22 of the world’s best gins to try in 2022
Update your gin shelf with some of the world’s best gins you can buy in 2022! Every gin on this list has been tried and tested by me more than once and as such, I’m happy to recommend them to anyone!
Below, you’ll find gins of various styles from countries including the UK, Australia, Sweden and more, with links to where in the UK you can buy them.
Please note: while I’ve purchased most of the gins myself, some have been gifted by the brand, or previously provided with an agreement to review. Where this is the case, I’ve stated the nature of the agreement. No brand has had any influence over this post and none of the links are affiliate links.
© All images are copyright of From the Gin Shelf, unless otherwise stated.
Summary
Hernö Old Tom Gin
Best for gin & tonic
Style: Old Tom
Price: £30 – £35
One of the most awarded gins in the world, Hernö Old Tom takes some beating. Ask any gin expert and I’d be shocked if nine times out of ten, they don’t name Hernö as one of the world’s best distilleries.
Botanicals such as meadowsweet, lemon and lingonberry give this gin fresh grassy floral and citrus notes, underpinned by juniper.
Easily one of my top five favourite gins.
Where to buy
Biggar Gin
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
A delightful London Dry, Biggar Gin is a beautifully balanced spirit, with notes of juniper, spice, zesty orange, florals from rosehip and subtle lavender, and a touch of bitterness from rowanberries.
Makes a seriously good gin and tonic, and one of a select few gins where I’ve made a repeat purchase as soon as the bottle ran dry!
Never Never Juniper Freak Gin
Best Navy Strenth
Country: Australia
Style: Navy Strength
Price: £35 – £40 (50cl bottle)
If you love gin, you should love juniper, right? Never Never Juniper Freak is therefore right up my street! Using the brand’s Triple Juniper Gin as the base, this is then given a further whack of gin’s hero botanical via blending with a pure juniper distillate and bottled at 58% ABV!
Each vintage, I’m reliably told, is surprisingly different, despite following the same botanical recipe. It’s therefore an idea to keep a little aside each year for a side-by-side tasting!
Where to buy
Cotswolds Gin
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
Cotswolds Dry Gin is one of the iconic modern British gins in my opinion – and it’s an absolute flower bomb to the senses!
Famed for its louching (where the gin turns cloudy in water), the depth of flavour is incredible. Cotswolds Distillery say they use about 10x more botanicals than “most premium gins”. This means the gin has a huge volume of essential oils dissolved in the gin. When you add water, these oils come out of suspension, thus making the cloudy solution they’re known for.
Big notes of lavender, citrus and sweetness, backed up by spices and juniper, make this the most amazing of gin and tonics. I like it with a wedge of orange to balance out the florals.
Garden Shed Gin
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
Founded by a group of friends (Maxine and Ryan Grant, and Kirstin and Ruaridh Jackson), The Garden Shed Gin Company was born in a garden in the west end of Glasgow (hence the name), taking inspiration from botanicals they could find there.
A personal favourite, Garden Shed Gin is absolutely bursting with flavour. Brambles, lavender and dandelion root are all key botanicals in the gin, as well as juniper and grains of paradise. The result is a floral and fruity spirit, but one which is well balanced and not sickly or sweet.
Serve as a gin and tonic with brambles and rosemary and this one is sure to be a hit!
Where to buy
Atlas Love Cake Gin
Country: England
Style: Distilled/Contemporary
Price: £45 – £50
It’s one of the most expensive gins on the list, but trust me, it’s worth it! I first tried the Atlas range in 2021 at a festival. The gins were so popular that they’d sold out so I purchased a bottle online as soon as I got home!
The Atlas range is inspired by flavours from around the world and my favourite of the three is based on the Persian love cake. Featuring botanicals including green cardamom, rose water, almonds, pistachios, lemon zest and vanilla beans, it reminds me of Turkish delight – in a good way!
Serve with Fever-Tree Indian Tonic a sprig of thyme and lime peel and this will knock your socks off!
Note: Having sampled both, I’d personally avoid Fever-Tree Mediterranean as I found it really impaired a lot of the key notes in this gin.
Where to buy
Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin
© Photo: Four Pillars Gin
Country: Australia
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
Like Hernö, Four Pillars is one of the world’s great distilleries. Based in Australia’s Yarra Valley, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne, it’s a region more famous for its vineyards. But Four Pillars stands at the forefront of Australia’s booming craft gin scene.
Their flagship Rare Dry Gin is an absolute rock star. Featuring a mix of native botanicals and those sourced further afield, it’s a gin bursting with citrus, and spice. Whole oranges are key to the distillation and it’s these notes which are the star of the show, behind juniper, spices and aniseed.
