2012
VL92 is a gin distilled at the Van Toor distillery in Vlaardingen built on a malt wine base and rooted in the Dutch genever tradition. Gin is English by association but Dutch by origin and VL92 sets out to reclaim that lineage. The name comes from a historic herring vessel whose cargo included the exotic spices that found their way into genever recipes long before London ever claimed the spirit. The malt wine gives it its body the complexity comes from a play of botanicals that finishes on the citrusy note of coriander leaf.
The bottle is hand-filled and hand-labelled. The paper wrap tied at the neck is the most basic way to seal a bottle a nod to the test batches made in the distillery before a recipe is fixed. The string is tucked behind the label which holds it in place. The same label runs across every bottle size and every variant in the range: only the colour of the paper and the string changes to tell them apart.
A six-bottle box, following the same rules, hand-rolled with old oil stamps.
The design won first prize at the Dieline Awards 2012 (Spirits) and a bronze Pentaward in 2013 (Spirits)
