Australia’s gin category is enjoying strong growth as consumers engage with brands and botanicals and understand the majesty of this enchanting drink.
One of the things that helps fuel the growth of the gin category is the changing nature of the drink and the innovation that is seen. By its very nature gin is a category of innovation. Master Distillers are both artists and engineers crafting beautiful drinks from different botanicals, and constantly looking at new recipes and new products.
This continual development and innovation helps engage consumers who are constantly seeking new and exciting variations of new or favourite brands. This fuels increased consumer knowledge and broadens repertoires significantly meaning consumers understand having multiple gins for multiple occasions.
In addition the premiumisation of the mixer category also means consumers understand how different botanicals work with different mixers and also different garnishes. It’s not just lemon or lime these days, pink grapefruit, strawberries and of course cucumber are just some of the different garnishes that help enhance different botanicals and flavours in a multitude of gins.
One gin that has been a leading innovator in the gin category is Hendrick’s Master Distiller Lesley Gracie established the Cabinet of Curiosities, a place of experimental botanic alchemy at the Hendrick’s Gin Palace Distillery.
Here Gracie can create new arrangements of floral essences that enhance and accentuate the existing elements of the Hendrick’s Original house style. The Palace is a centre of distilling excellence and a place where Hendrick’s expands the taste spectrum through the creations of new Hendrick’s variants.
This autumn sees the first variant to emerge from the Cabinet of Curiosities as the small-batch, limited edition Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice is released.
This expression sees the original Hendrick’s recipe instilled with a secret selection of floral essences that enhances the liquid’s existing botanical bouquet and capture the aromatic intensity of a midsummer day. The result is an enchantingly floral and exquisitely refreshing gin that blossoms on the palate while remaining unmistakably Hendrick’s.
“I have always been enamoured by the power of nature’s flavours and aromas at the peak of Summer and for this new expression I’ve hand-selected each floral essence to capture this intensity,” said Gracie.
“Midsummer Solstice joins a long line of innovations from Hendrick’s and I’m excited to not only create new expressions at the Gin Palace, but also share them with curious tasters and gin explorers all over the world.
The deeply floral and definitively Hendrick’s style of the Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice will also be reflected in the launch campaign in October. No other gin tastes, acts or behaves like Hendrick’s and that is a style and ethos that resonates through everything that the brand does.
The October launch will see floral takeovers in key bars and floral tastings and visibility across bottle shops. Street posters as well as digital and social media activity will help drive consumer awareness that Hendrick’s has innovated again and there is something new, exciting, yet familiar and trustworthy to try.
Hendrick’s reinvented the gin category in 1999 and continues to do so. This latest expression in a long line of innovations is a wonderful example of the world’s most unusual gin continuing to push boundaries.
So forgo the humdrum in favour of Hendrick’s, a gin decidedly different and undeniably delicious, submit to the floral enchantment of a midsummer’s day this October with the Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice, a gin available to all channels for a limited time and with an $89.99 RRP. For more information contact your local William Grant & Sons representative.