Tanqueray Gordon & Co. was formed by the 1898 merger of two of the leading brands of London dry gin: Gordon’s, founded in the eighteenth century, and Tanqueray, founded in the early nineteenth. Today a part of the Diageo conglomerate, the brands, which have remained distinct, are two of the most successful and respected progenitors of the London dry style and have maintained a strong cultural legacy through a combination of savvy product design and marketing acumen.
Alexander Gordon (1742–1823) began selling his eponymous gin in 1769. Initially he sold it as a merchant in St Mary Axe in East London, but by 1776 he had taken a partner and set up a proper distillery on Barnaby Street in Southwark. In 1786 he moved again to Clerkenwell, where many other gin distillers had found access to clean, ideal water. Alexander’s son Charles (1774–1849) joined his father as a partner, and by 1817 Gordon and Co. were among the biggest gin rectifiers in London, behind only Phillip Booth. See Old Tom gin.
Nearby, Charles Tanqueray (1810–1865) was breaking with three generations of family tradition in the church; his eponymous gin began production in 1830. He opened up on Vine Street in Bloomsbury and worked closely with the Currie family, an established distilling family in London. By the late 1830s, the words “English gin” and “London gin” no longer connoted an inferior product. As Charles Pope wrote, “British gin has now very nearly superseded the use of the foreign article.” Charles Tanqueray distilled gin, with more and more success until he died, passing the distillery on to son Charles Waugh Tanqueray (1848–1931), who would oversee several more decades of expansion, culminating in the merger with Gordon and Co.
Tanqueray, Gordon would be acquired 1922 by the Distillers Company, who began to build distilleries in a few of their biggest markets in order to turn some of their exports into (advantageously taxed) domestic products. Before repeal had even passed in the United States, they laid the foundation for their Linden, New Jersey, distillery. It would begin making Gordon’s gin just months after prohibition ended (Tanqueray always remained a British product).
While both gins were commercially successful and won awards at international fairs and exhibitions, they still sought to expand their reach by appealing to a wider audience. They targeted women by marketing their gins as medicine in women’s magazines. Gordon’s launched variants including lemon-, orange-, and mint-flavored gins in the early twentieth century; in the early twenty-first they launched cucumber and elderflower. Tanqueray’s Malacca Gin, an 1839 formula revived in 1997 (and again in 2012 after the previous revival proved premature) would push the envelope in two separate launches, highlighting a more contemporary botanical profile.
While Tanqueray was always respected, Gordon’s gin became a cultural touchstone. It was the fuel for novelist Theodore Dreiser’s work and took on symbolic importance in Hemingway’s, being called out by name on four separate occasions in Across the River and into the Trees. In 1951 the gin was the first intentional product placement in film, when Katharine Hepburn threw it overboard in The African Queen. James Bond’s Vesper was a three-to-one ratio of Gordon’s to vodka. Tanqueray was nearly an afterthought among imported gins until the 1950s, but it’s since been the downfall of Bruce Springsteen’s “Johnny 99” and has been namedropped by the Notorious B.I.G., the Ramones, and Snoop Dogg.
Though the exact recipes of the two gins, similar to the taste, are guarded secrets, their botanical bills are widely purported to contain some or all of the following: Gordon’s may include juniper, coriander, licorice, angelica, orris root, orange, and lemon. Tanqueray purportedly features but four botanicals: juniper, coriander, angelica, and licorice. Many distillers have been inspired by these formulae, and the flavor profile suggested by these botanical bills was the dominant expression in gin up until the start of the twenty-first century.
Their success and endurance have led the brands to be seen by some as default; however, their enviable success and strong brand identity have brought them continued success even into the twenty-first century. In 2015, Gordon’s was the second-bestselling gin worldwide and Tanqueray the sixth, with combined sales of 6.8 million cases of gin, and Gordon’s remains the bestselling gin in the world outside of the Philippines.
Cromwell, Thomas Kitson. History and Description of the Parish of Clerkenwell. London: Sherwood, 1828.
Gustafson, Axel. The Foundation of Death: A Study of the Drink-Question. Boston: Ginn, Heath, 1885.
The House of Commons. Accounts Relating to Distillation in England, Scotland and Ireland: No 1–11. 1822.
Official Journal of the European Union. Regulation (EC) No 110/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 on the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of geographical indications of spirit drinks and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 1576/89.
Pope, Charles. The Yearly Journal of Trade, 1837–8 … : A Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Trade and Miscellaneous Information Not to Be Found in Any Work Besides. 17th ed. London: Thorp & Graham, 1838.
By: Aaron Knoll