16 Essential Bottles of Gin [Timeline]

Gin has a rich and colorful history that dates back centuries. It was revered as a medical cure-all in the Middle Ages, when gin-like elixirs infused with juniper berries were distilled to treat ailments involving the liver and digestive tract. It was also reviled as a public menace in 18th-century England, when dirt-cheap, barely regulated gin led to an era of dangerous consumption known as the Gin Craze.

Today’s gin scene has come a long way from the days when it was derisively nicknamed “Mother’s Ruin.” The 21st-century resurgence of cocktail culture along with a groundswell of post-pandemic interest in premium gins among millennials and Gen Z have led to a renewed interest in the spirit. The explosion of new styles and brands from the craft and international sector have also sparked intrigue, since every label contains its own hodgepodge of botanicals to support the juniper required to be present.

Gin’s journey from the treacherous days of Gin Lane to the modern back bar and home bar cart can be mapped out through several key bottles. Some represent the category’s building blocks. Others highlight the innovations that broaden the spirit’s possibilities. Together, they build a rather fascinating timeline.

1761: The First-Ever London Dry Gin Is (Likely) Produced
Bottle: Greenall’s Gin

In 1751, Britain enacted the Gin Act to better regulate gin distribution and consumption. While it eventually put an end to the Gin Craze’s madness, it also set the stage for producers to create a more refined, better- tasting product than the crude, non-standardized stuff. One of those producers was Greenall’s founder Thomas Dakin, who created a distinctively crisp, juniper-forward gin that’s still considered the category’s stylistic benchmark. The product proved to be successful and other brands like Gordon’s started producing London Dry Gins by the end of the decade.

Dakin’s original blend consisted of eight botanicals: juniper, angelica root, bitter almond, cassia bark, coriander, dried lemon peel, liquorice, and orris. Greenall’s still uses Dakin’s recipe to create its gin, more than 260 years later.

1769: Gin Goes Global Thanks to the British Navy
Bottle: Gordon’s Gin

Alexander Gordon launched his eponymous gin in London’s Southwark district because he found the area’s water quality impressive. It was the right decision: His London Dry Gin quickly emerged as the drink of choice for many locals. Some of the brand’s biggest fans were members of the British Navy. Their penchant for taking bottles with them when they shipped out to various parts of the world made them rudimentary brand ambassadors, sharing the spirit with others wherever they landed. Their efforts transformed the brand — and gin itself — from a British favorite to a worldwide phenomenon by 1800.

1830: Coffey Stills Revolutionize Gin’s Distillation Process
Bottle: Tanqueray Gin

When Charles Tanqueray opened his distillery in 1830, gin was made in pot stills. While this method was capable of producing high-quality gin, it was also slow and laborious. That same year, after many attempts to improve the distilling process, an Irish patent office cleric named Aeneas Coffey patented the Coffey still, a tall, column-shaped vessel capable of distilling at a more efficient, consistent rate, making it possible to produce more gin without losing integrity. It also produced a cleaner, purer spirit, one that’s more akin to the London Dry gins on the market today.

Tanqueray, recognizing what these newfangled tools had to offer, became an early adaptor of the Coffey still. While Charles died in 1868, his son Charles Waugh Tanqueray grew the brand into an international market before merging the company with Gordon & Company (the business behind Gordon’s Gin) in 1898. Today, Tanqueray stands tall as a pillar of the international gin market, and it remains one of the top-selling gins in the United States.

1876: James Burrough Creates the Recipe for Beefeater Gin
Bottle: Beefeater Gin

James Burrough made his bones as a pharmacist before purchasing the Chelsea Distillery in 1863. He spent the next several years leaning into his chemistry skills, tinkering here and there with different botanicals to get the precise flavor he wanted before finally finding the brand’s signature nine-botanical blend. He named the product Beefeater, after the Yeoman Warders that have stood watch over the Tower of London since at least the 16th century.

The gin and distillery didn’t share the same name until 1958, when production moved to its current location in the Kensington neighborhood of London. In a way, this was only a formality: Beefeater had already earned its reputation as a quintessential London Dry gin. According to the Beefeater website, it accounted for 75 percent of gins imported into the U.S. by 1963.

1920: A Real Brand Becomes the Face of Bathtub Gin During Prohibition
Bottle: Gilbey’s Gin

Though Prohibition posed a serious setback for the alcohol industry, it did create some weirdly fascinating stories. One of the most unique accounts involved Gilbey’s, a London-based gin that was on the market since 1872. As Prohibition lingered, shipments of the gin would be sent out as close to the American coastline as possible without leaving international waters.

