At the end of last year, Raj Nagra, Global Brand Ambassador of 13 years for Bombay Sapphire was in Australia, supporting the launch of the brand’s latest initiative here – Project Botanicals.
Project Botanicals was a unique activation run by the brand between mid-November to the beginning of December, which invited consumers to its pop-up bar and restaurant in Melbourne for a unique and new ‘Ginstronomy’ concept experience.
Specifically, guests were invited to taste 10 cocktails and dishes, each inspired by Bombay’s botanicals and specially designed by Raj, together with renowned chef Gary Mehigan. Each course aimed to showcase Bombay’s botanicals in a new light and challenge consumer’s perceptions around gin – an innovative plan to help reinvigorate growth in a flat category globally.
While most will be familiar with the term degustation and its growing popularity with beer and wine, Ginstronomy on the other hand, is one that most will have never heard of. Used for the first time by the brand with Project Botanicals, Ginstronomy is the brand’s own coined term for pairing food and gin together; an experience that is predicted to grow in 2015 across all spirit categories, and Raj assures us that it’s an experience that provides a recipe for success.
“Gin by its very nature lends to mixing in all manner of ways”, Raj explains.
“The botanicals in gin offer such a diverse array of characteristics one can leverage easily, essentially more than any other spirit type. Chefs are always keen to exploit these flavours and have a sound working knowledge of these ingredients as they use many of them on a daily basis.”
The brand hopes that by using the familiarity of food, gin can be showcased in a new light ina way that consumer’s will find approachable. The aim is that through highlighting versatility, consumers will be educated on the number of different ways the spirit can be used, and in a way that suits the individual’s taste.
As part of Project Botanicals, the brand also ran a competition with trade while in Melbourne, challenging local bartenders to create a botanically inspired cocktail using Bombay Sapphire and one of its botanicals. The winning cocktail would headline the Project Botanicals event series.
The bars that took part included Black Pearl, Toff in the Town, Cookie, 1806, Siglo, EDV, Gin Palace, Cumulus, Nieuw Amsterdam and Saint Crispin. First place was taken out by Black Pearl with its drink The New Era, inspired by Bombay’s Grains of Paradise botanical, and mixed with Bombay, chocolate, Lilet and Lemon, and topped with sparkling wine.
Bombay is well-known for its cocktail competitions, most notably its global World’s Most Imaginative Bartender competition series, seeing such competitions as an important part of its brand awareness and ensuring the brand is constantly working closely and engaging with trade.
“We work very closely with trade on an ongoing basis, so it’s a natural course to have them engaged with the creative nature of Project Botanicals through competition and inviting them along to a special trade event is testament to the support and nurturing nature of the industry”, Raj explained during an interview with drinks trade at the end of last year, where we asked questions about the brand’s latest activation and strategy for 2015.
“I recall holding seminars with bartenders across the country 15 years ago. I’ve seen the industry take shape and grow into one of only a handful of leading cocktail scenes in the world. And this is credit to those making a career in hospitality, traveling and constantly seeking or setting the latest trends. Because of this, coupled with consumer appreciation, means we’re talking the same language when it comes to quality ingredients and tastes.”
Raj also announced that the brand is exploring the idea of bringing the World’s Most Imaginative Bartender competition to Australia in 2016. The competition, which celebrated its fourth year last year, takes bartenders from around the world to locations linked to Bombay’s botanicals. The trip provides an educational experience for bartenders and aims to encourage creativity, culminating in the competition, when bartenders are set with the task of producing a cocktail inspired by the experiences from the trip.
“By hand-selecting the most creative talent from behind the bar, the Bombay Sapphire World’s Most Imaginative Bartender competition not only challenges them, but also aims to support them on their journey to becoming the most imaginative bartenders in the world. Just as the unique taste of Bombay Sapphire is inspired by the infusion of its ten exotic botanicals, we look to inspire bartenders all over the world”, Raj commented when talking about the competition.
Bombay Sapphire is today, the fasted growing premium gin in the world and for the fifth consecutive year, is also the world’s number one premium gin by value. And it’s activations like Project Botanicals that are keeping the brand ahead of the category. Innovation has been at the core of the brand’s success since its foundation, which keeps a careful eye on the latest trends and how those can help to keep the category original to sustain its existing audience, while continuously capturing new consumers.
“Bombay Sapphire is single handedly responsible for gin’s modern renaissance we’re currently experiencing. It’s very well known for this achievement, while also being a Classic London Dry Gin. I think Bombay Gin is the reason why there are so many diverse types of gin available today; it really was the first gin to open people’s minds to quality ingredients, flavour and mixability”, Raj explains.
“A pop-up event of this nature offers people a unique drinking and dining experience, as well as an affable talking point with friends around the event.
“Feedback has been amazing and I genuinely think people got to view a different side of gin through its ingredients, heightened and extenuated across various drinks and dishes on the menu.
“We really feel we opened many people’s minds to the potentials and possibilities in utilising gin in this format.”
Also helping to maintain its popularity among consumers is Bombay’s flavour profile. Unlike other gin brands, Bombay is produced using a 100 per cent Vapour Infusion distillation process, which extracts the aromas and flavours from the botanicals through a gentler process in comparison to maceration.
“Most brands are macerated and distilled. This boiling process is quite aggressive”, Raj says.
“With Bombay [on the other hand], the vapour infusion literally extracts the moisture, oil content and aromas in more of a steaming process, so what you end up with is a spirit that has a broad spectrum of flavours, of which none compete for a position in the overall flavour profile, lending to a more complex, floral, positive and sociable drinking experience.”
Botanicals are at the core of the brand’s focus and recently Bombay has been working on developing a progressive training program to help better educate trade on the botanicals it uses, even going so far as developing a unique terminology and language to better explain gin. In addition and more excitingly, the brand also opened the doors to a new distillery in the UK last year, which invites consumers to interact with the distillery, seeing the production process up close, as well as its botanicals.
“We’ve been very busy over at The House of Bombay and opened our new distillery, Laverstoke Mill, just last year in rural Hampshire. It is today one of the world’s most environmentally friendly distilleries, as well as boasting British heritage and England’s cleanest chalk stream river, the River Test, which runs through the heart of the distillery.”
At the working Laverstoke Mill, consumers can book on to a guided tour and meet with its resident Gin Expert for a sensory experience of Bombay’s ten botanicals at the specially designed Botanical Dry Room. The brand also plans on using the distillery to push the boundaries of innovation there, even further in coming years. “So watch this space”, Raj concluded.
“It’s a really exciting time for the brand. Lots of things are happening and I think Australia and Project Botanicals showcases an element of our brand identity”.
Bombay Sapphire retails for approximately $45, varying between venues. Contact your representative at Bacardi Lion for more details on the brand
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