Brockmans targets high-end spirits with Wÿld

Inspired by Tequila, B Corp-certified Brockmans Gin is tapping into the luxury spirits market with its forthcoming Wÿld release.

Wÿld was announced at October’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes, where it will be available from early 2025 in select markets with a price tag of £350 (US$466), making it one of the most expensive gins on the market.

Outlining the intentions for Wÿld, marketing director Eric Sampers, ex-global brand director at Pernod Ricard, told The Spirits Business: “We’re not even looking at the gin category per se, we’re looking at luxury spirits, we’ve been very much inspired by what Tequila has done in the high end, where Tequila reinvented itself in luxury.

“When you look at the Tequilas at those price points, the standard of these brands, they are very unique in terms of packaging [and] liquid.”

Wÿld will be an annual release, with next year’s edition limited to 3,000 bottles. It will be made with botanicals sourced ethically around the world, such as Baobab, which ties into Brockmans’ focus on sustainability – the brand also gained B Corp status at the beginning of the year.

Sampers said the gin is close to a London Dry, but made with wild foraged botanicals: “We are sourcing botanicals in the wild ethically and responsibly, from a community of handpickers. We’ve got 15 botanicals from several different regions from around the world that are being harvested pretty much once a year, by people who know what they’re doing and respect the cycles of nature.

“We do not over explore plants and botanicals, and we’ve assembled that into a recipe that is meant to deliver the perfect Martini, or something very elaborate, something very unique in terms of taste… also very delicate, subtle, but very interesting.

“It is on the classic end of the scope.”

Quality over quantity

Additionally, Sampers said that the brand isn’t going to launch any expressions in 2025. It has only released three in 15 years, including Orange Kiss (made with Valencia oranges and Triple Sec) and Agave Cut, a gin and agave hybrid. It also released an organic version of the recipe for its original gin in global travel retail.

Of the approach, he explained: “The important thing is to reinforce the brand proposition, ‘properly, improper’. It starts with the liquid. It’s a brand truth. Our original gin was not necessarily going to be considered a proper gin by everyone, it has a twist on tradition. We’re trying to disrupt the market, but by launching something very unique – and that’s that’s what drives the innovation pipeline at Brockmans.

“For Brockmans, it’s not about the quantity of expressions, its about the quality and how it will reinforce what the brand is about.”

He continued: “With Wÿld we are moving into uncharted territory, right? So not many brands have managed to establish a gin at that price point for £450-£500. It’s a big challenge. There’s whisky, obviously, there’s Cognac, there’s Tequila, a bit of rum, but in terms of white clear spirits, there’s not much happening. So we wanted to do something quite unique. And again, we’re not looking at the rest of the category, we’re looking at high-end spirits as a whole.

“The objective with Wÿld is really to embody the extreme of our brand proposition and to reinforce the luxury credentials of the brand as a whole. That’s the key message.”