With a name like “Aviation Gin,” you’d expect the craft spirits brand to eventually take to the friendly skies.
While it has been available in select airport lounges near its home base in the Pacific Northwest, the Portland, Ore.-based gin brand is going to be served exclusively on Virgin Atlantic and at Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses in major airports.
To celebrate the new partnership, Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson teamed up with Aviation Gin’s new owner, Ryan Reynolds, in a comedic new ad spot, with the promise of more co-branded digital content involving the pair to be released this fall.
Furthermore, passengers onboard select Virgin Atlantic flights on the September 30 will be treated to a “mixology” experience, hosted by bartenders from some of the world’s most highly acclaimed bars, including New York City’s The Dead Rabbit and Smugglers Cove in San Francisco.
For Aviation Gin, this marks a major box to be checked off in both branding partnerships and international expansion.
After buying Aviation Gin earlier this year, Reynolds hosted a media briefing in Manhattan last month to elaborate for the first time publicly about why he wanted to get involved with a liquor brand (as many celebrities are wont to do these days) as well as some of his goals for the business.
While admitting he probably won’t be getting directly involved in the gin-making process, Reynolds said at the time that he’d like to be more involved with the marketing, sales, and distribution processes—the latter of which he specified would involve expanding the company’s footprint across the United States as well as internationally. Reynolds noted he learned during a recent business trip that Aviation Gin is doing “remarkably well” in the United Kingdom.
Contrary to some of the most familiar—and notably, British—gin brands, Aviation Gin describes itself as an “American gin,” boasting a botanical mix touted to be smoother and easier to drink when compared to London Dry gins. The company had been owned previously by craft spirits importer Davos Brand after being purchased in November 2016. Other spirits in Davos’ portfolio include TYKU Sake, Sombra Mezcal, and Astral Tequila.