Bombay Sapphire is the most revolutionary gin brand that has written itself in gin history with gold letters, started the gin renaissance, and is the second best-selling gin brand in the world as of 2021, after gordon's gin.
In 1987, when Bombay Sapphire was launched, the world spirits market was dominated by vodka. Gin had become an old-fashioned drink consumed only by some extra-traditional, middle-aged people. It was never drunk by the younger generation, accustomed to sweet drinks prepared with vodka and fruit juices, and it was not welcomed due to its intense pine resin-like smell. At that time, one of the nicknames given to the genie was 'distilled pine tree'. We are talking about the darkest period in which not a single cocktail prepared with gin has been added to the literature for 50 years, bottles of gin aged on dusty bar shelves, and perhaps the greatest dark period in which the gin has lived throughout history.
Of course, being successful in such a market with a discredited product like gin was not an attainable goal. Simply creating a quality product would not be enough. Bombay Sapphire needed to conquer, not fight. And they've done just that, with a strategy that serves as a lesson for any brand that wants to be successful.
First, they worked with Michel Roux, who made the Absolut brand iconic, and created a remarkable brand and bottle design. The unusual sapphire blue bottle design caught everyone's attention. The gin they produced also had to be unique. For this reason, they used a more elegant technique that does not harm the nature of botany by infusing all the products used in the production of gin in the carter head alembics with the steam of alcohol. We can compare this distillation method to steam cooking instead of boiling vegetables. They also produced Bombay Sapphire gins with the one-shot technique, which is a laborious and costly technique. In this technique, the gin comes out of the distillation retort, only water is added until it reaches the desired alcohol level and bottled as it is. Since other big brands generally use multi-shot technique, they produce a very concentrated 'concentrated gin' and mix it with alcohol and water.
It created a gin that brings a different flavor dimension to the gin associated with the scent of Bombay pine resin and offers citrus freshness. It dared to transparently share all the ingredients used in its recipe (juniper, orris, almond, coriander, lemon peel, kebab, licorice root, angelica root, cassia, heavenly pepper), which no gin brand had ever done before.
After such remarkable innovations and ingenious brand creation and marketing strategies, people's eyes began to turn to the genie again. Meanwhile, legendary London bartender Dick Bradsell started to teach both bar staff and customers how elegant and sophisticated this drink is, with the wonderful cocktails he prepared with Bombay Sapphire.
Bombay Sapphire, which was originally produced in the g&j distillery, which produces gin for many brands in England, was purchased by Bacardi in 1997. As the brand grew, it was later decided to build a distillery of its own. The real crazy project started here: A 1000-year-old historical paper mill was restored for the new distillery. This center, called Laverstoke mill, was a large complex that produced the paper used in the printing of British banknotes until 1968. Bombay Sapphire revolutionized everything with its production facility.
They have completely redesigned a millennium-year-old facility with a modern, creative and environmentalist architectural approach. Open to visitors, this facility also has a museum, cocktail training center, and a bar serving Mumbai cocktails. All 10 plants used in the construction of Bombay Sapphire are grown here in a greenhouse environment. Almost half of the energy used in this facility in nature is recycled. The energy used for heating greenhouses is met from this transformation. In addition, this facility, through which a river flows, provides itself with clean energy from the flowing water. Nik Fordham, Beefeater's former production facility manager, is behind such a huge and thoughtful project. The most important reason why he wanted to work with Bombay Sapphire is that they allowed him to set up this unique facility in his mind.