Portobello Road No. 171 Gin, London Dry Gin Traditionally Made Using 9 Botanicals, Premium Craft Spirit, 70cl Bottle

Product Information

Are there any particular champions of the brand within the on-trade/ bars/ people that you work with? When we arrived in Portobello we first opened the Portobello Star bar,’ he says. ‘We looked at launching something and gin seemed the obvious choice,’ says Burger. ‘The history of London and gin are intertwined, you can’t tell one story without mentioning the other. Jake is modest, so it’s worth stating his reputation was so strong that the customers who had enjoyed his drinks at Townhouse, followed him across town to have those drinks in his new bar. It’s an affection he has retained all the way through to the present day. Portobello Road No. 171 Gin is a solid mixing gin behind the bar. I tend to be less a fan of spice-forward gins in a gin and tonic or gin and soda. Paired with a citrus seltzer or citrus tonic water, it becomes brighter and lets the juniper shine. When we then went into the distillery to continue our experience and then to our cosy little gin making area, it just got better & better.

We already wondered if the gin market had room for us. But we had the bars, so at the very least, we could sell it through our venues. It payed for itself so there was virtually zero risk. We started on a small scale, labelling by hand, and spirits shops like Gerry’s in Soho liked this element of it. We didn’t go for a bespoke bottle which saved us money, and we were pitching ourselves cheaper than a gin like Tanqueray No.Ten so didn’t compete with them. Getting it listed in bars was a case of calling in a few favours around the UK, and to this day it is still stronger in the regions than in London.’We tasted all of the available spices & flavours we could choose from to create our own gins, I was very happy with my choice of lapsang souchong, cassia bark, bitter orange & cardamom seed, which were expertly combined & measured by Carmen to make the perfect gin for me!! Gin first became popular in the 17th century with the infamous gin-craze that gripped the nation. This era of drunken debauchery was of course portrayed in William Hogarth’s famous ‘Gin Lane’ painting. This negative perception of gin did hinder the spirit’s growth until around the 1900s. What is the secret of its success? Jake Burger co-founder and distiller at Portobello Road Gin taking a Ginstitute class

For nine months, the founders Ged Feltham and Jake Burger experimented and obsessed about creating the perfect balanced blend of craft gin. The character slowly developed and finally, in 2011, Portobello Road No 171 Gin was born.We have also worked on several projects with the Savoy including inviting them to The Ginstitue to blend their very own gin. We also embarked on a similar project with El Gato Negro in Manchester. The gin itself is designed in the London Dry Style. It features nine botanicals distilled on a base of wheat. The brand launched in 2011. Tasting Notes Gin has always been an immensely popular spirit in the UK. Although the spirit was invented in The Netherlands, we Brits have adopted it as our own national spirit. Looking at the category generally, there are a few ways gin could go. Look at how vodka has changed, perhaps we’ll see some consolidation in gin, then only a handful of new brands emerging, and may be some will have enough regional loyalty to keep going. But there are those without an established route to market, we could see some disappear. Or it could go the way of Armagnac, dozens of small producers all selling thousands of cases.’ So perhaps Burger is celebrated because he is not only the quintessential bartender, he is beyond bartender.

The London Dry is made with Charles Maxwell at Thames Distillery, according to the specs of Jake and the team. Maxwell is a legend, an eight-generation gin maker, but the Distillery also has capacity to make spirits in house and it’s here that the brand sets itself apart, blending releases with innovation, experimentation but also painstaking affection for history.It’s fascinating to see how trends manifest in gin. Especially when reviewing a gin form the early Gin Renaissance that we’ve not had in for review until now. We are particularly proud of our work with Firmdale group, which includes the Ham Yard and Soho Hotel in London and have an exciting collaboration coming up with the latter this winter – so watch this space. We left with our bottles of gin, as well as another bottle of Portobello Road No.171 each- awesome! For example, we were the first spirits brand to create a gin using British asparagus which was the first of our annual limited edition Director’s Cut gins and was created by founder Paul Lane. We’ll be announcing details of our second Director’s Cut very soon which will be an extra special edition by Ged Feltham to celebrate our fifth anniversary. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.