Exterior of Aviation American Gin Distillery and Visitor Center 02

Aviation American Gin, also known as Aviation Gin, is a brand of

gin Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...

first produced in Portland, Oregon, by founders Christian Krogstad and Ryan Magarian in 2006. It is owned by the British-based multinational alcoholic beverage maker

Diageo Diageo plc ( ) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits and operates from 132 sites around the world ...

. It is produced by House Spirits Distillery. Its distribution is nationwide in the United States and 15 other countries, including Canada, Spain, the UK, Ireland, France, Russia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia. Originally, it was bottled in a wine bottle with a blue label. The newer bottle, introduced in 2013, looks like a flask and is reminiscent of the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

period, with a black label and a silver cap. In 2016, the company and label were bought out by Canadian-American actor

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian and American actor, producer and businessman. Known for starring in comedic and superhero films, he was the List of highest-paid film actors, world's second-highest-paid actor in 202 ...

, who became its new owner and primary spokesman and sponsor.

History

House Spirits Distillery sold the Aviation American Gin brand to New York-based distributor Davos Brands, LLC, in 2016, but as of early 2018, it continues to be distilled in Portland by House Spirits. As of late 2016, Aviation Gin accounted for around 40 percent of House Spirits' production. Actor

acquired a stake in the brand from Davos in February 2018. On August 17, 2020, Aviation was sold to

, whose liquor lineup includes the gin

Tanqueray Tanqueray is a brand of gin produced by Diageo plc. It originated in London. While it does not command a sizable market share in its native market, its largest market is the US. Tanqueray is a London dry gin, reflecting its distillation p ...

, as well as

Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898), but its modern incarnation traces back to the ...

vodka, and

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...

Scotch whisky. Reynolds still maintains an "ongoing ownership interest" in Aviation.

Distillation

Seven flavoring ingredients are used in its production:

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, ...

and

bitter orange The bitter orange, sour orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the hybrid citrus tree species ''Citrus'' × ''aurantium'', and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of th ...

peel,

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

coriander Coriander (), whose leaves are known as cilantro () in the U.S. and parts of Canada, and dhania in parts of South Asia and Africa, is an annual plant, annual herb (''Coriandrum sativum'') in the family Apiaceae. Most people perceive the ...

, Indian sarsaparilla, and

anise seed Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and Southwest Asia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, ...

, which are steeped in grain spirit for 18 hours, then re-distilled in a custom-built, 400-gallon

pot still A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill liquors such as whisky or brandy. In modern (post-1850s) practice, they are not used to produce rectified spirit, because they do not separate congeners from ethanol as ...

. Off the still, Aviation is about 140 U.S. proof, and deionized Cascade mountain water brings it down to 84 proof before bottling.

Promotion

In a 2018 sketch promoting the gin, Ryan Reynold's fake twin brother, Gordon Reynolds, compared the taste of Aviation American Gin to "like a sunrise had sex with a feather duster". Reynolds promotes the gin in various films he stars in, including ''

Red Notice An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...

'' and ''

Deadpool 2 ''Deadpool 2'' is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. It is the sequel to ''Deadpool (film), Deadpool'' (2016) and the eleventh installment in the X-Men (film series), ''X-Men'' film series. The film wa ...

''. Reynolds also promoted the gin in the

football club In association football, a football club (or association football club, alternatively soccer club) is a sports club that acts as an entity through which association football teams organise their sporting activities. The club can exist either as ...

that he owns,

Wrexham A.F.C. Wrexham Association Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Wrexham, Wales. Formed in 1864, it is the oldest club in Wales and the third-oldest professional association football team in the world. The club compe ...

, with Aviation signing a sleeve and training kit sponsorship deal with the club.

Awards and reviews

Wine Enthusiast Wine Enthusiast Companies is a New York based company that engages in the wine, e-commerce, information, education, events, media, and travel markets.Covel, Simona, ''The Wall Street Journal'' (October 2, 2008)Wine Enthusiast Looks to Win Over ...

'' magazine awarded Aviation American Gin a 97-point rating in 2012, the highest rating the magazine has given to any gin. File:Welcome desk at Aviation American Gin Distillery and Visitor Center.jpg, Welcome desk at distillery, with cutout of Ryan Reynolds File:Bar at Aviation American Gin Visitor Center.jpg, Bar at distillery File:Aromatics sampling space for tour of Aviation American Gin Distillery tour.jpg, Aromatics sampling space for tour File:Aviation American Gin Distillery 02.jpg, Production stills File:Aviation American Gin Distillery 04.jpg, Production stills File:Aviation American Gin Distillery filling line 02.jpg, Filling line File:Aviation American Gin warehouse 2.jpg, Gin in storage at warehouse File:Escape room themed as Ryan Reynolds on Aviation American Gin Distillery tour.jpg, Bar in escape room themed as Ryan Reynolds's office on distillery tour

References

External links

* {{Alcoholic drinks Diageo brands Gins American brands 2006 establishments in Oregon