OUR STORY
HANDCRAFTED GINS, DISTILLED IN THE HEART OF THE CITY OF LONDON
Whitley Neill Gin is a premium handcrafted artisanal gin range and an established English brand with heritage dating back to 1762. Whitley Neill Gin is distilled at the multi-award-winning City of London Distillery, the first gin distillery in The City of London in 200 years.
Johnny Neill is an eighth generation distiller, and direct descendant of Thomas Greenall and JJ Whitley. After initially forging a career in investment management, he went on to delve deeper into his family distilling heritage and started on a new career path, founding the popular Whitley Neill Gin brand in 2005. Using nine of the highest quality botanicals, Johnny launched Whitley Neill Gin, its Original London Dry Gin and a range of flavours inspired by both his and his ancestors travels around the world, cementing him as one of the pioneers of the early gin boom.
MEET JOHNNY NEILL,
8TH GENERATION FAMILY MEMBER
Johnny’s fascination with gin and its complex distillation process begun under his Grandmother’s expert guidance. He learnt how, by simply infusing the crisp sharpness of juniper berries with a variety of other flavours and aromas, the taste could change dramatically. And for Johnny, that was the attraction.
From that moment onwards, he was driven to create a blend of gins that captured his family’s passion and something altogether more exotic, enigmatic, and mysterious.
NINE DISTINCTIVE BOTANICALS
Johnny Neill’s first creation was The Whitley Neill London Dry Gin, a classic dry gin but not as you know it, softer and much smoother than traditional Gins, with rich juniper notes, citrus and exotic botanicals Baobab fruit and Cape gooseberry.
Johnny distilled the tart Baobab fruit pulp to release a distinctive citrus flavour, quite unlike any other. Followed by the Physalis Peruviana or Cape gooseberry as it’s known in South Africa. These flavoursome bitter-sweet berries added a whole new dimension to the aroma.
Johnny then took six other carefully selected botanicals to create Whitley Neill’s recipe, but that’s a whole different story…
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