GLOBAL APPEAL
World Gin Awards show international interest in gin
Finally, we roll into February and March after what has been a cold couple of months. This time of year is definitely my favourite, as we look towards warmer days and longer nights. Gin, and its various serves, is no-doubt a drink for any time of year, but I would much rather be consuming it somewhere warm and with the sun shining.
Befitting that sense of seasonal optimism, I’ve been looking forward to this issue for a while too, because it’s our opportunity to present the winners from the World Gin Awards 2019, along with the Icons of Gin and Hall of Fame. The awards present a great opportunity to distil the trends in gin from the past 12 months and often they provide a glimpse as to what lies ahead for the next year.
What has stood out most this year is the breadth of nations not only producing gin, but also to a great standard. With entries from across the globe performing well, I think it’s safe to say that gin has firmly established global appeal.
I’ll leave the big reveal of the World’s Best Gin for later, but well done to all the entrants and especially those who have taken home awards. All of the awardwinners are revealed from Page 83 in what is a bumper-edition for us. Let us know what you think of our champions if you have a chance to grab a bottle.
I hope you’ll find that the rest of this issue also delivers an international flavour.
Aaron Knoll gets on the road around Colorado, an important state when it comes to US distilling and explores some the great gins and bars that are coming out of the area. You can expect more of this in future editions and I look forward to showing you what we have up our sleeves. You could say that Gin Magazine is hitting the road and we’d love to hear your thoughts on where we should explore next.
In her regular bars feature, Virginia Miller goes to Copenhagen, Denmark, in search of great cocktails and discovers a city of colour and imagination. Meanwhile, Aaron looks closely at citrus botanicals and finds that there is more out there than you would expect.
As we look outwards however, it’s perhaps important to remember what’s in front of us too. Jettie Grey’s feature on Beefeater really interested me for this reason. It’s an American perspective on a British classic, that perhaps is taken a little for granted on these shores. Sometimes that ‘outside’ perspective really does open your eyes and we’re lucky to have so many iconic gin brands amongst newer faces.
As usual, we’re packed full of tastings and cocktail suggestions to get you going. Over the Christmas period I’d played around with a few hot gin cocktails for myself and I’m really pleased that Bernadette has introduced her take on these to you in her piece on Gin Toddies. With a recent cold-snap both here and especially in the northern parts of the US, it’ll be well worth your time mixing one of these up yourself. Even if it’s not cold, they’re tasty anyhow and Bernadette assures me that they’re pretty much a medicinal cure-all.
I’m also pleased to say that in March this year we’ll be launching Gin Live in London. It’s an opportunity to meet distillers and producers from across the globe and we’ll be delivering masterclasses alongside some of the individuals behind the brands. It’s a chance to meet some of our contributors and I’m sure you’ll discover one or two brands and serves that really capture the imagination.
Sometimes that ‘outside’ perspective really does open your eyes
Visiting tasting events is still one of my favourite ways of learning about different gin brands and I hope that many of our readers will be there to join myself and the team on March 29 and 30. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with what is in store.
As always, I encourage you to get involved with the cocktails and tastings in this issue using our social media @ginmagazineuk and please do fire your questions for David to answer. I look forward to seeing you all at Gin Live in March!