Review

Kinsey Gin

Inver House Distillers Ltd. (International Beverage Holdings Ltd.), Moffat Distillery, Airdrie, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. Originally made in Linfield, Pennsylvania, USA.

International Beverage.

Jacob G. Kinsey was born in Lower Salford, Pennsylvania on March 13th 1858. After completing his schooling he found employment in a Creamery. In 1887, he left and built up his own business, eventually owning 3 creameries. In 1891 he sold them and moved to Limerick, PA. By 1892 he had set up his own distillery in nearby Linfield on the Schuylkill River. Linfield Distillery proved to be a great success, it’s main offering “Pure” Rye Whisky was well known, and they would go on to become the biggest Whisky Distillery of its time.

They supplied to many wholesalers and in particular The Angelo Myers Distilling Company based in Philadelphia. We are not sure what happened but by 1905 Linfield Distillery had come under their, renamed The Angelo Myers Distillery, and kept running right up until the beginning of prohibition (and was still owned by Kinsey). In 1940 the Distillery was up for auction and purchased by the Continental Distilling Company (a subsidiary of Publicker). By the end of 1940 they had the worlds largest amount of Whisky aging on site, some 14 million barrels! In 1976 Publicker withdrew from Spirit production and the Distillery finally closed in 1986.

Despite all these changes the Distillery was, and still is, known as the Kinsey Distillery. There is a great series of web posts (including pictures) on Bourbon Enthusiast, made by Dave Ziegler, a previous worker from the Distillery. 

Meanwhile, Inver House Distillers Ltd. was established in 1964 and grew by acquiring distilleries in Scotland. By 2001 it had 5 distilleries and the company was purchased by Pacific Spirit (U.K.) Ltd. Since 2008 it has been known as International Beverage Holdings Limited (InterBev) after merging with TCC in Thailand. The Kinsey trademark expired in 1995 and we suspect Inver House picked up the trademark. Today they are able to produce spirits under this name, with the familiar JG Kinsey signature on each bottle, including Kinsey Gin.

Made from cane neutral spirit.

The Gin is presented in a tall clear traditional style whisky bottle with a large white label, showing green and black colored accents and writing.

Tropical Gin.

40% (80 Proof).

$. Limited availability, including the USA but try online at Total Wine. 

Unknown.

Named after the original founder Jacob G. Kinsey.

Unfortunately we have not tasted this yet, so are unable to provide any details. From what we have heard this is a lightly flavoured and a very dry Gin. Additionally, for the extremely low budget it seems well above the average quality for this price range and for a Gin made from sugar cane.

Kara Newman reviewed this for Wine Enthusiast, finding a hint of green apple on the nose and “fruity green-apple sweetness” on the palate. 

88 Points, Wine Enthusiast.