Update your gin shelf with some of the world’s best gins you can buy in 2023! 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, Europe, Australia and Japan, 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.
- Hernö Old Tom Gin
- Biggar Gin
- Never Never Juniper Freak Gin
- Cotswolds Gin
- UKIYO Japanese Blossom Gin
- Tappers Brightside Gin
- Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin
- Seven Crofts Gin
- Bombay Sapphire Premier Cru Gin
- Rock Rose Gin
- Hayman’s Exotic Citrus Gin
- Gin Mare Capri
- Isle of Harris Gin
- Kyrö Gin
- Hrafn Valkyrie Gin
- Hills & Harbour Gin
- Achroous Gin
- Highclere Castle Gin
- Nordés Atlantic Galician Gin
- Chapel Down Pinot Noir Gin
- Height of Arrows Bright Gin
- The Lakes Classic Gin
- Pothecary Trinity Gin
Hernö Old Tom Gin
Country: Sweden
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!
Where to buy:
Never Never Juniper Freak Gin
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.
Where to buy
UKIYO Japanese Blossom Gin
Country: Japan
Style: Distilled/Contemporary
Price: £30 – £40
First things first, UKIYO Blossom Gin comes in a showstopper of a bottle, with a lovely gradient of pink to blue. The gin itself is clear and is created using the Japanese spirit shōchū. Typically 25% to 35% ABV, the shōchū is then redistilled to 96% to make the base spirit for the gin.
Botanicals including juniper, mandarin and sakura flower (cherry blossom) are used in the subsequent distillation giving notes of orange and a big floral hit of parma violets. Underneath it all, however, is very intriguing with a maltiness that I feel comes from the shōchū derived base spirit.
Where to buy
Tappers Brightside Gin
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
Perhaps most well-known for their delightful array of cold-compound gins, Brightside is the flagship London Dry from Tappers Gin.
It’s the distilled sister expression to Darkside and uses the exact same botanical recipe as its sibling, but bottled at a punchy 47% instead of 39.6% of Darkside.
With key botanicals of sea beet, red clover flowers, and chickweed it’s a juniper-forward London Dry with citrus notes and a coastal herbaceousness.
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.
Where to buy
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.
Where to buy:
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: Navy Strength
Price: £40 – £45
I pretty much love everything about the Rock Rose range but the navy is possibly the pick of the bunch. A higher ABV version of their flagship Original, it’s a flavour bomb of juniper, citrus and aromatic berries. Easily one of Scotland’s finest distilleries.
Stick this is a negroni or with tonic and a slice of orange.
Where to buy:
Hayman’s Exotic Citrus Gin
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:
Gin Mare Capri
Country: Italy
Style: Distilled
Price: £40 – £50
Sitting at the premium end of the price list, Gin Mare Capri is a taste of the Mediterranean. Launched to celebrate their 10th anniversary, it retains the same herbaceous botanicals from the original (arbequina olive, basil, thyme) but with added citrus notes of lemon and bergamot from the Sorrento peninsula.
This one’s going straight in a Martini, or with tonic and a sprig or rosemary!
Where to buy:
Isle of Harris Gin
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.
Where to buy:
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.
Where to buy:
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.
Where to buy
Achroous Gin
Country: Scotland
Style: London Dry
Price: £30 – £35
The sole spirit from founder/distiller James Porteous’s Electic Spirit Co., Achroous is a truly exceptional gin. And don’t just take my word, scoring 96/100 in the IWSC is no mean feat!
Despite its heady mix of spices (fennel, Szechuan), it’s surprisingly balanced with a subtle touch of wooded sweetness.
Coming in a minimalistic but striking bottle, Achroous can also be purchased as a stunning gift set, complete with Riedel glasses.
Where to buy
Highclere Castle Gin
Country: England
Style: London Dry
Price: £35 – £40
Everything about Highclere Castle Gin oozes quality. It’s distilled with botanicals grown on the estate, including lavender, lime flower, oranges and oats. The latter creates an unbelievably smooth velvet-like texture.
A juniper-forward gin, with citrus, florals and spice supporting, it’s great in cocktails – but I love to sip this neat over ice to appreciate it in all its glory.
Read my review of Highclere Castle Gin.
Where to buy
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
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!
Where to buy
Height of Arrows Bright Gin
Country: Scotland
Style: Distilled
Price: £35 – £40
Of the three core gins in the Height of Arrows range, Bright is by far my favourite. That’s not to say that Original and Heavy aren’t good gins, more that Bright is exceptional.
All three are iterations of the same three ingredients – juniper, beeswax and sea salt – but with Bright ramping up the botanical mix and ABV to create a gin much more citrus dominant. Trying all three side-by-side is fascinating as a gin fanatic, but if you had to own just one, I’d be opting for Bright every day of the week.
Read my review of the Height of Arrows range.
Where to buy
The Lakes Classic Gin
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.
Where to buy
Pothecary Trinity Gin
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:
