There’s something so satisfying about a drinks trolley that looks as considered as it is well-stocked. A well-chosen bottle does more than hold liquid; it adds character to a room, anchors a vignette, catches the evening light in a way that makes you pause. The bottles gathered here aren’t just good spirits in attractive packaging. They’re objects worth owning, the sort of thing you position deliberately and feel pleased about every time you walk past.
For the recipient who treats their home as a curated space, who notices the difference between mass-produced and handmade, these are gifts that keep contributing to a room’s personality well beyond Christmas morning.
La Gritona Reposado
For those who prefer their beauty (and booze) with a conscience, La Gritona’s green bottles are hand-blown in Mexico City from 100% recycled glass, specifically repurposed Mexican Coca-Cola bottles. There’s an organic irregularity to each one that speaks to genuine craft rather than factory precision, and we love it.
The tequila comes from an all-female distilling team led by Melly Barajas Cárdenas in the Jalisco highlands, one of very few operations run entirely by women. ‘La Gritona’ translates as ‘The Screamer’, a nod to Barajas’s reputation for being outspoken in an industry still dominated by men. The whole package tells a story worth telling.
Inside, expect something unusual: despite eight months in oak, the taste remains herbaceous and vegetal, with the agave notes deliberately unmasked by heavy barrel influence. Garden greens, white flowers, black pepper and freshly cut grass come through, with a bright, punchy finish that has no burn whatsoever.
La Gritona Reposado £48, at hedonism.co.uk
Portofino Dry Gin
This Italian gin arrives in a bottle that feels like a postcard from the Italian Riviera. The design is a direct tribute to Portofino’s harbour, where colourful houses stack up against green hillsides in one of the most photographed views in Liguria.
The brand was founded as a tribute to Klaus Pudel, who famously saved the village from destruction during the Second World War and later became known for hosting legendary parties during the 1950s and ’60s. Inside, 21 botanicals are distilled using a combination of traditional copper pot stills and vacuum distillation, with juniper, lemons, lavender, rosemary, and other aromatics grown in the company’s own botanical sanctuary on the hills above the village.
The gin itself opens with fresh lemon and crisp juniper before giving way to wild rosemary, lavender, and the sweeter, more delicate notes of marjoram and sage. It’s citrusy but soft, perfectly balanced for a G&T with a twist of lemon peel. The whole thing feels like la dolce vita bottled.
Portofino Dry Gin £42, at portofinogin.com
MAD Modern Art Distillery London Dry Gin ‘City’
The concept here is simple but effective: commission emerging British artists to create original artwork for limited-edition spirit bottles, turning each one into a numbered collectable. The ‘City’ expression features ‘Separation & Amalgamation’ by Bath-based artists Emma Taylor and Jason Dorley-Brown (working as Jet Pictures), a painting that wraps around the bottle in a way that rewards closer inspection. It won Best Contemporary at the 2024 Gin Guide Awards, which says something about how the industry views the whole enterprise.
The gin itself leads with sumac, the Middle Eastern spice that delivers both citrus florality and unexpected sweetness. Fresh lemon peel and bright hibiscus amplify the citrus notes, pink peppercorn adds gentle heat, while lime leaf and fiery cassia bark bring depth. Juniper keeps everything anchored. It’s unusual without being challenging, and the bottle design means there’s every reason to keep it on display once empty (you could, of course, just fill it with some tap water).
Each 70cl bottle is individually numbered, making earlier editions potentially interesting for collectors if the artists’ careers take off.
MAD Modern Art Distillery London Dry Gin ‘City’, £45 modernartdistillery.com
Horse With No Name
The story behind this one is almost too good. Alexander Stein, creator of Monkey 47, was in a taxi when the 1970s America song came on the radio, and inspiration struck. The result is a bourbon from Texas infused with habanero distillate made in Germany’s Black Forest, presented in a bottle modelled on a vintage 1920s cut-glass hip flask.
The bourbon itself comes from Firestone & Robertson (now under the TX Whiskey umbrella) in Fort Worth, aged for at least three years in charred oak barrels, before a drop of habanero distillate is added in Weinstadt. On the nose you get candied peels and vanilla, with brown sugar and a hint of what’s coming. The palate delivers caramel and honey sweetness, touches of cinnamon and toasted oak, then the habanero arrives as fruity warmth rather than aggressive heat. It lingers pleasantly without burning.
The bottle design nods to prohibition-era glamour while the contents offer something genuinely unusual. What’s not to love?
Horse With No Name, £48 at horsewithnoname.com
Xinghuacun Fen Chiew 30 Year Old Baijiu
China’s national spirit baijiu doesn’t get nearly enough attention in the UK, which makes this an interesting gift for the person who thinks they’ve tried everything.
