Gin:TimetoShine?
Mid-Western retailer. Another echoed the thought. “In our market, gin is growing, but very slowly,” he said. But ask a retailer in an East or West Coast city, a retailer who is surrounded by trend-setting restaurants and bars, and you might hear a different answer. “We are seeing an increase in the gin category, particularly in the boutique-quality gins,” said Eric Goldstein, vice president of marketing at Park Avenue Liquor Shop in New York City. “There has been an explosion of new brands and people are starting to experiment. We just might be on the cusp of a trend.” Park Avenue Liquor carries approximately 40 gin brands, including two local brands named after Brooklyn (Brooklyn Gin and Breuckelen Gin), Comb 9, a gin flavored with honey comb, Junipero, which cele-
Though overall sales volume is down, the category is gaining
luster with newer superpremium and boutique expressions entering the market.
By Cheryl Ursin
Is gin, once again, becoming fashionable? Well, it depends on where you ask.
“Nothing much is going on with gin,” reported one
brates the juniper taste of gin, and Farmer’s, an organic gin. “It’s almost as if gin has become like wine, in a sense,” said Goldstein. “The sky’s the limit if you want to experiment and find your taste profile.”
Tanqueray No. Ten, a line extension to the top-selling imported gin in the U.S., came out about 10 years ago, with a different flavor profile highlight- ing more citrus, including grapefruit, lemon and lime.
According to Angus Winchester, brand ambassador for the Tanqueray Gins (Tanqueray, Tanqueray No. TEN and Tanqueray Rangpur), over 50 new gin brands have been launched in the U.S. in the last two years. “Consumers tend to look toward products with authenticity, heritage and provenance, and over the past few years, gin has surged back as a key spirit of choice for discerning consumers and professional
42 StateWays s www.stateways.com s July/August 2011
