Nigel Huddleston

I’ve been asked to write about gin a lot lately. It’s the hippest of several hip drinks of our times and that means there’s plenty to say: new brands, new distilleries, new flavours.

New flavours is the tricky bit of the equation. Gin is, after all, supposed to taste primarily of juniper berries, though there’s always been plenty of scope for other botanical ingredients to shape and enhance its flavour: angelica root, orange peel, cardamom, coriander and cassia bark are all frequent visitors to the gin still.

But lately other flavours with a novelty factor have been making their way into the market, some of the most common inspired more by retro confectionery than exotic herbs and spices: Palma Violets, Rhubarb & Custard … that sort of thing.

There’s been a kick back against such frippery which I wrote about for Drinks Retailing News recently.

Novelty acts don’t fare well in the drinks history books. Cider went through such a phase in the early 1990s during one of its occasional spells of trendiness. The polar opposites of black cider and white cider were just two of its manifestations. No one remembers black cider any more (I recall that Bulmer’s Black Dove was the outrider). White cider, on the other hand, became the product that the industry would have liked to forget but couldn’t – a downmarket sub-genre that became the excuse for every attempted tax penalty and marketing clampdown the sector has faced since, and one that is only now dying a slow death.

The lesson for gin is perhaps, by all means, embrace the good times while they last, but keep in mind that authenticity, integrity and keeping a steady orbit around the spirit’s essence will win the long game. If you had to choose one of Portobello Road or Unicorn’s Tears to still be around in 20 years’ time, where’s your money going?

One of my favourite jobs of the year is visiting all the finalists in the independent categories of the Drinks Retailing Awards each autumn. It’s a chance to be inspired by the industry’s brightest minds, creative ideas and exquisite actually-in-the-high-street-real-life shops.

When the awards first started there weren’t even categories for specialist beer or spirits shops, so thin on the ground were genuinely high quality examples.

Now there are scores, if not hundreds, to add to the legions of specialist wine merchants, whose numbers have also flourished in the years since Thresher disappeared.

It’s always nice to see old friends on the annual tour, but it’s even more of a thrill to see new ones … which leads me to a blatant plug for the 2020 awards, entries for which are already open here, and which close on August 16. It doesn’t take long and it’s free.

If you’re a supplier, marketeer or customer with a favourite drink shop you think is worthy of being in the awards email them the website link or tag them in social media.