CPG Playbook   //   January 23, 2025

How Renais is trying to make ultra-premium gin popular in the U.S.

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Renais has lofty ambitions to be the leading global ultra-premium gin brand.

The company, which launched in 2023 in Europe and expanded to the U.S. last year, just raised a fresh round of capital and is working on expanding even further. It was founded by CEO Alex Watson and his sister, actress Emma Watson. Renais Gin isn’t cheap — it retails for around $60 a bottle. But it offers a product that reuses pressed wine grapes from the Watson family’s vineyard in France, ultimately making a more sustainable and higher-level gin offering.

According to Alex Watson, who joined this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, Renais’ growth comes at a fortuitous time. “Martinis are having a moment right now,” he said. And while people are drinking less — especially this month — they are seeking better options. “People generally are consuming less alcohol these days, but they’re trading up,” Watson said, “so the volume and the share is all shifting into higher value products.”

That gives Renais a clear path to growth. Still, Watson admitted, there are some big competitors in the space. “Some of the headwinds that we face [are] both going up against the likes of the big boys and hundreds-of-years-old brands,” he said.

However, he thinks gin may be the best place to introduce a new higher-end product. “Although there’s been a lot of innovation in gin — and there are a lot of gins out there — there are very few in what we would call the ultra-premium segment of the category,” Watson said.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

It’s a family affair
“Emma and I, as second-generation winemakers, wanted to find a way to contribute or kind of carry on our family’s legacy… It’s a family project, in many ways, between me and my dad and Emma. Although Emma and I are the ones formally who started the company, spiritually, my dad is kind of there because he’s the one who planted the vineyards and has worked his way up to become something called a pillier…There’s like a guild of winemakers in chablis, and he now sits at the kind of highest level, and it’s a big part of our family.”

Competing with the gin heavyweights
“Some of the headwinds that we face [are] both going up against the likes of the big boys and hundreds-of-years-old brands who are very well embedded in what they do and in the minds of consumers. As well as the fact that, particularly in the U.K., we have such an abundance of gins. I think we have more gin distilleries per capita than like anywhere else in the world. We’ve got more than 300 gin distilleries in the U.K., I think, at last count. I know that’s not the case in America — I think gin is less commonly drunk [there]. But I think that the reason that we’re able to get cut through with Renais is that, although there’s been a lot of innovation in gin — and there are a lot of gins out there — there are very few in what we would call the ultra-premium segment of the category.”

Martinis are having a moment
“Martinis are having a moment right now. And there’s all of these really interesting twists or takes on the martini. The martini is great for us because there’s nowhere to hide for the gin — for the product. It’s a great expression of a cocktail that lets you really taste what the product’s about. It chills it down a bit, dilutes it a little bit, but really, you’re just tasting the spirit. And that’s why we love the martini serve for Renais. I kind of built it around making the perfect martini.”