The 30-year-old arrives in a blue and white porcelain decanter referencing ‘qinghua’ pottery, one of China’s most celebrated ceramic traditions. Fenjiu’s baijiu was reportedly served to Mao Zedong and Soviet leaders after Beijing’s liberation, positioning it firmly as a drink for occasions that matter. The porcelain isn’t just decorative: ageing baijiu in ceramic vessels is traditional practice, making the bottle a direct connection to how the spirit was made.
This particular baijiu offers something unlike anything else in this guide: savoury soy, spice, beans and prunes on the nose, underscored by honey and hazelnut.
The palate delivers pronounced soy flavours with underlying honey and vanilla, finishing sweet with lively acidity and lingering notes of roasted hazelnuts and wildflowers. Challenging, rewarding, and guaranteed to start a conversation.
Xinghuacun Fen Chiew 30 Year Old, £85 at thewhiskyexchange.com
El Rayo Tequila Reposado
Founded by London tequila enthusiasts Jack and Tom, who determined to move the spirit from shots-at-midnight territory to civilised aperitif status, El Rayo was designed from the outset to pair with tonic. The bottle was created by Mexican artist Mario Ballesteros of Toro Pinto, and it celebrates Mexico’s visual culture with a design that’s bold without being garish.
The reposado expression spends seven months in ex-bourbon barrels, developing a golden caramel colour and rich, nutty complexity. Expect aromatic spices on the nose, giving way to cinnamon, fresh herbs, and bitter orange on the palate, with soft butterscotch sweetness from the oak and enough vegetal agave character to keep things interesting.
It works beautifully in a T&T with grapefruit, but sips nicely neat too. It’s proof that tequila doesn’t need skull bottles or excessive gold leaf to stand out.
El Rayo Tequila Reposado, £40 at elrayotequila.com
Orkney Gin Company Aatta Gin
Winner of both World’s Best Design and World’s Best Bottle at the 2022 World Gin Awards, this is the sort of bottle that stops conversations. The prism-shaped glass creates an optical illusion: look through the contents and a shimmering mermaid appears to swim within the liquid, courtesy of reverse metallic printing on the inside of the label. The base is moulded to resemble the seabed, and a golden Selkie Wife coin sits inlaid in the glass stopper. What’s remarkable is that the whole thing was designed in-house by the small family team on Orkney, not by some expensive agency, and prices are perhaps kept reasonable as a result.
The gin itself is distilled eight times with eight whole botanicals, including fresh oranges, rose hips, and Madagascan vanilla. Aatta means ‘eight’ in Old Norse, the language once spoken on these islands. On the palate, whole Croatian juniper provides piney freshness, Sicilian oranges bring bright citrus zing, rose hips add a lively floral lift, and cinnamon contributes earthy warmth. The vanilla carries through to a long, velvety finish. It’s complex without being challenging.
Orkney Gin Company Aatta Gin, £40 at orkneygincompany.com
Ishikawa Junmaishu Sakura Bottle
This seasonal sake from Japan’s Ishikawa Sake Brewery offers something genuinely ephemeral. Produced only between January and May, the sakura bottle celebrates cherry blossom season with an elegantly themed design. The brewery was founded in 1830 at the foot of the Suzuka Mountains in Mie Prefecture, using local spring water and rice polished to 50%.
The sake is light and sweet with fresh floral notes and a harmonious, delicate character. There’s no heaviness here, just gentle aromatics and a clean, soft finish that makes it dangerously easy to drink chilled on a spring evening. It’s designed for celebrations where transient beauty matters. Once the season ends, this bottle becomes impossible to find until the following year.
Ishikawa Junmaishu Sakura Bottl, £45 at jsake.com
St Germain Elderflower Liqueur
Few bottles have achieved quite the same level of design recognition as St Germain. The Art Deco silhouette, named after Paris’s St-Germain-des-Prés district, has become a modern icon since its launch in 2007. The design agency responsible, Sandstrom Partners, was briefed simply with ‘the life of Paris in a bottle’, and the result needs no additional wrapping when gifted. Inside, each bottle contains the essence of up to 1,000 hand-picked elderflower blossoms, harvested in the French Alps during just a few weeks each spring and often transported by bicycle to avoid damaging the petals.
The flavour is a harmonious blend of pear, peach, and grapefruit with that unmistakable floral elderflower note running through everything. It’s smooth and subtle, sweet but not cloying, and utterly versatile in cocktails from spritzes to margaritas. The liqueur has a six-month shelf life after opening, which is either a constraint or an excellent excuse to make more spritzes.
St Germain Elderflower Liqueur, £28 at shopuk.stgermainliqueur.com
The Bottom Line
Christmas gifting is an opportunity to offer something that lasts beyond the moment of opening. These bottles do exactly that. Whether displayed on a bar cart, positioned on a kitchen shelf, or kept on a mantlepiece long after the contents have been enjoyed, they continue to contribute something to a room. That’s worth more than another gift that ends up at the back of the cupboard by February.
