London gin (London dry gin)

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 defines London gin as a distilled gin that meets six conditions. It is made only from ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with at most 5 g of methanol per hectolitre of pure alcohol, and its flavour comes "exclusively through the distillation of ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin in the presence of all the natural plant materials used". The resulting distillate has at least 70 % alcohol. Any alcohol added afterwards must meet the same methanol limit. It is not coloured, contains no more than 0.1 g of sweetening per litre (as invert sugar), and contains nothing else but water.

The minimum bottling strength is 37.5 %, as for all gin. The term may be supplemented by "dry". Nothing in the definition ties it to London: London gin can be made in any country.

Distillers usually redistil grain neutral spirit with juniper and other botanicals, either steeped in the still (maceration) or held in the vapour path (vapour infusion), and collect only the middle "hearts" of the run. A 2024 study of a commercial gin still found the aroma changing over the run: light monoterpenes early, spicier sesquiterpenes late, so the distiller's cut points shape the flavour.