Simon Ford is the co-founder of The 86 Co. and creator of Ford's Gin, and the man widely credited as the first brand ambassador the modern spirits industry ever produced (though he's not so sure about that). In this episode, we trace his career from a London wine shop job secured despite admitting he didn't actually like wine, through his years at Ideal Brands working on Absolut alongside Nick Blacknell, Dick Bradsell and Wayne Collins, to opening the celebrated Koba bar in Brighton and the call that sent him off to launch Plymouth Gin around the world.
We follow Simon through his years as Plymouth's North America ambassador, the move to New York in 2006 at the height of the craft cocktail renaissance, and the senior Pernod Ricard directorship he turned down to build something of his own. We dig deep into the founding of The 86 Co. in 2012 alongside Employees Only's Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric — the survey of 149 bartenders that shaped Ford's Gin, the 90-plus formula iterations before Simon was satisfied, the moment Dale DeGroff invested on the spot after tasting it at the distillery, and the blind taste test at Pegu Club where Audrey Saunders put Ford's up against 14 other gins and Simon picked it out.
We cover the famously oversubscribed Tales of the Cocktail launch party in 2013 (which I was at), the 2019 acquisition by Brown-Forman — including the full story of how it came together and the day Simon fell fully clothed into a pond on the Louisville campus — and the unvarnished realities of scaling a spirit brand from nothing. The episode closes with Simon's current projects: a campaign to revive sloe gin, a new Ford's innovation in development at Thames Distillers, and the annual Ford's Gin party at Tales of the Cocktail.
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