This tactic made the gin popular among smugglers and bootleggers. It also made the bottles a great option for counterfeiters, who would fill the empties with bathtub gin and sell them to unwitting consumers who were seeking out the “good stuff.” The problem allegedly became so rampant, Gilbey’s altered their bottle to make it harder to replicate.

1952: The Gin-Based RTD Lonkero Is Created for the Summer Olympics
Bottle: Hartwall Original Long Drink

When Helsinki hosted the 1952 Summer Olympic Games, the Finnish government wanted to welcome the world with an alcoholic drink to mark the occasion. The beverage had to be more than a gesture of goodwill. It needed to be a refreshing, sessionable drink that was easy for athletes, media, and spectators to consume. With this in mind, the state-run beverage retailer Alko collaborated with beverage producer Hartwall to create a drink designed to hit these metrics. The result was lonkero (a.k.a. Finnish Long Drink), a low-ABV, RTD canned beverage consisting of gin and grapefruit soda. It was a smash hit, and it remained commercially available once the games concluded.

The fact that this forerunner of the modern RTD scene existed is somewhat surprising given its surrounding context. Finland endured Prohibition from 1919 to 1932, and Alko controlled post-Prohibition alcohol sales and production through a series of strict regulatory practices. Creating lonkero and distributing it to the masses required Alko to significantly loosen its grip on these practices. It did just that, but it didn’t fully let go: Alko still oversaw the country’s lonkero production until 1995, when it had to cease control as a condition of Finland joining the European Union.

1987: Gin’s Botanicals Finally Get Their Close-Up
Bottle: Bombay Sapphire

In the 1980s, Bombay Dry Gin was looking to carve out a niche in a market dominated by century-plus-old brands. Fortunately, the company was working with Michel Roux, the marketing genius behind Absolut Vodka’s legendarily weird, Warhol-linked ad campaign. He delivered a marketing strategy focusing on the gin’s botanicals, relaunching the brand as Bombay Sapphire in 1987. This was an out-of-the-box concept at the time: The only botanical anyone ever talked about was juniper, and it’s debatable that the word “botanical” was ever even part of those conversations.

The strategy worked. The focus on botanicals helped thrust Bombay Sapphire to market prominence. It also changed the way brands and consumers talk about gin, since discussions about a gin’s botanical blend can provide further insight into its character. Bombay Sapphire still makes a big fuss about the 10 botanicals it uses in its gin, which it sources from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

1993: Plymouth Coins the Term ‘Navy Strength’
Bottle: Plymouth Navy Strength Gin

Navy-strength gin — that is, high-proof gin clocking in with a 57 percent ABV or higher — has been around since the 18th century for practical reasons. The British Royal Navy would often store its gin next to the ship’s gunpowder; a lower-proof gin would cause damage to the ammunition if spilled, while a high-proof gin would not. Fifty-seven percent, or 114 proof, was the dividing line.

The term “navy-strength gin,” on the other hand, only dates back to 1993, when Plymouth Gin’s marketing team invented the term to promote its high-proof gin (which was 57 percent ABV, of course). These days, navy-strength gins are all over the market. Rather than keeping gunpowder safe for skirmishes, today’s high-proof bottlings work to intensify the botanicals’ impact, leading to bolder flavors.

1999: Gin Brands Start Moving Away From the Juniper Narrative
Bottle: Hendrick’s Gin

Even as people started to understand the importance of gin botanicals, juniper berries still dominated the narrative. While this made sense — juniper is required in gin, after all — it made gin feel a bit stodgy. The category needed a shake-up. Enter Hendrick’s, a quirky Scottish gin that immediately and aggressively leaned into promoting the other ingredients in its 11-botanical mix. Two botanicals in particular, cucumber and roses, stood out in the gin’s flavor profile and quickly became its calling card. This character made Hendrick’s a popular gin for the bartenders of the then-burgeoning cocktail scene. Its unique profile and legendary tropical-tinged, steampunk-adjacent Victorian ad campaign breathed life into the category. Gin was no longer a rote, old-school spirit. It could be adventurous.

2006: A New Style Is Born: New Western Dry Gin
Bottle: Aviation Gin

Aviation made a name for itself long before Ryan Reynolds bought into the brand. When Christian Krogstad and Ryan Magarian created Aviation in 2006, they realized it didn’t quite fit into standardized gin categories like London Dry or Navy Strength because the juniper took somewhat of a backseat to the liquid’s more floral botanicals. So they decided to create a new stylistic category, complete with its own criteria. New Western Dry Gin was born.

According to the criteria, which Magarian officially outlined in a 2009 essay, New Western Dry Gin is defined by allowing the gin’s supporting botanicals to “‘just about’ share center stage” with juniper, which technically still needs to be the dominant botanical in order to be considered a dry gin. Magarian notes the style can be produced anywhere, just as London Dry Gin can also be produced anywhere in the world.

