I’d like to see is people drinking gin neat – people sip rums and whiskies neat.”

Top heavy
Plymouth’s Jack believes that not all newcomers to the category will necessarily survive, but adds that “if the new entrants manage to meet a genuine consumer need with something unique, differentiated, and visual, then I am sure they will prosper”.

These new entrants are almost entirely at the top end of the market, leaving the entry and middle price points somewhat in doubt. According to Payne, commenting on entry-level gins, “There’s a market for these things. People trade up though as they learn more about it.” He confirms, however, that “new brands tend to be pitched higher up. It’s the middle ground – that’s the hard place.”

Briars agrees that the entry level will retain its relevance in the face of this spate of top-end entrants. “You would have thought that the explosion of top vodka and Tequila offerings, with elegant packaging, artisanal production and immediate bartender interest would have spelled the end of Smirnoff and José Cuervo, when it patently has not. With gin the answer will be much the same. Price determines that there will always be a role to be played by these ‘basic’ gins for bars of nearly any stripe.”

Bombay Sapphire’s premium brands marketing controller, Sophie Bowers, agrees: “There is evidence in the off-trade that the entry-level gin share is being squeezed. However, we believe there is still going to be a market for entry-level in the off-trade”

Storer adds that “at the moment, standard level gin still dominates in terms of volume – and most likely will continue to do so for many years to come. However, it’s the upper end of the category which is showing the growth and providing the image and excitement which is re-invigorating the gin category generally.”

Nick Williams, global brand manager for Hendrick’s gin at William Grant, believes that there is more to this differentiation between price points in the category. “Standard gin has been in decline for the last five years; however, it still accounts for a high percentage. Although it’s all in the gin category – when I first came into this we did focus groups, and asked people to name gin brands – they named other superpremium brands, but none of them mentioned the major volume brands. It wasn’t that they weren’t drinking them…”

It is not only necessity, and its entirely different position in the market from premium brands, that is keeping entry-level gin alive, however. As Whitley Neill’s Johnny Neill explains, “At the other end of the market, the big boys own most of the major brands – the regular brands. I see the big companies putting more effort into educating. I think they’ve got their place, although that sector may be shrinking a bit.”

Gins of distinction
More generally, Neill believes that there will be “a lot more entries in the next 24 months up at the premium end. There’ll be more entries of that ilk, with beautiful packaging and decent quality.”

The challenge for these new entrants is undoubtedly to differentiate themselves, both from other categories and from other gins as well. Fortunately, gins are, by definition, easy to differentiate in terms of botanicals. The challenge then becomes about communicating these flavour differences, both to consumers and to bartenders.

Andrew Sinclair, brand manager for London Gin at Gonzalez Byass, believes that there has been very real, recent innovation in flavour in the category. “If you look at it, it’s a real move away from the light floral styles – it’s about different occasionality. A gin that’s bigger in flavour profile, for example, would be used in a completely different way. That’s how the sector can grow. It’s about making sure there’s a good breadth of styles in the category, and we’re seeing that more and more.”

While the surge of new entrants into the gin category may seem unsustainable, the category offers enough potential to support a number of distinct products, and with consumer and bartender interest behind it, growth seems unlikely to slow anytime soon.

TIME TO TASTE

Gintime continued its work in spreading the word about gin at this year’s inaugural Distil, at London’s ExCeL exhibition centre. Gin expert Geraldine Coates conducted a number of comparative tastings during the event, allowing visitors to contrast a number of products, as well as understand some of the background behind the category.

Coates began with a basic definition of the spirit, explaining that the predominant flavour is required to be of juniper, and adding that the predominant style is London dry. “There is the perception that gin is a boring, uncrafted spirit, but each gin has a distinct personality.” Coates went to on to use a tasting method largely borrowed from Scotch whisky.

The six characteristics evaluated in each of the seven gins were rooty, floral, spice, pine, citric and sweet. Each characteristic was plotted on a chart, giving a visual representation of the personality of each gin.

The products selected were a number of usual suspects from the gin category, with one interesting exception. Before starting on the seven products, Coates added that “a sign of a well-balanced gin is if what it delivers in terms of aroma is what you get on the palate”.

Sufficiently prepared, the tasting began with Plymouth, with its distinct citrus and pine aromas. Coates explained that the perception of pine is in fact juniper, predominant in all gins, but to varying degrees.

Next up was Hendrick’s, with its floral character from the use of rose as a botanical, and distinct cucumber flavour. This was followed by the sweeter, rounder Whitley Neill, with its use of gooseberry and fruit from the boabab tree.

Miller’s was distinguished by its distinct use of parma violet, giving it a fresh character. The lightly blue-coloured London Gin was next, with distinct juniper character, as well as sweet, liquorice aspects. Even heavier on the juniper was the next gin, Tanqueray.

The real surprise of the tasting was the final gin, Zuidan. This gin is not labelled as a London gin as each botanical is distilled sperately. The gin had a flavour profile distinct from the others in the tasting.

The comparative tasting provided an opportunity for visitors to gain an understanding of the category in general, as well as a number of major products in the category.