Seven Crofts Gin
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
Piney juniper and pink peppercorns front up this gin which takes its name from the seven crofts (farms) that settlers established in their Ullapool home in the late 1700s.
You’ll hopefully notice from the photo that the Seven Crofts bottle is a beauty, but it’s not until you get your hands on it that you realise just how opulent it is. Sleek, slender and classy, it’s extremely tactile and one you’ll love to have on display.
The green gradient on the glass symbolises Ullapool as a place where the land meets the sea, while the contours of the glass represent ploughed fields and the ripples of the sea.
Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Gin
Bottle previously gifted
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
A new premium gin launched by the iconic Bombay Sapphire in 2021, Premier Cru is a celebration of the Murcia region in southeast Spain. Distilled using Fino lemons, mandarins and navel oranges from the region, it’s, as you’d expect, one for fans of citrus-heavy gins.
Working with local farmers and suppliers who hand-peel the fruits and leave them to dry naturally in the Mediterranean sun, the gin is also cut to a punchy 47% ABV, and it’s a versatile gin for cocktails, as well as a G&T.
“Premier cru” is a term more associated with wine as an indicator of quality, however Bombay Sapphire have given this expression the name to highlight the importance placed on how they’ve soured their key botanicals in the gin.
Where to buy
Rock Rose Gin
Previous collaboration
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
Launched in 2014, Rock Rose has gone on to become one of Scotland’s best distilleries. Despite a wonderful range of expressions including a Navy, Old Tom and seasonal editions, it’s their flagship expression that I come back to time and again.
The aromas alone are to die for, and its depth of flavour means it can carry in a range of cocktails. Made with botanicals including sea buckthorn and Rhodiola rosea (the ‘Rock Rose’), it’s both fruity and floral, with a lovely citrus finish.
Also available in a refill pouch that fits through the letterbox and can be sent back by Freepost for recycling.
Hayman’s Exotic Citrus Gin
Best value
Country: England
Style: Distilled
Price: £25 – £30
One of my favourite new gins of 2021, Exotic Citrus is a wonderful addition to the Hayman’s range. Distilled with kumquat, pomelo, Persian lime and mandarin, as the name suggests it’s bursting with citrus.
As you’d expect from Hayman’s it’s another sublime expression to their ever-growing range.
Perfect for summer as a gin and tonic, with Fever-Tree Mediterranean, a slice of orange and a sprig of fresh basil!
Where to buy
Bullards Old Tom Gin
Bottle previously gifted
© Photo: Bullards Gin
Country: England
Style: Old Tom
Price: £35 – £40
One of three Old Tom’s on the list – and with good reason! The third expression from Norwich’s Bullards Gin is divine. Made with unusual botanicals including vanilla pods and fresh mango, Bullards Old Tom has a tropical feel about it, but still with juniper at its core.
Great as a gin and tonic and a martini, to name a few, but seriously – give this a go neat over ice!
And once you’re done, you can refill that bottle time and again using the Bullards Eco Pouch.
Where to buy
Isle of Harris Gin
Best overall
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £40
No list would be complete without Isle of Harris Gin. Not just for the contents of the bottle, but because it really is the complete package; the story behind its inception, its contribution to its remote Hebridean island home, the distribution model, the bottle (God the bottle!)… it really has it all.
The gin itself is exquisite. A quintessential coastal gin with sugar kelp seaweed as the star of the show, Isle of Harris gin is truly transportational. Close your eyes and let the sweet kelp roll off the tongue like the waves of Luskentyre Beach.
Where to buy
Kyrö Gin
Country: Finland
Style: Distilled/blended
Price: £25 – £30 (50cl bottle)
With its rye base, Kyrö Gin is one of the more unusual gins on the list. And if you’re looking for a lip-smacking G&T, look no further!
Winner of the inaugural IWSC Gin & Tonic Trophy in 2015, Kyrö is inspired by “the very heart of Finnish nature” and features four local botanicals (meadowsweet, sea buckthorn, cranberries and birch leaves), giving a complex herbaceous gin with notes of cranberry, meadowsweet and spice.
Serve with a Fever-Tree Indian tonic, fresh cranberries and a sprig of rosemary.
Hrafn Valkyrie Gin
Previous collaboration
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
Originally distilled to be the base gin with which to make their ‘pink’ expression, Cranachan, Peter and Callum Sim of Raven Spirits were sure the gin which would go on to become Valkyrie was a standout in its own right.
