MY TOP 15 CELEBRITY GINS
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BOTTLES
Celebrity and gin have become increasingly comfortable bedfellows. Once you start looking, famous faces seem to be turning up on bottles everywhere — from soaps to sport, music, television, Hollywood and even royalty. Gordon Ramsay has a gin collaboration, Snoop Dogg has a gin and the list goes on.
There is an obvious advantage to putting a recognisable name on a bottle. People already know who you are, so getting their attention is considerably easier than starting a gin brand from scratch. The interesting ones, though, are those where the connection goes a little deeper — a favourite place, a family story, a genuine obsession with gin or simply somebody deciding that making a spirit sounded like a good idea.
Then there are the stories where things don't quite go to plan. Celebrity gin hasn't been entirely free of controversy, from bottles that attracted rather more attention than expected — including Ron de Jeremy's Hedgehog Gin, named after the adult-film star's nickname and built around a decidedly tongue-in-cheek “love herbs” concept — to the rather more uncomfortable story of Jeremy himself, who became embroiled in the sexual-assault allegations that emerged during the #MeToo era. Then there was the extraordinary saga of Captain Sir Tom Moore's gin and the charity fundraising scandal that followed. It turns out that putting a famous name on a bottle doesn't necessarily guarantee a straightforward story.
I've been wanting to do some research into this for a while, so I went looking to see who and what was actually behind some of the better-known (IMO) celebrity gins. As usual, one bottle led to another and the rabbit hole got rather deeper than planned. There are far more of them than I expected, and once you start digging into who actually makes them, where the ideas came from and what happened behind the label, celebrity gin turns out to be a considerably more interesting world than you might imagine.
This list only dips a toe into the world of celebrity gin, but here are some of my favourites that I thought were worth the research time.
Celebrity Gins: A Closing Summary
There are plenty more celebrity gins out there and I suspect this is one of those lists that will keep growing. Once you start looking beyond the famous face on the bottle, there are some surprisingly good stories hiding behind them — family connections, favourite places, business ventures, hobbies and, occasionally, a slightly eccentric idea that somehow turned into an actual gin.
Some celebrities have clearly got stuck in and helped shape what is in the bottle. Others have brought the name, the audience and the marketing muscle, while the distillers do the serious work behind the scenes. Neither approach automatically makes a good or bad gin. A famous name might get you to pick up the bottle, but it can't guarantee you'll want to pour another one.
That is really what makes celebrity gins interesting to me. They're another excuse to look beyond the liquid and ask the usual questions: who is behind it, why this gin, why this place and where did the idea come from?
Sometimes the answer is more interesting than the gin itself.
And sometimes you just end up with James May, a parsnip and a bottle of gin.
You can follow the rabbit holes further through the individual Gin Passport profiles, where I've gone digging into the people, places, bottles and stories behind each one.
Atlas Note: How the Celebrity Gins Stack Up
BBC Good Food recently put nine celebrity gins through a blind-ish tasting, and the results make for interesting reading. Cygnet 22 came out on top with a full 5/5, followed by Papa Salt and Renais on 4.5/5. James Gin Asian Parsnip, Aviation, The Gardener and Blackeye all scored 4/5, while Hammond's Ratio and Hawkstone Gin brought up the rear on 3.5/5.
Cygnet 22's result isn't exactly a fluke either. It has an impressive trophy cabinet, including a Master at the 2024 Luxury Spirits Masters, Golds at the Global Gin Masters and IWSC, and World Gin Awards recognition. Renais is another serious contender, with Golds at the Gin Masters in 2023, 2024 and 2026, alongside Great Taste recognition. James Gin has also built up a decent collection of medals across the range, rather than relying on the celebrity name alone.
There are some interesting stories further down the list. Blackeye took Double Gold and 95 points at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, while Papa Salt has its own rather impressive pedigree, including Best in Show at the 2022 LA Spirits Awards and Gold at SFWSC. Aviation has the famous 97-point Wine Enthusiast score from 2012 as well as a 2026 World Gin Awards Gold.
For some of the others, the awards are harder to find — which doesn't necessarily mean the gin is made by people who don't know what they're doing. Hammond's Ratio, for example, is made by Hawkridge Distillers, whose other gins include the IWSC London Dry Gin of the Year. The Gardener comes from Tom Nichol, former Tanqueray master distiller and recipient of the Gin Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award. Hawkstone is made by The Wood Brothers, whose own Single Estate Vodka has won multiple Golds at The Vodka Masters.
That is one of the things I found most interesting while digging into the celebrity-gin rabbit hole. A medal on the celebrity's bottle is an easy fact to print in a list, but sometimes the more revealing question is who actually made the stuff. A celebrity name might get the bottle noticed, but the people behind the still still have to know what they're doing.
And perhaps that explains some of the BBC results. Celebrity recognition gets you through the door; good gin — and the people making it — have to do the
rest.
