Gin

Maerlant writes of juniper in spirit

The Flemish writer Jacob van Maerlant described adding parts of the juniper tree to a spirit made by distilling wine, in his Der Naturen Bloeme. It is the earliest written reference to what became jenever, and it describes a medicine, not a pleasure.

An Antwerp physician writes the recipe

Phillipus Hermanni, a physician in Antwerp, recorded the first known genever recipe in 1522. He crushed juniper berries, added them to wine and distilled the mixture. The spirit was still sold as a remedy, and the pharmacy shelf was its first home.

The Bols family opens a distillery

The Bols family opened a distillery called 't Lootsje, the little shed, in Amsterdam in 1575. The company says it is the oldest distillery brand in the world. The first firm record of Pieter Bols running it dates from 1640.

The Dutch tax it as a drink

By 1606 the Dutch were taxing jenever and similar liquors as ordinary alcohol. That date falls before Franciscus Sylvius turned ten, which is one of the facts that sink the legend that he invented it. The tax collector knew the drink before the doctor did.

Geneva reaches the English stage

Philip Massinger's play The Duke of Milan mentions geneva in 1623. English soldiers had carried the name home from the Low Countries, and the word was already in the language when Sylvius was a boy of nine, long before the Glorious Revolution made the drink fashionable.

Sylvius and the invented spiritLegend

Bartenders still name Franciscus Sylvius, a Leiden professor of medicine who lived from 1614 to 1672, as the man who made the first gin. Nobody has found a recipe in his hand, and the drink was on sale before he could walk. The honour is a kind tale.

William of Orange arrives

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the arrival of William of Orange, England restricted imports of French brandy. Distillers at home filled the gap, and genever from the Low Countries became a spirit the English made for themselves and shortened to gin.

The Gin Craze begins

Cheap, unlicensed gin spread through London in the decades after 1695. Of about 15,000 drinking establishments in the city, more than half were gin shops. The poor drank it because it cost little and was easy to find, and the trade ran largely outside the law.

Parliament passes the first Gin Act

The Gin Act of 1736 set a duty of 20 shillings a gallon and a licence of 50 pounds a year. It caused riots and the king had to issue a proclamation. Only two licences were ever bought, so the law mostly taught people to hide.

Production reaches its peak

Despite the 1736 law, gin production reached about 8 million imperial gallons by 1743, the highest on record. The Gin Act of 1743 lowered duties and fees, and the failed ban was quietly set aside. Some moonshine of the period used turpentine, which is why the stories are grim.

The Gin Act that worked

The Gin Act of 1751 required distillers to sell only to licensed retailers and brought gin shops under the magistrates. It was more successful than the earlier laws. Production fell from 7 million imperial gallons in 1751 to 4.25 million the next year.

Hogarth prints Gin Lane

William Hogarth published Gin Lane and its companion Beer Street in 1751, set in the slum of St Giles. He priced them at one shilling so working people could buy them and hang them in taverns. They argued for the Gin Act with ruin on one side and plenty on the other.

Alexander Gordon starts in Southwark

Alexander Gordon, a Londoner of Scots descent, began producing gin in Southwark in 1769 and moved to Clerkenwell in 1786. The green square bottle came in 1904, and by 1962 the brand was called the best-selling gin in the world.

Plymouth lights its stills

The Plymouth Gin Distillery began work in 1793 at the Black Friars building on the Barbican. It is described as the oldest operating distillery in Britain. A story of a monastery on the site has no evidence behind it, and the walls date from around 1500.

The column still arrives

The column or Coffey still was invented and developed between 1826 and 1831. It made a clean, neutral spirit in quantity, and that is what made London Dry practical. A drier and lighter gin took the place of the sweeter, heavier old style.

Charles Tanqueray opens in Bloomsbury

Charles Tanqueray founded his gin business in Bloomsbury in 1830, and a shop followed on Vine Street in 1838. Bombing in the Second World War wrecked the distillery. The one surviving building, nicknamed Old Tom, was later moved to Cameronbridge in Fife.

Tonic water goes on sale

Tonic water began to be sold in 1858, and the British military bought large amounts of it for its quinine against malaria. Officers in India found it bitter and added sugar and gin. The first documented mention of the mix is in the Oriental Sporting Magazine.

James Burrough makes his gin

James Burrough bought a Chelsea distillery from John Taylor for 400 pounds in 1862 and began to make his gin style in 1863. The Beefeater name followed in 1876. A larger distillery came in Lambeth in 1908, and Kennington in 1958.

Old Tom enters the cocktail book

Jerry Thomas named Old Tom gin for the Martinez in his 1887 bartender's guide. Harry Johnson's manual of 1882 used it in the Tom Collins. Old Tom was a sweeter gin that sat between London Dry and Dutch genever, and bartenders of the time knew it well.

Bathtub gin in Prohibition America

The term bathtub gin dates from 1920 and American Prohibition. Makers mixed grain alcohol, water and flavourings such as juniper juice and glycerin. Because the result tasted rough, cocktails like the Bee's Knees were built to cover it. No real distilling happened in a bath.

Hendrick's arrives from Girvan

William Grant & Sons launched Hendrick's in 1999 at Girvan, made with cucumber and rose beside juniper. Lesley Gracie created it. In 2003 the Wall Street Journal called it the best gin in the world, and other new gins soon followed its lead.

Aviation appears in Portland

Aviation American Gin debuted in 2006 in Portland, Oregon, founded by Christian Krogstad and Ryan Magarian and made by House Spirits. Its seven botanicals include juniper, lavender, cardamom and anise. Diageo bought it in 2020 for up to 610 million dollars.

Sipsmith opens in Hammersmith

Sipsmith was founded in 2009 by Sam Galsworthy, Fairfax Hall and Jared Brown. It was the first copper pot distillery to open in Greater London in nearly two centuries. Their 300 litre still is named Prudence, and the craft boom has a convenient starting date.

The Botanist launches on Islay

Bruichladdich launched The Botanist in 2011, with 22 of its 31 botanicals foraged on Islay. It is distilled for 17 hours in a Lomond still called Ugly Betty. In 2024 Drinks International ranked it the seventh best-selling gin brand in the world.

Ki No Bi from Kyoto

The Kyoto Distillery, founded in 2014 as Japan's first dedicated craft gin distillery, launched Ki No Bi in 2016. It uses a rice spirit base and eleven botanicals including yuzu, gyokuro tea and sanshō pepper. Japan had added its own season to gin.

Greater Than opens the Indian craft wave

Nao Spirits, founded by Anand Virmani in 2016, released Greater Than in September 2017 and later moved its base to Goa. Sold as a London Dry made in India, it was among the first domestic craft gins and sold quickly in its opening year.

Jaisalmer goes to London first

Radico Khaitan launched Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin in Britain in November 2018, through The Whisky Exchange. Master distiller Anup Barik used copper pots at Rampur and eleven botanicals, seven grown in India, among them vetiver, lemongrass and Darjeeling green tea.

Stranger and Sons wins Gold Outstanding

Entering the International Wine and Spirit Competition for the first time, the Goa gin Stranger and Sons took a Gold Outstanding medal in 2020. The IWSC called it the first Indian gin to win gold there. Gondhoraj lemon and Nagpur orange sit among its botanicals.

Indian gins collect gold

In 2021 Hapusa won gold at the IWSC, Greater Than won gold at the Asian Gin Masters, and Jaisalmer won gold with 94 points at the New York International Spirits Competition. Diageo India bought a 22.5 percent stake in Nao Spirits in 2022.