Global Spirits Masters Awards 5 Contemporary Gins Master Medals

Q: With Iceland and Slovenia now crafting elite gins, has the UK officially lost its crown as the world's gin capital?

No. The latest awards suggest the gin world is far more competitive and international, not that Britain has been dethroned. What has changed is the map of excellence. The Global Spirits Masters and other 2026 competitions show elite gin now comes from Iceland, Slovenia, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and Canada as well as Britain. Marberg Icelandic Dry Gin and Slovenia’s Gin Burje are strong evidence that top-tier gin is no longer confined to traditional centers. Judges are rewarding both classic London Dry styles and terroir-driven gins built around local botanicals. But the UK still has a strong claim to being the world’s gin capital by scale, heritage and commercial weight. Britain remains the historic home of modern gin, London Dry is still the category’s reference point, and UK brands such as Tanqueray, Plymouth, Hendrick’s, The Botanist and Mayfair continue to win major medals. Trade data in the supplied material is even clearer: the UK accounts for more than half of global gin exports, British gin exports reached £602 million in 2025, and export growth continued into 2026. So the better reading is that the UK has lost its monopoly on prestige, not its status altogether. If “gin capital” means where the category was defined, where many benchmark brands still sit, and where export power remains concentrated, Britain is still there. If it means where the most exciting innovation is happening, the crown is now shared across a much wider world.

3 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jul 16

Five contemporary gins won Master Medals at this year’s Global Spirits Masters, with judges highlighting originality, balance and technical execution in a category moving beyond London Dry conventions.
Those winners—MASHIO, Berkley Golden Hour, Arctic Blue, Stranger & Sons and KI NO TEA—stood out for region-specific botanicals and production styles, from Asian herbs and Nordic forest ingredients to Indian spices and Japanese green tea.
ABVs ranged from 40% to 46.2%, and the lineup spanned Finland, India and Japan, underscoring how contemporary gin is using local ingredients to create distinct flavor profiles while keeping classic gin structure.
The results follow a separate 2026 Global Spirits Masters roundup that gave seven other gins Master designations, reinforcing the competition’s emphasis on geographic diversity and premium craftsmanship.