James Gin

James Gin is a premium craft gin brand - ‘The Gin of the People’. Unusual, award-winning gin flavours, created by James May in a shed in Wiltshire, not just another generic celebrity-endorsed product.

“Any reasonably conceited TV presenter or Hollywood actor will eventually have a go at making a gin. It’s easier than whisky and more interesting than vodka (which has no flavour, and is pointless). I was conceited enough to try it. But, in my defence, my gin really is mine, not a cynical branding exercise. I came up with the idea of blending the flavour of parsnip (because it reminds me of England and its dampness) with Asian spices (because they add excitement). We put it up for sale and amazingly, it sold out within a few days, rather than the few years I’d anticipated. None of it made it to the pub.

Since then he has added Navy Strength Asian Parsnip, American Mustard (the ideal accompaniment to burgers and hot-dogs) and London Drizzle (everyone else has a London Dry and London generally isn’t, so this gin is designed to recreate the smell of a wet London pavement on a hot day).

To date, UK sales have been mainly via jamesgin.com and Amazon. We have recently secured a nationwide listing with LWC distributors, the UK’s largest independent drinks wholesaler.

In the US, we have a successful online presence and are now building relationships with retail distributors – initially in California, Oregon and Tennessee.

Globally we currently supply customers in 40 countries via our German distributor. We have additional relationships with wholesalers in Norway Sweden and Canada as well as local manufacturing under license in Australia. In 2025 we aim to start DTC sales in Mexico via our own website, Mercado Libre and Amazon.

Awards to date include: Great Taste Award, World Gin Awards, London Spirits Awards and IWSC Awards.

As James observes, "Our experiment has turned into a gin-fuelled monster. Like most things involving gin, it’s all got a bit out of hand.”