This Award-Winning Welsh Gin Is Smooth Enough to Sip Neat—and It’s Coming to the U.S.
For a recent school project about her family, Katherine Jenkins and Andrew Levitas's daughter didn't mention that her mother is an opera singer who has performed for Queen Elizabeth II, or that her father is a filmmaker who has worked with Amy Adams and Ralph Fiennes. Instead, she said that her parents make gin and tonics. "I had to write a little note to the teacher: 'We also created a luxury gin brand, so that's what she's referring to,' " Jenkins says.
The husband-and-wife team are behind Cygnet , a high-end gin that launched in the United Kingdom in late 2023 and lands in the United States this fall. The brand will expand on this side of the Atlantic with three expressions: Cygnet Welsh Dry ($45), Cygnet 22 ($66), and Cygnet 77 ($150). The bottles will initially be available in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, with the goal of spreading to eight to 10 cities by the end of the decade, according to Matteo Fantacchiotti, a longtime spirits-industry exec who joined the company as a partner and chairman last November.
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Levitas and Jenkins at a bar in London.
But the couple didn't intend for Cygnet to become the in-demand product it is today. A classically trained singer, Jenkins had long been advised against drinking alcohol, as its harshness can affect the voice. And while she abided by that rule, she also wondered about ways to get around it. When the pandemic filled their calendars with copious time at home, the duo got to work creating a gentler version of the spirit. That ethos touches everything from Cygnet's stylish bottle, designed to weigh less than standard containers and double as a flower vase once the liquid is finished (the label can be washed off), to its organically sourced botanicals.
One of Cygnet's key ingredients is manuka honey, a cultivar with unique healing and antimicrobial properties, which many singers consume to protect their throats. The honey helps soften the finished product's bite, so much so that you can sip it neat or on the rocks.
Cygnet 77, the brand's highest-end expression, which gets its color from a little over a year of resting in ex-whiskey casks.
This quality has already helped the gin win more than a dozen awards and a loyal audience. Fortnum & Mason stocks it , and earlier this year Harrods launched the golden-colored Cygnet 77 , which gets its hue from 55 weeks of resting in ex–Welsh whiskey casks. The exclusive London members' club Annabel's even created a version of James Bond's Vesper martini with Cygnet, pairing it with Cîroc vodka, Lillet Blanc, and crème de pêche.
Still, the gin's success has come as something of a surprise. "It's very unusual in my world for everyone to like something," Levitas says. "It's really hard to make a film or make a piece of art that universally people connect with and love and are supportive of." Cygnet, he adds, "suddenly was this other animal."
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