Extreme ageing – where a gin is aged for three years or more – is becoming ever-more common in the gin category. It may feel like a modern phenomenon, but this practice actually dates back centuries. In Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries, gin was frequently stored and transported in wooden casks, although the casks used would likely have been old and reused so many times that they imparted little character to the spirit.
Alcohol production in the 19th-century USA was relatively unregulated compared with today, and the market was rife with counterfeiting and substandard, adulterated products – in many ways a reflection of England’s earlier gin crazes. To try and curb the chaos, the federal government introduced the Bottled in Bond Act in 1897. This put restrictions
