A question of origin
With the UK gin category so crowded, Sarah Miller looks at how products’ provenance is increasingly under the microscope...
The early days days of the British gin renaissance were characterised by micro- distilleries popping up in sheds and spare rooms across the country. By the height of the boom every town in the UK seemingly had its own gin and – although there were questionable creation stories and dubious geographical claims – the market could not only sustain them, but many consumers actively embraced them.
Of course it couldn’t last forever, and with costs rising and sales falling, the “Actually Made In” movement was launched in February 2024 to promote local craft distilleries and differentiate them from the spirits brands who don’t make their own products.
Fronted by Manchester Gin, Tarquin’s Cornish Gin, Brighton Gin and Masons of Yorkshire, the aim is laudable, although with close to 100 distilleries verified, it’s debatable whether this is proof of the campaign’s success, or a sign of how desperate producers are to demonstrate a point of difference in a competitive market (although “small-batch”, “hand- crafted” and “local” are no longer the USPs they once were).
Moreover, by verifying distilleries who buy in neutral grain spirit (NGS) to make gin while also importing rum to blend and bottle (as many have been doing to insulate themselves against gin’s downturn), the “Actually Made In” campaign risks doing a disservice to makers who ferment and distil their base spirits from scratch, and causing greater consumer confusion.
So does it actually matter how – and where – a gin is made? I would argue not.
“So does it actually matter how – and where – a gin is made?”
While we should undoubtedly celebrate distilleries that produce their own base spirit, it doesn’t necessarily make for a better gin. NGS should (by its very definition) be devoid of character;
its production also requires a different skillset and equipment from that used to make gin, and it is hard to produce cost- efficiently and sustainably on a small scale.
Likewise, one shouldn’t assume that a gin produced under contract is lower quality. On the contrary, and despite some long-standing snobbery against contract distilling, there’s a lot to be said for putting your product in the hands of an expert.
As for the importance of knowing where a spirit is made, the jury seems to be out. Although provenance is increasingly prominent and well understood in the food industry, I’m repeatedly told that spirits consumers don’t really care – but maybe the industry has simply made it too inscrutable.
Consumers presumably realise that Buckingham Palace Gin isn’t actually made in the official residence of his Majesty the King, or that Battersea Power Station’s gin isn’t actually made inside the lift after which it is named (Lift 109). They might, however, reasonably assume that a Japanese-style gin is made in Japan. Or that a Welsh gin isn’t made over the border in Birmingham, and that the Italian/Australian/Chilean gins they receive in their monthly subscription aren’t all made in the same English distillery.
Whether deliberate or not, there is a problem with transparency and this is what distillers and brands alike should be rallying together to address, especially as it’s an obvious means to win the trust of newer customers still forming affinities.
It’s naive to think every gin company would willingly disclose the source of their NGS or their production location, and legislation would be even harder to impose. However, there’s a lot to be said for the suggestion from Jake F Burger, co-founder of Portobello Road Distillery, that gin adopt something like tequila’s “Norma Oficial Mexicana” (NOM); a four- digit number that appears on every bottle and identifies its point of origin.
For now, the best we can do is hold brands and distilleries to account, and praise honesty and authenticity where we see it. Whether that’s in a local distillery or in a brand proudly celebrating its partnership with a contract distillery, as happened recently with the opening of Ford Gin’s new brand home within the Thames Distillers site: a space that even includes a corner to honour 10th generation master distiller Charles Maxwell and all of the other gins he has made!
Sarah Miller is a UK-based spirits writer, judge and consultant.
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