These days it’s hard to believe that gin once had a fusty image. Relegated to the drinks cabinets of the older generation, gin wasn’t exactly top of the ‘cool’ drinks list pre-2000. Now, there’s a whole host of exciting spirits to pour into your cocktail, from flavoured varieties to cask-aged gins.
Both the drinks industry-wide interest in locality and regional products and the renewed craft cocktail scene played a part in gin’s rise to the top of drinkers’ bar carts, with big brands like Tanqueray launching in the early 2000s making way for artisan producers – many of which are still cropping up all over the world today.
On this week’s podcast episode, Olivier Ward, self-confessed ‘gin nerd’, editor of Spirits Beacon and member of the IWSC spirits judging committee, joins host David Kermode to discuss the gin boom, or renaissance, as he’d rather call it. The pair chart the history of the rise in popularity of the spirit, from big brands like Bombay Sapphire and Hendricks to Sipsmith‘s beginnings in a dingy garage in London’s Hammersmith.
Discover more episodes of The Drinking Hour with David Kermode here
