Hendrick's Gin

Hendrick's is the gin that brought a generation back to gin. Lesley Gracie, a Yorkshire-born chemist working in new liquid development for William Grant & Sons, was asked in the late 1990s to create a super-premium gin, and what she built at the Girvan distillery in Ayrshire, Scotland — launched in 1999 — tilted the category on its axis. The method is unique: two antique stills, a copper Bennett pot still from around 1860 where botanicals macerate 24 hours and distill for deep, rich flavor, and a 1948 Carter-Head still where vapor passes through a basket for lighter, brighter notes. Eleven botanicals go in — juniper, coriander, angelica, orris, orange and lemon peel, cubeb, caraway, and three flowers: chamomile, elderflower, and yarrow. The two distillates are blended in batches of just 500 liters, and then the signature: essences of Bulgarian rose and cucumber are added after distillation, bottled in the US at 44% ABV in the dark apothecary bottle. The Gin Is In found juniper-backed astringency with soaked rose petal, lime, Persian cucumber, Earl Grey tea, and a surprising bitterness on a fairly long finish — "still good, even neat, highly recommended" — and noted a Hendrick's G&T was the first gin cocktail the reviewer ever ordered, and it changed their life. Thirty-One Whiskey: makes the best G&T, and that's a hill to die on. Honest note: purists find it soft on juniper. That's exactly why it works. The serve is a G&T with three thin cucumber slices, no lime.

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