Gilbey’s Special Dry Gin

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The dragon-like creature featured on Gilbey’s label is a Wyvern, a mythical winged animal often seen in medieval heraldry. Gilbey's gin is owned by Diageo but is produced and sold under a long-term license by Jim Beam Brands. It is flavoured with 12 botanicals.

In 1857 Walter and Alfred Gilbey returned from service in the Crimean War and set up a wine importing business in London’s Soho. Trade grew so strongly that by 1867 they were installed in the famous Pantheon building on Oxford Street – five years later they set up a gin distillery in Camden Town. Business boomed and the Gilbey family acquired several whisky distilleries in Scotland as well as foreign concerns such as Crofts port: by the 1920s the company had gin distilleries in Australia and Canada.

During Prohibition consignments of Gilbey’s gin were shipped to just outside the legal twelve-mile limit off the American coast then smuggled into the States. As a result, Gilbey’s was widely counterfeited by the US underworld: the company introduced distinctive square bottles with sandblasting on three sides in an attempt to protect its intellectual property, only reverting to the original clear glass style in 1975. By this time it had distilleries in New Zealand, Uruguay, Namibia, East Africa, Swaziland, Mauritius and Mozambique.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 18/07/2012

Appearance:

Clear, transparent.

Aroma:

Citrus and juniper led nose, akin to pine and lemon meringue pie filling, with herbal, spicy, rooty notes.

Taste:

Minerally palate more dominated by lemon citrus than juniper – although the two seem to be in battle rather than in harmony. Rooty, herbal notes emerge.

Aftertaste:

Citrus finish is reminiscent of packed pasteurised lemon juice rather than fresh zest.