Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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Introduced in 2009, Beefeater 24 is a line extension of the famous imported gin. It uses different botanicals than the original Beefeater and is said to have a more delicate taste profile. brand, showed a growth rate of 1.3% in 2010. Still, Seagram’s remains the largest- selling gin by far, with sales of 2.5 million 9-liter cases in 2010, followed by Tanqueray, which notched sales of 1.3 million 9-liter cases last year. New Amsterdam held steady at sales of 810,000 9-liter cases. It is, as Park Avenue’s Goldstein observed, the boutique gins that are showing the most growth. According to Caspar MacRae, marketing director for Hendrick’s at William Grant, Hendrick’s has been growing at the rate of 40% for the last three years, based on Nielsen figures. New Style Gins H endrick’s was one of the first of the new style gins, along with Tanqueray No.TEN and Citadelle. These three brands first appeared about ten years ago. Like many of the newer brands that have since joined them, they pride themselves on the quality of their production and also on the uniqueness of their flavor profile. Hendrick’s, for instance, counts, among its eleven botanicals, rose of damascus and cucumber, while Tanqueray No. TEN uses fresh grapefruit, orange and lime in its recipe, and Citadelle’s formulation is based on recipes dating back as far as 250 years and contains 19 botanicals, includ- ing coriander, orange peel, almonds, angelica and grains of paradise. Reading about the botanicals of all the different gin brands can be like reading poetry: green tea, raspberry, melon, white pepper, cinnamon, poppy, elderflower. By law, all gins must have, as their dominant flavor, juniper. The problem is: not everyone likes so much juniper. So, some of the so-called neo- gins developed formulations where the A competitively priced gin with a light citrus taste and very little juniper, New Amsterdam held steady in 2010 with sales of 810,000 9-liter cases. The superpremium-priced, Hendrick’s Gin, from Scotland, was one of the first gins in the U.S. to feature a lighter juniper flavor profile. juniper is less prominent. The idea was that these flavor profiles might be more appealing to people who think they don’t like gin and more flexible for use in cocktail recipes. But the gin market has quickly expanded beyond that. Now, there are new brands, such as Anchor Distilling’s brand, No. 3 London Dry Gin, introduced in March, that pride themselves on being “classic gins.” “We are absolutely classical and we do it right,” said David King, president of Anchor Distilling. Citadelle Gin, imported from France, is based on recipes dating back as far as 250 years and contains 19 botanicals, including coriander, orange peel, almonds, angelica and grains of paradise. The result is not that, overall, the flavor pro- file of gin is moving in one direction or the other. All the newest gins are not all more floral or more citrus. It is that there is now a broad range of flavor profiles within the category. “We are at the forefront of a gin renaissance,” said MacRae, Hendrick’s marketing director. He, like other suppliers, points to three main factors driving the interest: bartenders and their interest in cocktail culture on-premise, consumers being much more discerning and interested in unique products and the innovation of the gin brands themselves. “When we introduced Citadelle in 1997, nobody cared that is was made in small batches in cop- per-pot stills. It was way ahead of its time,” said Guillaume Lamy, vice president, North America for Cognac Ferrand, the maker of Citadelle Gin. “Today, the market has completely changed. Now the consumer is so much more into how things are made and we are finally having success.” Lamy pointed out that Citadelle’s sales are up by 58% this year. One thing that all gin suppliers can agree upon is that the saturation of the vodka market has, paradoxi- Micro-distillery produced Bulldog Gin is one of the many newer gins to gain notice in the U.S. market. 42 • Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • July/August 2011