Natasha Bahrami “The Gin Girl” Inducted into the Gin Hall of Fame!
The highest accolade that Gin Magazine bestows is to induct member into its Hall of Fame. These individual will be drawn from distillers, company owners, and writers, but all linked in that they have left a lasting mark on the Gin industry. It is their permanent tribute to the people whose work we all cherish and enjoy.
Natasha Bahrami Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech.
Since Her First Encounter…
Since her first encounter with a Dirty Martini, Natasha has been both passionate about, and a passionate advocate for, the world of gin. She has dedicated her professional life to elevating gin, teaching its fans more about the spirit and introducing more people to the category. She is the owner of The Gin Room in St. Louis, Missouri, a bar with hundreds of world gins on its shelves which also hosts gin seminars and workshops to engage and educate drinkers. Through her renowned venue, Natasha helped found the Gin Week Gin festival in St. Louis in 2015. She is also the founder of The Gin World, a platform designed for the ‘exchange and expansion of knowledge’ on the world of gin; it has so far expanded to St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, Phoenix, San Francisco and New Orleans, with gin festivals featuring educational programmes with brand ambassadors and distillers. Natasha was inducted into the Gin Guild in 2017, involved in the first Induction class in the US and was the first US female given membership. In 2020 she was made the director of gin curation and education at the US’ Museum of Distilled Spirits.
“Ginworld is created for the exchange and expansion of knowledge regarding the world of gin, a celebration of its ever growing spectrum and the elevation of the spirit category around the world.”
— Natasha Bahrami
“The Gin Girl” // Founder Ginworld // Owner The Gin Room // Director of Gin Curation Museum of Distilled Spirits.
Myriam Hendrickx
Master Distiller
Rutte Distillery
Myriam Hendrickx has led production as master distiller at eighth-generation Rutte Distillery in the Netherlands since 2003. The spirits industry caught her eye while she was working as a food engineer; thirsty for knowledge, she spoke to master distillers everywhere to learn all she could.
Jon Hillgren
Hernö
Jon Hillgren founded Sweden’s first gin-only distillery, Hernö, in 2012. This time last year, it was celebrating its second success in a row as the World’s Best Gin in the World Gin Awards. With such accolades behind the brand, it is comforting to see Jon as a humble and thoughtful individual who deservedly tells of his brand’s success, but also remains respectful of his colleagues and contemporaries. Perhaps, this is a result of his starting point in gin – a passion for the spirit and a dream to create it himself.
Charles Maxwell
Master Distiller
Thames Distillers
Charles Maxwell comes from a long line of distillers, with his family distilling gin in London since the 1680s. Charles himself joined the Finsbury Distillery Company in 1976 following its merging with Matthew Clark. In this role Charles received a grounding in all aspects of the business, before becoming a director in the 1990s.
Hall of Fame Current Members
Desmond Payne
Master Distiller
Beefeater
Like Beefeater, where he has been master distiller for 15 years, Desmond Payne is a giant of the British gin industry and a shining example of how tradition and innovation can work in harmony. Having started his career in the wine cellars at Harrods, he was introduced to spirits after joining Seager Events in 1967 – an encounter which kickstarted a career in gin that has so far spanned five decades.
Christopher Hayman
Hayman Distillers
When Gin Magazine launched in 2017, one of our first stops was to drop by Hayman’s Distillery, which would soon move into its new home in Balham. Christopher was good enough to spend the time introducing us to his team and provided an in-depth breakdown of gin’s history and some thoughts on its present and future.