Sipsmith

Sipsmith holds an important place in the history of British gin production. Founded in 2007 by childhood friends, Sam Galsworthy and Fairfax Hall, they encountered an unexpected setback in 2008 which was to prove fundamental to the recent renaissance of gin. Having obtained a shiny copper still with a capacity of 300 litres, their distillation licence came up against an archaic British law from 1823, which made it impossible for distillers to obtain a licence for a still under 1,800 litres. Galsworthy and Hall petitioned for this historic excise act to be repealed, which subsequently took place later that year. As such, the path was paved for craft distillation in the UK.

After much trial and error, production began on their London Dry gin recipe on 14th March 2009, in their first copper still, Prudence. And so began a sharp upward rise of not only Sipsmith, but the category of gin as a whole. In 2014, the distillery moved from a historic site on Nasmyth Street in Hammersmith, to a bigger site in Chiswick. Having build their reputation on the London Dry gin, the range grew to include VJOP, a navy strength gin filled with juniper, numerous other flavoured gins, and the London Cup, a craft version of the nation’s beloved Pimms.