A gin-lover, who estimates her collection to be worth £15,000, has 450 bottles from all over the world stashed in her cupboards.
Allison Strydom, 56, from Twickenham, London, has been collecting gin for years after falling in love with the traditional G&T which she first recalls drinking on flights back and forth from her birthplace of Cape Town.
After dropping in at a local gin distillery on a day out, Allison became more interested in how the spirit was made, and began to plan visits and outings to local distilleries, even making her own gin at several of them.
Since then, Allison’s collection has grown exponentially and includes gin from all around the world.
Allison Strydom became obsessed with gin after visiting a distillery and becoming enthralled with the gin-making process
Allison has been collecting gin for the last five years and will update her followers on her finding through her personal blog, Gin Squares
Over the years, Allison has spent thousands on the collection and is continuously looking for new gin to try to review on her blog – Gin Squares.
The mum-of-two, who also works as a jewellery maker, said: ‘It’s cost me thousands of pounds over the years but I see it as more than a collection, because I also travel vicariously through it.
‘I’ve been drinking gin for as long as I can remember and following the gin boom a few years ago, it became more interesting to me.
‘After visiting my first distillery, I manipulated all my social life around gin and love meeting with distillers and learning about how they started making gin.
The mum-of-two has a room dedicated to her 450 bottles of gin, but insists she’s not a big drinker, and will more often have a cup of tea
The most expensive bottle in the collection is from Audemus Spirits and is in a limited edition clay bottle
‘I have realised that each bottle has a really interesting story behind it. Sometimes that story is about the distillers themselves but often my research uncovers legends or myths or I learn a bit of history about their location.
‘I used to import a lot of gin from Europe but post-Brexit, the costs are too high, so I am no longer able to source new and interesting brands as yet unavailable in the UK.
‘I have gin from around the UK and most countries in Europe, but my collection also includes gin from every continent.’
Allison has a room in her house dedicated to her gin collection, with some rarer bottles being left unopened for years.
Within Allison’s gin collection, she’s chosen to leave some rarer bottles unopened to preserve them
She added: ‘There is a misconception that gin bloggers drink a lot. You’ll usually find me on the sofa with a brew.’
The gin collecting hobby doesn’t come cheap, but for Allison it’s worth it to discover the hidden story.
‘I have a couple of Japanese bottles that are sold out and therefore rare, but I didn’t pay more than about £80 for them and that is about my limit when buying gin.
‘I suspect the next most expensive bottle is one from Kenya – Procera Gin – which retails around £70-80 depending where you purchase it, I purchased mine when it was on sale for around £50, but they have other editions that retail over £100.
44N from France in a blue bottle, which celebrates Yves Klein, an artist born in Nice in 1929 who developed his own unique pigment – International Klein Blue (left). Scottish gin eenoo is inspired by Eenoolooapik was an adventurous teenage Inuit who befriended a ship’s crew when they were whaling in Baffin Island in Canada (right)
’44N from France retails around £75, but can be found a bit cheaper on some websites – my bottle was gifted by the brand.
‘The Source, Cardrona (New Zealand) retails between £50 and £60 – I bought direct from them at an expo here in the UK and paid £57, but it is an exceptional gin!
‘When purchasing imported gin, it really does pay to shop about online as it can make a big difference to what you pay for the same bottle.
‘However, I have a bespoke hand painted bottle that I won in a giveaway on Instagram and given it’s a one-off piece of art, that elevates its value.
During lockdown, Allison began to work her way around her collection by doing virtual gin tours from her living room through her Instagram feed
‘The brand, [Audemus] have not given me a price, but suggested it’s probably north of 10 times the value of one of their normal bottles of Pink Pepper gin – if you purchased it at Fortnum & Mason.’
Likely priced at around £400-500 due to being a one-off, Allison admits she will likely never open it as she know’s the gin well anyway, and has an open bottle her collection already.
During lockdown, Allison began to work her way around her collection by doing virtual gin tours from her living room where she would ‘travel’ the world and research different gins to post on her Instagram feed.
Allison said: ‘During the first lockdown, I wasn’t able to go and visit distilleries or travel abroad, so I started travelling vicariously through my gin collection and planning virtual tours around Europe, Scotland and even did 80 gin days around the world, which I posted daily.
The gin-lover sees her gin collection as a way to travel around the world and claims each bottle carries its own story, such as Melifera, from the Island of Oleron off the west coast of France (left). Dolce Vita is inspired by a story of a friendship between teenagers who met under the Clock Tower in the Piazza Umberto in Capri (right)
‘I found a lot of hidden stories behind gin or their location and I love writing and researching so I decided to start a blog to share my findings.
‘It’s become a passion and my followers love my stories and find them interesting.
‘Tasting gin is very subjective and there are enough gin reviews available.
‘I like to think that I offer a different perspective on gin; show me a bottle and I’ll tell you a story.
‘My collection is continually growing and I dread to think how much I’ve spent on gin over the years. A number of the international gins I have are exclusively available through one of the largest gin subscription companies, so it’s taken a lot of time to build up the collection and I’m constantly looking for new and interesting bottles to add.
‘As the world opens up again, I am hoping that I can turn the virtual gin tours into real ones and visit more distilleries in person and maybe one day I’ll get to publish a book on all the stories I’ve gathered along the way.’