Exterior of Aviation American Gin Distillery and Visitor Center 02

Aviation American Gin, also known as Aviation Gin, is a brand of gin first produced in Portland, Oregon, by founders Christian Krogstad and Ryan Magarian in 2006. It is referred to by some as an "American dry gin" and is produced by

House Spirits Distillery House Spirits Distillery is an American craft distiller based in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in Corvallis in 2004 and moved to Portland in 2005. Its production facility and tasting room is located on Portland's Distillery Row, in the Central ...

. Its distribution is nationwide in the United States and in 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 ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

period, with a black label and a silver cap. House Spirits Distillery sold the brand to Davos Brands, LLC, of New York in 2016, but House Spirits continues to be the gin's distiller, with production in Portland, Oregon. Actor

Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds (born October 23, 1976) is a Canadian-American actor. He is one of the highest-grossing film actors of all time, with a worldwide box-office gross of over billion. He began his career starring in the Canadian teen ...

acquired a stake in the brand from Davos in 2018.

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

Diageo Diageo plc () is a Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It was the world's largest distiller before being overtaken by Kweich ...

, whose liquor lineup includes the gin

Tanqueray Tanqueray is an English brand of gin produced by Diageo plc. It originated in London. In 2016 it displaced Beefeater as the number one global seller. While it does not command a sizable market share in its native market, its largest market i ...

, 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). It is distributed in 130 countries. Smirnoff produ ...

vodka, and

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended ...

Scotch whisky. Reynolds still maintains an "ongoing ownership interest" in Aviation. Reynolds promotes the gin in various films he stars in, including

Deadpool 2 ''Deadpool 2'' is a 2018 American superhero comedy film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it is the sequel to ''Deadpool'' (2016) and the eleventh installment overall in the ''X-Men'' film series. T ...

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, from the Arcti ...

lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

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 Bitter orange, Seville orange, bigarade orange, or marmalade orange is the citrus tree ''Citrus'' × ''aurantium'' and its fruit. It is native to Southeast Asia and has been spread by humans to many parts of the world. It is probably a cross bet ...

peel,

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

coriander Coriander (;

, Indian sarsaparilla, and anise seed, which are steeped in grain spirit for 48 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 eff ...

. Off the still, Aviation is about 140

U.S. proof Alcohol proof (usually termed simply "proof" in relation to a beverage) is a measure of the content of ethanol (alcohol) in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in England and was equal to about 1.8 times the percentage of alcohol ...

, and deionized Cascade mountain (Tap) water brings it down to 84 proof before bottling.

Awards and reviews

Wine Enthusiast ''Wine Enthusiast'' magazine is an American wine magazine published by Wine Enthusiast Companies in Valhalla, New York. Founded in 1979 by Adam and Sybil Strum, Wine Enthusiast Companies engages in the wine accessories, storage, information, educat ...

'' 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 Aviation mass media