Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin that is distilled by the Bombay Spirits Company, a subsidiary company of Bacardi, at Laverstoke Mill in the village of Laverstoke in the English county of Hampshire. The brand was first launched in 1986 by English wine-merchant IDV. In 1997 Diageo sold the brand to Bacardi. Its name originates from the gin and tonic popularised by the Royal Indian Armed Forces during the British Raj in colonial India; "Bombay" refers to the Indian city and "Sapphire" refers to the violet-blue Star of Bombay which was mined from British Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Bombay Sapphire is marketed in a flat-sided, sapphire-coloured bottle that bears a picture of Queen Victoria on the label. - Our Botanicals Expert Our spirit of innovation and inspiration is not only embodied in our gin, but in our Master of Botanicals himself, Ivano Tonutti. Travelling to the four corners of the world, he’s developed personal relationships with each and every supplier, some going back decades. As Ivano himself says, this absolute attention to detail is “simply about maintaining the standard of care behind our gin”. - The Finest Ingredients Creating the finest gin possible takes the highest quality raw ingredients. We use up to 12 precious botanicals suspended above the spirit in perforated copper baskets during distillation. That way, as the heated spirit vapours rise, they’re gently infused with all the rich aromatic flavours our botanicals release. - Unique Vapour Infusion While ordinary gins boil their botanicals directly in the spirit to achieve their flavour, the wonderfully distinctive taste of our gin is created using the Vapour Infusion process. We still use our original Carterhead stills – Tom and Mary – from the 1830s, but we have now added two state-of-the-art 12,000 litre copper pot stills – Henry and Victoria – to our refurbished original stills. From the heat of our Moroccan cubeb berries to the spice of our West African Grains of Paradise, every one of our ten precious botanicals are chosen to bring their own special something to our gin. Uniquely distilled, they come together to give Bombay Sapphire its tantalising, smooth and complex taste.
