Love Drinks presents… Four Perfect Gifts for the Gin-Lover in Your Life This Christmas

London, October 23 2018 -- Love Drinks, the independent premium drinks experts, are proud to present four great gift ideas for serious gin aficionados this Christmas. These are the industry’s best-kept secrets. A selection of authentic, lovingly-crafted gins from all over the world, hand-picked by Love Drinks for home bar enthusiasts up and down the country to savour.

Behind each of these four outstanding gins are stories of great artistry and creativity, as well as fascinating insight into traditional production methods and the rich diversity of one of the nation’s favourite tipples.

All are unique, multi-awarding winning spirits dreamed up by the brightest minds in the business.

Stock up your drinks cabinet with these beauties this Christmas:

Bloody Shiraz - Four Pillars (Australia)

Behind Four Pillars Gin there are three guys with one big dream. They call themselves the Thinker, the Drinker and the Tinker! Bloody Shiraz Gin is their masterpiece: A unique result of steeping shiraz grapes in high proof Rare Dry Gin for eight weeks before pressing and bottling the juice.

Aromatically the gin has fresh pine needles, citrus and spice, with a clear peppery, dense raspberry character. The palate is lovely and sweet, with a long juniper and spice character on the finish. At 37.8% ABV, it’s higher in alcohol than sloe gin, so it packs a punch and is ideal in a range of cocktails.

Just like the beautiful Yarra Valley Four Pillars calls home, this gin is a celebration of the new world with a hat tip to the old. Bloody Shiraz is all about unpretentious innovation combined with good old Australian homespun hospitality. Bonza!

https://www.fourpillarsgin.com.au

Available to buy now from The Whisky Exchange in 70cl bottle for £40.95.

Old Tom Gin - Hernö (Sweden)

Old Tom is Swedish to its core. Clean. Organic. No fuss. A love letter to the beautiful wilderness of “The High Coast” - a UNESCO world heritage site nestled in the hillside on the east coast of Sweden, about 400km north of Stockholm.

Founded by Master Distiller Jon Hillgren in 2011, Hernö is named after “Härnösand”where he grew up, and is very much a family affair. Wife Johanna is his business partner, his sister and brother-in-law are investors, and, up until 2017, his mother hand-signed 60,000 bottles a year to give them the personal touch!

Old Tom is botanically-intensive and juniper-heavy with notes of pine flowers and just a hint of honey to give it a subtle sweetness. The purity of soil in the region makes the gin so smooth and palatable, there is no need for a mixer.

In February 2018, Hernö Old Tom was named the World's Best Gin for the second year in a row at the World Gin Awards hosted by Gin Magazine.

https://hernogin.com/

Available to buy now from Amazon in 50cl bottle for £34.95.

Pink Gin - The Bitter Truth (Germany)

Intrepid Munich bartenders Stephan Berg and Alexander Hauck have reinvented Pink Gin for the spirits connoisseur.

Pink gin might conjure images of a sickly sweet, fruit-based hooch pandering to modern, undiscerning tastes - but its origins are considerably tougher.

The first people to stumble across it were sailors in our own Royal Navy, who mixed English proof strength gin (coming in at an eye-watering 58% ABV), bitters and water in an ingenious attempt to cure sea-sickness. The oceans must have been particularly choppy in those days, as Pink Gin quickly became an everyday breakfast for seafarers - and wealthy land-lubbers were quick to join the party.

Berg and Hauck set up The Bitter Truth to get back to bitters basics.

Their Pink Gin blends delicate aromatic bitters with premium gin. Juniper is still at the helm but it is supported by fresh spiced flavours like liquorice, caraway and fennel which provide a wonderfully calm finish.

http://the-bitter-truth.com/

Available to buy now from Master of Malt in 70cl bottle for £37.96.

Mr Kamm’s Gin - Made in Surrey (UK)

As gin’s international renaissance gathers pace and reaches far-flung destinations all around the world, it is reassuring to know that some of the finer things in life can be found closer to home.

In the case of Alex Kammerling’s award-winning gin, Mr. Kamm’s, that means in a shed at the bottom of his parents’ back garden!

Kammerling’s painstaking approach and perfectionism led him to experiment with 45 botanicals and 180 trial distillations over two years before he was satisfied with the results.

Mr. Kamm’s is made in Weybridge using a barley-based spirit giving it a creamier softer mouthfeel. It is distilled in a 40-litre hand-beaten copper still in the traditional ‘one-shot’ method, meaning that instead of making a concentrated gin and blending that with more spirit, all of the spirit from the still is used. This makes it considerably more expensive to produce but the resulting gin has a deeper, more rounded flavour and softer finish.

https://www.mrkammsgin.com/home/

Available to buy now from The Whisky Exchange in 70cl bottle for £38.75.

“These are very special gift ideas for all those true gin lovers out there,” said Kirsty Loveday, Founder and CEO of Love Drinks. “We are proud to work with such passionate, innovative drinks pioneers, and help them tell their compelling stories.”