06/30/2010
The New Gins
Article appeared in the June 30 Issue of Wine Spectator.
By Jack Bettridge

One of the happiest consequences of the recent return of cocktail culture is the rebirth of gin. After foundering for decades, this intriguing spirit is resurfacing thanks to renewed interest from style-setting bartenders and a thirsty public. In turn, distillers have busied themselves with innovative expressions that steer gin's possibilities in new directions and give longstanding proponents and newcomers alike reasons to take a sip.

Because gin as a category isn't stringently defined, it offers the experimenter a wide berth to explore the use of novel flavors, base ingredients and production methods. It's not an appellation in the sense of Bourbon, Scotch or tequila, as it isn't--with the exception of a few subcategories such as London Dry and Plymouth--controlled by locale. Gin can be made anywhere, using a variety of mashes.

For a product to merit the "gin" label in the United States, it must simply be made from neutral spirits (distilled above 190 proof), enter the bottle at more than 80 proof and have a predominant juniper flavor among its aromatics. Untethered to an aging requirement, it is attractive to the new wave of craft distillers who needn't wait years to bring their product to market.

With such freedom, distillers are tweaking the juniper quotient, making the formulae more or less complex, adding nontraditional botanicals, playing with grain recipes and even making gin from wine. The choices are much more boisterous than the venerable but restrained gin that defined the category for so long: London Dry. Despite the ubiquity of that term describing an elegant, arid style, gin is not a British invention nor was it always so narrow in flavor. Its roots are in 16th-century Holland, where was born genever (or jenever), a blend of neutral spirits and malt wine flavored with juniper. (Try the breathy, bready Bols as an example.)

Brought to England, the drink's quality standards dropped precipitously during a period in the early 18th century when production was allowed without a license, and inexpensive street-corner hooch was sometimes flavored with turpentine. This epidemic of consumption, subsequent legislation and the advent of branding led to the birth of the classic clean English brands: Booth's, Gordon's, Burnett, Plymouth, Beefeater, Tanqueray, Boodles and Gilbey's.

Gin became the clear choice in clear spirits until the 1960s, when the market's taste for milder spirits allowed vodka to overtake it. Resurgence began in 1987 with Bombay Sapphire gin, its contemporary packaging and lighter flavor (attributes that DH Krahn gin would emulate when it edged even closer to vodka).

In the 1990s came such gins as Scotland's Hendrink's, with its cucumber and flower notes, which started a trend in another direction. Suddenly more recognizable flavors--such traditional secondary aromatics as orris root, angelica and cubeb can be obscure--were competing alongside the prescribed juniper dominance. Soon came Broker's with the avowed notion that gin should stand up to quinine water (it's not juniper-laden, but is sweet and not at all subtle) and then Marin Miller's with its sweet, flowery character.

Among mainstream brands, Tanqueray has its Rangpur, which smacks of lime and is named for the Asian citrus species that informs its taste. Last year Beefeater introduced 24, distinguished by grapefruit and green tea botanicals. Now it bows in with a limited edition Summer Gin, factoring in hibiscus, black currant and the popular elderflower. It tastes floral, but also lighter and not as dry as its notoriously arid cousin.

More earth-shattering is that small-batch distiller new to the game are looking to gin as an outlet. Citadelle, of France, is a leader, applying the alembic methods of Cognac to its complex gin, and distilling over an open flame. G'Vine goes one Gaulish step further, using Ugni blanc wine as a base alcohol. Its perfumy Floraison version is flavored with grape flowers.

In this country, terroir and organic botanicals have been emphasized in artisanal gins. Born from a desire to sustain local farming, Death's Door, of Wisconsin, limits its ingredients to those grown within 150 miles of its location on Washington Island in Lake Michigan and thus contains only juniper, corinader and fennel. Distiller Brian Ellison feels that citrus masks other flavors in the back palate and are anyway redundant when bartenders add lime to the cocktails.

Perhaps the most novel of new gins is actually a throwback to the markedly sweeter Old tom style that was popular a century ago and disappeared around the 1950s. Distiller Tad Seestredt and drinks historian David Wondrich created Ransom Old Tom in Oregon with a view to making not just a sweeter gin, but something with a significant heritage. Because gins of old were so often stored in barrels, they took that route, aging the product for several months. The result is something of a whiskey-gin hybrid, with a very malty taste and the headiest of aroma, almost like a very complex, woody, toasty bitters. The time in the wood gives it a distinct hue, but while this gin may not be completely transparent, it is clearly good.

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