Aviation Gin is Closing its Portland, Oregon Visitor Center
Almost four years after Ryan Reynolds‘s Aviation Gin opened a new visitor center and distillery in Portland, Oregon, parent company Diageo announced that it was shuttering the facility. This might not mean that Aviation Gin won’t be produced anymore, according to the website the Spirits Business and other sources, but it does seem to mark another difficult moment for Diageo and the spirits industry overall.
Aviation Gin was created in 2006 by bartender Ryan Magarian and House Spirits Distillery, which filed for bankruptcy about a year ago under its Westward Whiskey business name (the distillery now has a new owner). Davos Brands bought Aviation in 2016, and Diageo acquired it in 2020. Along the way, Reynolds came on as a backer in 2018 and has been a very public face for the brand in the years since, appearing in ad campaigns and engaging in silly social media tiffs with his Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman to promote the gin.
As we reported in 2022, Aviation opened a new distillery and visitor center in Portland, bringing Hollie Stephenson onboard as distillery director after a stint as head brewer at Guinness’s Maryland brewery (that operation closed in 2023). That chapter seems to be over now, although as mentioned before this does not necessarily mean production of Aviation will stop—in fact, bottling and blending moved to another location last year.
We reached out to find out more specifics about the future of the brand, but have not heard back yet. Diageo did provide the following statement to the Spirits Business: “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close the Aviation American Gin Visitor Center in Portland, Oregon. This decision reflects evolving business needs, as we continue to support growth ambitions for our Aviation American Gin brand. Aviation American Gin remains an important part of Diageo’s portfolio and we are committed to the brand, our customers, and consumers.”
Diageo has had a tough couple of years, deciding to pause production at other American distilleries it owns like Balcones and Cascade Hollow, the home of George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey. Sales in North America have been down, but its most recent report, issued after CEO Sir Dave Lewis took over in January, shows growth in other regions of the world even while North America continues to present a challenge (specifically, organic sales in the region fell by almost ten percent).
Currently, the Aviation Gin website says no visitor center experiences are available, but we reached out to a rep for the brand to find out exactly what this all means. We will update this story if and when we hear back.
