Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/931490
january/february 2018 / the tasting panel / 69 january-february 2018 / the tasting panel / 69 LONDON'S SIPSMITH BRINGS TRUE CRAFTMANSHIP TO A TRADITIONAL SPIRIT by Ian Buxton / photos by Andy Barnham ot every revolution can be rooted exactly in a time and place. We can, however, date the beginning of the U.K.'s craft distill- ing revolution to December 9, 2008, in a former garage on a quiet residential street in the unfashionable west London suburb of Hammersmith. What's more, we know the names of the co-conspirators who planned this insurgent movement and set out to challenge the established order of Britain's previously-comfortable distilling dynasties. Meet Jared Brown, Fairfax Hall, and Sam Galsworthy: founders of Sipsmith Ltd., makers of traditional London Dry Gin, and the architects of a craft-distilling movement that has changed Britain's drinking habits forever. But what, you might ask, is so revolutionary about "traditional" gin? As Galsworthy explains, the trio set out to "bring gin home to London" where they could produce it "the way it used to be, and the way it should be." But, remarkably, even from those early days— with Galsworthy making deliveries of individual bottles on his scooter—they had a fervent ambition to take their product global. The botanicals in Sipsmith Gin lend themselves well to the juniper-forward London Dry style.