Features & Culture Writer
Speciality: Spirits History, Travel, Distillery Profiles, Culture & Heritage
Walter writes long-form features that explore the stories behind spirits — the people, places, and ingredients that give each bottle its character. A former travel journalist, he has visited over two hundred distilleries across thirty countries spanning gin, rum, whiskey, vodka, and beyond. He contributes features and culture pieces across Gin.Directory, Rum.Directory, Whiskeyful.com, and TheVodka.Shop. His writing has appeared in Condé Nast Traveller, Monocle, and The World of Fine Wine.
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From the gin shops of Georgian London to the boardrooms of modern distilleries, women have shaped gin's story at every t...
Walter Graves
May 14, 2026
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In the copa bars of Barcelona and San Sebastián, the gin and tonic has been transformed into something theatrical, aroma...
Walter Graves
May 7, 2026
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Born from malaria prophylaxis, refined in officers' messes, and globalised by empire — the gin and tonic's history is mo...
Walter Graves
April 30, 2026
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Every distillery has one. Few drinkers understand what it does, how it works, or why copper — of all metals — transforms...
Walter Graves
April 23, 2026
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Twenty-two botanicals, all hand-foraged from a single Hebridean island — a day on Islay reveals how landscape becomes li...
Walter Graves
April 16, 2026
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In 1751, William Hogarth engraved a vision of gin-soaked London so powerful that it changed the law. Three centuries lat...
Walter Graves
April 9, 2026
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Wine has terroir, whisky has provenance — but does the soil beneath a distillery truly shape the spirit in your glass? A...
Walter Graves
April 2, 2026
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In a canal-side warehouse in Amsterdam, the world's oldest distillery brand keeps the flame of genever alive — and remin...
Walter Graves
March 26, 2026
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A journey to the wild mountainsides of Macedonia and Albania, where juniper berries are hand-harvested for the world's f...
Walter Graves
March 19, 2026
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One is a legal classification that spans the globe; the other is tethered to a single distillery in Devon. The differenc...
Walter Graves
February 20, 2026
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One emerged from a Scottish coastal town with roses and cucumber; the other from the Black Forest with forty-seven wild ...
Walter Graves
February 10, 2026
Review
Tarquin's Cornish Dry Gin is a well-crafted London Dry at 42% ABV that channels the rugged coastal character of Cornwall...
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February 3, 2026
Review
A robust Islay dry gin bottled at 46% ABV, The Botanist carries the spirit of its wild Hebridean island — a well-crafted...
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January 29, 2026
Review
A 1960s bottling of W.H. Joule London Dry Gin — a collector's piece that offers a rare window into mid-century British d...
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January 27, 2026
Article
Two distillers, two philosophies, one shared obsession with juniper. The rivalry between Tanqueray and Beefeater has sha...
Walter Graves
January 25, 2026
Review
Hayman's Gently Rested Gin is a London Dry with a contemplative soul — briefly cask-rested to add warmth and roundness w...
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January 24, 2026
Review
Melifera Gin is a quietly assured London Dry at 43% ABV whose Latin name — meaning honey-bearing — hints at a floral, me...
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January 21, 2026
Article
In Kyoto, a former sake brewery is making gin with yuzu and hinoki wood. In Kagoshima, shochu distillers are redistillin...
Walter Graves
January 18, 2026
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In 2009, there were six gin distilleries in London. Today there are over eight hundred across the UK. This is the story ...
Walter Graves
January 5, 2026
Review
Thompson Bros Organic Mediterranean Gin is a confident London Dry at 45.7% ABV that marries juniper-led tradition with s...
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January 4, 2026
Review
Artingstall's Brilliant London Dry Gin is a quietly confident classic at 42% ABV, delivering the discipline and clarity ...
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January 3, 2026
Article
At 57% ABV, Navy Strength gin was born from a practical necessity: if a barrel leaked onto the gunpowder stores, the pow...
Walter Graves
December 28, 2025
Article
For two centuries, Old Tom was Britain's favourite gin. Then it vanished. Now, thanks to cocktail revivalists and curiou...
Walter Graves
December 15, 2025
Article
Not every gin survives the Negroni. We poured twelve bottles against Campari and sweet vermouth to find which gins hold ...
Walter Graves
December 8, 2025
Article
Lemon myrtle, Tasmanian pepperberry, finger lime — Australian gin makers are reaching into a continent of unique native ...
Walter Graves
November 28, 2025
Review
A poised and elegant London Dry that carries warmth and coastal brightness in equal measure, Le Tribute is a gin of quie...
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November 12, 2025
Review
A poised London Dry at 44% ABV that pairs juniper backbone with a bright citrus identity, its name a tribute to the nava...
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November 10, 2025
Article
Long before London Dry, there was genever — a malty, complex spirit born in the Low Countries that gave gin its name, it...
Walter Graves
November 10, 2025
Review
A composed and confident London Dry from Edinburgh that honours the city's deep botanical heritage, offering clean struc...
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October 25, 2025
Article
Pink gin, rhubarb gin, parma violet gin — flavoured gins have divided the gin world like nothing since the Gin Craze its...
Walter Graves
October 25, 2025
Review
A 1950s bottling of Buton Dry Gin at 45% ABV — a mid-century London Dry that offers collectors a genuine window into pos...
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October 22, 2025
Article
Pot distilled, column distilled, vapour infused, vacuum distilled, compound — every method produces a different gin. Und...
Walter Graves
October 10, 2025
Review
A muscular 47% ABV London Dry from the 1950s, Seager's is liquid history — a juniper-forward snapshot of mid-century gin...
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September 22, 2025
