Our Tips For 2025 The Best Gin To Buy At Any Price Master Of Malt

Leo Migdal

-Dec 3, 2025, 12:43 PM

our tips for 2025 the best gin to buy at any price master of malt

Gin can be a puzzling liquor, with many cocktail enthusiasts having a love-hate relationship with it. Some find it piney and resinous, others find it overly perfumed and cloying. In contrast, others find it tastes like a medicine cabinet. Gin begins like vodka as a neutral grain spirit from wheat, corn, grapes, or anything you can ferment into alcohol. It's then infused with a mix of botanicals, including the always-present, herbaceous juniper berries, giving it a distinct woodsy, earthy, pine tree quality (in addition to other florals, herbs, spices, teas, and other aromatics). Recently, producers have been working outside the box of a classic gin, crafting modern interpretations that dial back the juniper-heavy flavor to elevate the overall taste.

Six producers released new selections this year that follow that contemporary trend. Made with exotic and aromatic botanicals, these gins push the boundaries of the classic liquor while highlighting a range of flavors that reveal exotic, evocative tastes. I had a chance to try each of the stand out gins of 2025. I sipped each selection neat initially to evaluate, then mixed the gins into an array of drinks to find the ideal expression for each. These bottles will change the way you may drink your evening cocktails, altering familiar flavors to create thought-provoking, intriguing cocktails worthy of a conversation. Utilizing my knowledge and training as a Certified Sommelier, I reviewed each selection while providing the ideal cocktail to showcase the nuances of each option.

Read more: The 30 Best Bourbon Brands, Ranked Master distiller Leslie Gracie debuted the latest limited edition Oasium gin to her Hendrick's Cabinet of Curiosities in February 2025, which is the eighth expression added to the cabinet. The brand is known for coloring outside the lines with its array of modern, whimsical offerings that challenge the typical juniper-forward, London dry-style gin. Long gone are the days when gin just meant a bracingly dry, predictable, juniper-forward clear spirit that was only used in Martinis and Gin and Tonics. Nowadays you can find gin made in practically every state in the U.S. and every corner of the world, each expression representing the flavor and character of a particular region through the use of local botanicals (with juniper still playing an important role in the mix, of...

For this list, we turned our focus to new-school gins that stand out from the pack. The old guard brands that are made in the London dry style—Beefeater, Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire—are all great, but here you’ll find 13 examples of gins that stand out for their flavor and unique... All of these are great for using in a cocktail, but also worthy of sipping on their own, so give them a try and see what you think for yourself. There are many British gin brands with long histories that span centuries. Sipsmith is not one of them. This distillery was founded in 2007 with a focus on making London dry gin, and it succeeded in releasing its first expression just two years later.

The gin is a modern example of this classic style, with a juniper-forward palate that’s balanced with notes of citrus and spice. This is the perfect spirit to use in any classic or modern cocktail, and one of the very best modern gins that you can find. Glendalough is an Irish distillery that has a variety of good whiskeys in its lineup, but don’t sleep on its gin—particularly this rose petal-infused expression. Wild botanicals from the Wicklow mountains are key to the botanical mixture that flavors this gin, but the main ingredient in this pink spirit is rose that comes from both from the distillery’s gardens... This is a very floral gin that still has signature notes of juniper, citrus, and peppercorn on the palate, making this a good choice for a spritz or even a riff on a Martini. It’s right there in the name—this German gin, which is made at a distillery in the Black Forest, uses a total of 47 botanicals in its recipe to create its distinctive flavor profile.

That might seem like overkill, but it works here. This is a pricy gin, but worth the cost. And check out the annual Distiller’s Cut release which adds a 48th ingredient to the already long list, the most recent of which were capers sourced from the Italian island of Pantelleria to add... Fords is a gin that was specifically designed to be used in cocktails. The spirit was created by expert and namesake Simon Ford with master distiller Charles Maxwell, who came up with a recipe of nine botanicals—including juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, grapefruit peels, and jasmine flower—to... This is an excellent new-school gin to use in a Martini however you perfer, with a twist or some olives, dry or dirty, or even 50-50.

