Spanish gin producers and drinkers spark a revival of the spirit

Mother's ruin has come a long way from William Hogarth's Gin Lane. The artist's famous vision of an alcoholic hell on earth was created in 1751, in support of a British government campaign to discourage consumption of gin in favour of beer.

Gin was portrayed as the fuel for a wide and lurid range of social evils and was probably a fairly toxic product in the many dubious establishments which served it.

It became more respectable with the rise of the British Empire, from which the gin and tonic, pink gin and gin pahit (a more bitter version of pink gin popular in colonial Malaya) evolved into signature drinks.

Gin drinking and the British Empire experienced a roughly parallel decline. While it always retained a base of loyal drinkers, for much of the second half of the 20th century gin was perceived as a drink for the middle class and middle-aged.

As a dry white spirit it was eclipsed by vodka, and by the 1990s had been largely superseded in even its role as the dominant ingredient of the dry martini. Vodka martinis became the fashionable choice.

Yet much of the excitement has gone out of vodka. While most of the permutations for flavouring the spirit appear to have been explored, boutique gin distillers seem to be just getting going.