Paul Feig’s gin created with US consumers in mind

Hollywood director Paul Feig has revealed that he curated his debut gin brand, Artingstall’s, with American consumers in mind.

Feig, whose filmography includes Bridesmaids, Last Christmas and A Simple Favour, first premiered Artingstall’s Gin in the US in 2020, before debuting the brand in the UK in late 2021.

Speaking to The Spirits Business, Feig explained the process behind creating his gin, and noted how many of the decisions he made when choosing the flavour profile were influenced by the US market.

“I had been looking for years to find somebody to create a gin with, but I’m not a rock star or a movie star, so it had been really hard,” he said. “But I finally found this company in Calgary, Canada, called Minhas, and they liked the lifestyle that I represented.

“They had actually turned down a bunch of collaborations with rock stars before me, just because, from their point of view, people just put their name on it, then they disappear, but I was really passionate about it.”

Feig explained that he was interviewed by the distillery “for hours” so the team could get an understanding of the flavour profile he wanted the gin to have before providing him with a series of distillates to try. “I said ‘I want this to take off in the US’, so let’s pull back on the juniper.”

Feig noted that in America, people “think they don’t like gin, because everybody had a weird experience when they were a kid opening a bottle of Beefeater that put them off.

“Just recently I was at somebody’s house and I was making Martinis and I asked my friend if she’d like to try one. She said ‘I literally can’t have gin’ and explained she had a traumatic experience in her past with gin that put her off.”

As a result, Feig wanted to create an approachable gin, with the incorporation of citrus and floral notes “just kind of floating under the surface”.

“It still has that Juniper because I want it to be a gin, obviously, but just not have it be that slug in the face.”

He noted the gins that he “came upon”, which included Bombay Sapphire, had an “old-timey kind of flavour” from being so juniper-forward, which, while he found enjoyable, was not what he was looking to achieve with Artingstall’s Gin.

“When I finally had a Hendrick’s,” he said ,”I liked that, because that pulled back [on the juniper], but I don’t necessarily love the cucumber thing going on. So I realised I wanted mine to be friendly, and nothing too much.”

The gin features 11 botanicals, including orris root, coriander, cassia bark and cardamom.

In addition, Feig was keen to create a gin that would work as a substitute for vodka in a number of cocktails.

“I really wanted to make sure you could have a good chance of swapping into a vodka-based cocktail, and have it only be additive to it, not compete with it.

“That’s one of my favourite things about my gin – that it works in about 95% of vodka-based cocktails. It just adds a little bit of something, you know?”

Feig said he plans to launch new Artingstall’s expressions in the future, and has already developed a recipe using grapefruit peel that “just makes it a little more clean tasting”, which he hopes to release next.

Feig confirmed that despite the challenges that come with launching alcohol in the US due to the various different laws in each state, Artingstall’s is performing well in America. “We’ve got into some really great on-trade venues like the Polo Bar in New York, which is amazing. So we’re adding really cool places, it’s just a slow burn.”

Meanwhile in the UK, where Artingstall’s is distributed via Oak & Still, it is more readily available “in stores like Gerry’s in Soho, but also through Amazon, so people can get it easier”.

Artingstall’s Gin is bottled at 42% ABV, and available to purchase for RRP £39.95 (US$51.64).

Last year, Feig published his debut cocktail book: Cocktail Time; The ultimate guide to grown-up fun.