For more than a decade, a swell of producers have offered inventive alternatives to traditional London Dry gin, expanding the category with approachable expressions that place less emphasis on piney juniper. Similarly, they’ve looked beyond the classic supporting cast of savory herbs and bitter roots to instead focus on vibrant fruits and expressive flowers, all with the added upshot of delivering a sense of place. That’s not to say London Dry doesn’t deserve our attention or isn’t worthy of its status as the standard bearer for the category. Without it, there would be no classically made Dry Martinis or Negronis — no bittersweet dance pairing gin’s juniper with tonic’s quinine. Still, modern interpretations from increasingly international producers represent the lion’s share of new products that arrive at the VinePair HQ for our annual gin tasting. Equally refreshing are the newer craft outfits challenging the London Dry stalwarts with their own take on the traditional style.

And of that OG old guard: how do they fare against the fresh contenders looking to take their crown? Find out right here in our list of the 30 best gins to drink in 2025. Every year, VinePair conducts dozens of tastings for our “Buy This Booze” roundups, highlighting the best bottles across the world’s most popular wine and spirits categories. Lesley Stockton is a writer focused on kitchen and entertaining. Her coverage includes grilling, kitchen knives, and cookware, just to name a few. Whether you prefer a dry martini or a refreshing gin and tonic, your gin of choice defines the cocktail.

If you love gin, you know how it can unfold like a story with each sip: Juniper is the main character, while spices, citrus, and other aromatics play the supporting roles. We believe there’s a gin for almost any imbiber, even the folks who think they don’t like it. If you’re turned off by assertive, sprucy gins, we have a pick for you that’s smooth and bright. If you like old pine boxes in dusty attics and want to capture that sensory experience in a glass, we have a gin for you, too. Food and drinks writer (and Wirecutter contributor) Tammie Teclemariam and I tasted 12 gins in all. To find the best ones to suit many tastes and budgets, we focused mainly on London Dry gins because they are the most widely available and the easiest to compare, thanks to a standardized...

We also included a couple of bottles that we believe are true all-purpose gins, meaning they mix exceptionally well into three of the most common gin cocktails: a dry martini, a gin and tonic,... Subscribe now and get access to exclusive recipes, meal plans, podcasts and more. Slow down this autumn with a subscription to Good Food for just £9.99 for 6 months – that’s only £1.67 per month. Tune in to the latest episodes to hear our experts discuss all things food. Ask anyone who’s spent a night debating the merits of a G&T versus a negroni and you’ll soon hit a heated debate over which gin reigns supreme. Gin isn’t some old dusty bottle reserved for granddad—right now, it’s the rockstar of craft spirits.

Shelves in both bottle shops and hip bars are stacked with wild, intriguing choices from buttery local labels to icons hailing straight from storied British distilleries. So, how do you actually pick the best gin? Gin’s popularity isn’t some passing fad. Over the last decade, gin has exploded because it’s flexible. At its base, gin must have that distinct juniper flavor, but distillers everywhere now weave in local botanicals—think citrus peel, pink peppercorns, sea parsley, or even bush tomato (yep, it’s a thing in Australia). Unlike the red tape-heavy world of whiskey, gin can be produced and sold almost immediately, which means new flavors hit the market fast.

This ever-evolving spirit has led to a wild assortment of styles. Worldwide gin sales jumped by 9% between 2020 and 2024, according to the IWSR, and Aussies alone consume over 22 million bottles per year, a stat that’ll probably climb again in 2025. One reason for the gin boom? It’s all about cocktails. London Dry still sets a crisp base for a dry martini, but modern gins are the ideal playground for creative bartenders. Even home gin lovers benefit; a bottle of something like Four Pillars Rare Dry can transform a garden party G&T with citrusy brightness.

Plus, as more people demand transparency and local ingredients, boutique distillers answer by telling the stories behind every bottle, drawing folks in for the taste and the narrative. If you’re the type who wants to support small businesses while sipping world-class drinks, gin is your drawcard. So, what actually makes one gin different from the next? It mostly comes down to style and the botanicals used. At its core, gin is a neutral spirit flavored with juniper berries and a supporting cast of botanicals. Let’s break down the top styles you’ll see at any decent bottle shop or bar:

With so many styles, you can pick your bottle based on what you plan to mix—or just vibe with your favorite botanical profile. Gin is what you make of it; play around and don’t believe anyone who acts like there’s one right way to serve it.

Our Tips For 2025 The Best Gin To Buy At Any Price Master Of Malt

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