Calling time on fake gin
How bizarre. While brewers unfetteredly revolutionise consumers’ understanding of what is a beer by launching weird concoctions, the UK’s gin distillers go the other way and worry about what is gin – and how can they protect it. Spearheading the conservative campaign is the London gin distillery Hayman’s, a family-owned distillery (since 1862) which is located in Balham, South London.
The decade-long boom in gin labels – there are well over 600 UK gin brands and around 190 gin distilleries, says the UK’s Gin Council – has led to a renaissance of interest and a huge variety of new gins for consumers to explore and enjoy. As says Hayman’s, “the vast majority of these gins have added something new and exciting to the category whilst maintaining the predominant juniper character that separates gin from other spirit drinks.” However, “recently we have started to see some producers marketing gins that have little or no evident connection to juniper. Gins with only trace notes of juniper – or a juniper character that is overshadowed by other more dominant flavourings, often added after distillation. While botanical innovation and experimentation has long been linked to gin’s success, we believe that a small number of producers are today creating spirits that have strayed too far from what makes gin 'gin'.”
These non-traditional gins, as they are usually called, have the law on their side as regulations are fairly lax the world over. In the EU, they only specify that gin “is a juniper flavoured spirit” and that “the taste is predominantly that of juniper”. Well, what is the exact meaning of “predominantly”? And, hey, does it really matter if a spirit labelled as gin only has fragrant juniper notes, if it tastes good and people like it?
Hayman’s and possibly other gin distillers, think otherwise. To call attention to their concerns, in April 2018 Hayman’s launched a campaign to “Call Time On Fake Gin”. “Fake” gin? The wording alludes to illicit alcohol or even forfeited stuff. This was probably intentional. It has allowed Hayman’s to set up a grass roots movement, which will meet in London at their distillery on 6 September 2018 for a series of Gin Debates. The topic of the first debate is: “What is gin – and how can we protect it?”
Like in craft beer, there seems to be broad agreement that the product needs to be better protected but it is also evident that there are many differing views on the forms that such protection should take.
Fortunately, Australian gin distillers are unfazed by developments in the UK. As reports our correspondent John Harvey, more local and “non-traditional” gins are reaching the market. One of the latest is 78° Sunset Gin from Adelaide Hills Distillery, a pink gin inspired by Adelaide sunsets. Flavoured with bush apple, juniper, rosella and strawberry gum, it retails at AUD 74.99 (USD 60) per 700 ml bottle.
On another note (and back in the UK), the well-known beer industry figures Dr Christopher Smart and his wife Prof Katherine Smart, who was formerly Chief Brewer at SABMiller, have recently established their Surrey Copper Distillery in Shere, a village southwest of London. Their first product, Copperfield, is a gin based on a recipe first published in 1757. Its name comes from the Charles Dickens novel, not the magician.
Gins of that era contained botanicals such as angelica, caraway, cardamom, coriander, cubeb berries, elder flower, juniper, lemon peel and orris root. The new 45 per cent ABV Copperfield has been developed as a “sipping gin” to be enjoyed undiluted over ice but reportedly it also mixes well with premium tonic water. A 700 ml bottle retails for GBP 41.95 (USD 56).