Released in 2021, a few weeks before Cranachan, Hrafn Valkyrie Gin is one of five expressions in the range and features the unusual citrus fruit, jara, as the key botanical. With a lovely balance of juniper, sherbety citrus and spice, Valkyrie already has a handful of awards to its name including a Master medal in the London Dry category at the Gin Masters International.
Hills & Harbour Gin
© Photo: The Gin Cooperative
Previous collaboration
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
One of a handful of ‘grain-to-glass’ producers in the UK, Hills & Harbour is a spirit any gin fanatic just has to try. The home-produced base spirit adds so much character to this gin and really flies in the face of the belief that GNS adds no flavour to the gin (Spirits Beacon have a great article on base spirit if you want to know more).
Distilled using botanicals including noble fir needles (from the ‘hills’), bladderwrack seaweed (from the ‘harbour’), dried mango, bay leaf and green Szechuan pepper, it’s an incredibly well-balanced gin with green piney juniper, orange and a hint of the tropical. The texture is also incredible; silk-like and creamy.
The evolution of the brand with its new bottle design launched in late 2021, further adds to the desirability.
Zeiver Gin
Previous collaboration
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £40 – £45
Looking down the list of botanicals on Zeiver Gin, other than the obvious, not one of them is a staple you’d expect to see in almost every gin. It’s got citrus in there with lime and grapefruit, but none of the other usual suspects. No coriander, angelica, orris etc.
Instead, you’ve got the heady addition of peach, pistachio, aloe vera, apple, cherry and macadamia. As well as this unusual mix, you’ll find Zeiver’s bespoke base spirit, made from polished rice.
With this in mind, I went in with absolutely no idea of what to expect from the gin and was pleasantly surprised! Juniper and citrus made this a strangely familiar flavour profile, but it was the texture that really caught my attention – crisp, clean and smooth… like velvet in the mouth, despite its 47% ABV!
Where to buy
Mackintosh Old Tom Gin
© Photo: The Gin Cooperative
Country: Scotland
Style: Old Tom
Price: £35 – £40
Scotland’s best Old Tom according to the Scottish Gin Awards 2020 and 2021, given the high number of people who don’t like tonic, Mackintosh Old Tom was designed to pair with lemonade. For me, however, I’d sip this neat over ice!
One of three expressions in the range, along with a traditional London Dry and Navy Strength, Mackintosh Old Tom gin features pineapple and grapefruit as key botanicals, while keeping juniper at the heart of everything they do.
Very much a family affair, ‘Team Mackintosh’ are also some of the nicest people you’ll meet in the industry!
Nordés Atlantic Galician Gin
Country: Spain
Style: Contemporary
Price: £32 – £37
Of all the gins in this list, I’d go as far as saying Nordés Gin is the most unique. Using a grape base, this is a floral and fruity gin that pays homage to its home in Galicia, Spain. Botanicals from the region include sage, laurel, verbena herb, eucalyptus, peppermint and glasswort.
Big hits of hibiscus, peach and menthol give this gin its distinct characteristics. Divine!
Where to buy
Chapel Down Pinot Noir Gin
Best flavoured/pink
Country: England
Style: Contemporary
Price: £30 – £35
The only ‘pink’ gin on the list – and with good reason, Chapel Down Pinot Noir is something special!
Perhaps more famous for their wines, Chapel Down mix wheat spirit with spirit made from Pinot Noir grape skins from their vineyard to create this floral and fruity spirit.
Strawberry and rose are prominent flavours, but it retains a core backbone of juniper. Not too sweet, this is very much still ‘gin’ and a very good one at that!
Pothecary Trinity Gin
Bottle previously gifted
Country: England
Style: Distilled/blended
Price: £45 – £50 (50cl bottle)
Created by founder/distiller Martin Jennings, Pothecary Trinity Gin is a creative protest to what Martin described as the “alarming state of the gin market.”
Featuring just three botanicals (juniper, coriander and bergamot) it’s a stripped-back gin featuring the pillars of what Martin states as the “the definition of gin” – one which takes its predominant flavour from juniper, supported by citrus and spice. The result is absolutely sublime!
Where to buy
The Lakes Classic Gin
Previous collaboration
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
Launched in 2014, The Lakes Classic Gin underwent a makeover inside and out in 2019. A reformulation of their flagship gin was accompanied by new branding – the latter being simply stunning!
Having tried the old a new recipe side-by-side, the liquid itself is a step up on the original as well, vibrant and fresh with bright notes of citrus and juniper – a refreshing G&T.