2007: Old Tom Gin Returns From the Dead
Bottle: Hayman’s Old Tom Gin

Back in the day — way back, like in the days of legendary 19th-century bartender Jerry Thomas — Old Tom Gin was a popular spirit for cocktail creation. Then the sweeter, less botanically-aggressive style fell out of favor after Prohibition, almost like cocktails themselves, to the point where the average consumer had no idea it even existed.

Then a funny thing happened around 2007. Instead of a further drift into obscurity, there was a race to market. Ransom Spirits founder Tad Seestedt and cocktail historian David Wondrich joined forces to create an Old Tom based on recipes and information unearthed by Wondrich’s research. Around the same time, the U.K.’s Hayman Distillery started creating an Old Tom based on a family recipe dating back to 1870. Hayman hit the market first in 2007, and Ransom landed on the shelves a year later. Based on the number of Old Tom gins on the market these days, it seems like the style is here to stay.

2009: Changes to British Laws Bring U.K. Gin Distilling Into the 21st Century
Bottle: Sipsmith Gin

When Sipsmith launched its gin in 2007, the company was surprised to encounter a British mandate from 1823 prohibiting distilleries from obtaining a license for any still less than 1,800 liters in capacity. The law effectively killed the chances for new, small brands to begin operations. Undaunted, Sipsmith founders Sam Galsworthy and Fairfax Hall led the charge to strike the law from the books. After two years of lobbying, Parliament relented, and Sipsmith received the first license to distill. Its work paved the way for other small- batch gin distillers to set up shop in the U.K.

2010: Germany Enters the Chat
Bottle: Monkey 47

Germany is known for a wide range of alcoholic beverages from beer to Jägermeister, but never gin. That was, until Monkey 47 hit the market and quickly became a key player in the premium gin sector. So much so, alcohol behemoth Pernod Ricard purchased a majority stake in the company in 2016, then became its lone owner in 2020. While the gin’s recipe was inspired by a British expatriate, everything about Monkey 47 is authentically German, from its quirky location to its 47 hand-picked botanicals sourced from the Black Forest. (And yes, the monkey has a moniker. His name is Max).

2012: Bartenders Get Their ‘Swiss Army Knife’ Cocktail Gin
Bottle: Fords Gin

Plenty of pre-Prohibition and Prohibition-era gin drinks fueled the 2000s cocktail revival. The trouble was, different gin drinks usually called for different brands based on the bottle’s botanical build. This became a bit of an industry pain point, and it led bartender Simon Ford to wonder if it would be possible to create more versatile gin that could fit a range of drinks.

This quandary inspired him to create Fords Gin in 2012. Its journey from idea to game-changing well gin suggests its self-proclaimed status of being “for bartenders, by bartenders” is far from lip service. Sasha Petraske encouraged Ford to make the gin. Dale DeGroff was in the room when Ford and his team decided on the gin’s final botanical blend. Other industry legends like Eric Alperin and Lynnette Marrero had a say in the bottle design. This all culminated in a “Swiss Army Knife” gin built for bartenders. And it’s still as sharp as ever.

2017: Gin Gets a Bit of Color
Bottle: Empress 1908 Indigo Gin

Before 2017, gin that wasn’t barrel-aged came in one color: clear. That went out the window when the Canadian brand Empress 1908’s Indigo Gin hit the shelves with its distinctive, deep purple hue. The unique color was so striking, it sparked a craze for purple cocktails, driven by the product’s ability to pop on social media.

Indigo Gin’s color wasn’t intended to be a marketing ploy. It was a happy accident. Its source comes from the butterfly pea blossoms the gin uses as one of its botanicals. This color can also change in a cocktail based on its surrounding ingredients: A drink with basic ingredients turns the gin dark blue, while a beverage with acidic ingredients gives the juice a rosy tint. Science!

2018: Lonkero Comes to the U.S.
Bottle: The Finnish Long Drink

After Alko relinquished control of Finnish alcohol production in 1995, a bevy of other lonkero brands hit the market. A few brands took advantage of the newfound freedom by creating lonkero versions with citrus other than the traditional grapefruit. While this further cemented the RTD gin drink’s popularity in its native homeland, it remained relatively unknown in the U.S. until 2018, when the Finnish Long Drink debuted.

The RTD skyrocketed stateside, thanks in part to a series of celebrity partnerships that formed simply because the famous folks were enamored with the brand. The brand has since branched into a wide range of flavors like peach, cranberry, and pineapple, but it hasn’t forgotten its history: Each can comes adorned with the phrase “Legend of 1952,” referencing the year the world raised a gin-based drink together.

*Image retrieved from monticellllo via stock.adobe.com

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