Sunset Hills Virginia Gin

Maker: A. Smith Bowman, Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA (Sazerac)

ABV: 40%

Appearance: Clear.

Nose: Lime peel, lemon peel, angelica, anise, very light juniper.

On the palate: Fairly heavy mouth feel. Very light, little taste except alcohol.

Finish: Some sweetness, some light herbal notes, and then fades away.

Mixed: Makes perfectly serviceable martinis and does ok with tonic and bitter lemon. All are enjoyable, but dull.

Parting words: I really wanted to like this gin. I am Facebook friends with the master distiller at Bowman, and I enjoy the Bowman bourbons and ryes. But this gin is just boring. It’s neither here nor there. It lacks the rough edges of bottom shelf gins, but it also lacks the interest of upper shelf gins. It’s not too expensive, but why bother? There is nothing going on here. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Sunset Hills Virginia Gin.

Tanqueray London Dry Gin

Maker: Cameronbridge Distillery, Levenmouth, Scotland (Diageo)

Style: London Dry

ABV: 47.3%

Appearance: Crystal clear.

Nose: Lime peel, alcohol. Bitterness, coriander, sweet angelica, bit of juniper.

On the palate: Sweet, full-bodied, but not much else going on.

Finish: Burn, sweetness and Angelica.

Mixed: Gin & Tonic: Makes a cool, crisp, refreshing G & T. Dry Martini: Thick and herbal with a citrus finish. Tom Collins: Like the G & T, crisp and refreshing. Works well in all applications.

Parting words: This is one of the old standards of the gin world. It’s hard to get more “macro-distilled” than a Diageo-made gin, but they know what they are doing and they execute it perfectly. A good amount of gin character but nothing too outlandish that might scare the bourgeoisie. Recommended.

Knickerbocker Gin

Maker: New Holland, Holland, Michigan, USA

ABV: 42.5%

Neat

Appearance: Crystal clear with pearl necklace-ing.

Nose: Sweet, a little rough. Citron, anise, a touch of horehound and eucalyptus, a hint of juniper.

On the palate: Full-bodied, but light in flavor. Water brings out the juniper in a big way. The sweet old-fashioned stick-candy flavors are there too: licorice, horehound and bitter lemon.

Finish: Herbal and floral neat, sweetness and candy with a splash of water.

Mixed

Tom Collins: Does very well. Adds depth to the drink without overwhelming it.

G & T: Does fine, but doesn’t particularly distinguish itself when mixed with good tonic. Ironically (or not) it seems to stand out more against supermarket brand tonic.

Bitter Lemon: Overwhelmed by the citrus flavors.

Dry Martini (w/Noilly Pratt): Adds a nice sweet note to balance the assertive herbaceousness of the vermouth. Brings a good amount of body too. As I reach The Olive Zone at the bottom of the glass, it stands up to the brine well. Knickerbocker would probably work even better in a perfect (½ dry vermouth, ½ sweet) martini, but unfortunately I didn’t think of that until the bottle was almost gone. I don’t remember this gin doing nearly this well in a martini the last time I bought it. If they tinkered with it in the recent past, they did a good job. Like Corair’s gin, this is a fine, if less ambitious, example of what micro-distillers can do well. Recommended.

Old Raj Gin

Maker: Cadenhead, Campbelltown, Argyll, Scotland.
Style: Dry
ABV: 55% (cut down to 45% for tasting purposes)

Gin & Tonic, Tom Collins: Old Raj is indistinct in both of these drinks. The Tom Collins is refreshing as always, but the G & T really falls flat, considering the proof and price of Old Raj. It might as well have been Seagram’s or some other bottom shelf brand. Highly disappointing.

Gibson: A slightly dirty Gibson this time instead of the usual martini, just to mix it up. Old Raj fares better here, but only slightly. This tastes like (shudder) a VODKA martini. The aromatics in the gin struggle to distinguish themselves from the vermouth, in this case a Noilly Prat’s Dry (the new formulation). Underwhelming.

Neat, slightly chilled: The color of this gin is a very light gold. What that comes from, I don’t know. The botanicals? A very short time in a barrel? The saffron that allegedly goes into it? Not quite sure, but it certainly makes Old Raj distinctive. The nose is a fairly standard gin nose, but more mild and dry than many in the same category. Juniper and citrus stand out with the citrus being the stronger of the two. All the rest is just alcohol. On the palate it fairly heavy bodied. Some sweetness, then that citrus is back, more specifically as lime. As it fades into the finish, the sweetness predominates with a background of citrus and a whole lotta burn. This must be what it would be like to do a shot of vodka while sucking on a lemonhead.

Parting Words: I found Old Raj to be a disappointment. It really struggles to bring anything to the table when mixed, even in drinks in which gin takes the driver’s seat like martinis (and Gibsons). Neat it holds its own. My only complaint with it neat is that it is unbalanced. Too much citrus and sweetness and not enough spice. If you are one of the few, hep cats out there who enjoy drinking your gin neat, I recommend Old Raj. If you are looking for a distinctive gin for classic gin cocktails, look elsewhere

Review: Corsair Gin

Maker: Corsair, Bowling Green, Kentucky

ABV: 44% (label shown is a different edition)

Neat: Crystal clear in the glass, on the nose, alcohol as expected, but I get a lot of old-fashioned candy flavors in the nose.  I can’t quite pick it out, but I’m getting licorice, anise and especially horehound. Yes, horehound.  Look it up.  The herbal candy notes really come into their
own on the palate.  The finish is short, but this gin is very drinkable neat.

G & T (w/Canada Dry Tonic)

On the nose and on the palate, as one might expect the tonic is leading the way, perhaps because I added a little too much.  Where Corsair gin makes its presence known is in the finish.  It’s long for a G & T (especially a drowned one) and the bitterness of the quinine in the tonic is seamlessly intergrated into the horehound and licorice flavors of the gin.  This is a thinking person’s G & T.

Dry Martini (w/Noilly Pratt Vermouth)

The herbal aroma of the vermouth dominates on the nose, but the aromatics from the gin are discernable and complementary.  On the palate, the gin is the star.  Big sweetness, followed by the wonderful botanicals: anise, horehound, maybe some clove. The finish is long and sweet with those wonderful botanicals lingering as the drink keeps tingling on my lips

Parting Words

It’s a rare gin that tastes as good (or maybe even better) neat than mixed.  But this is an exceptional product, one that epitomizes what successful micro-distilling looks like.  Even with unaged spirits like gin, micros cannot hope to go head to head with the big boys.  What they can and should do is offer products like Corsair Gin that are different from anything that is being offered from the macro-distillers.  For a change of pace, Corsair gin really hits the spot.

Now Drinking

Martini

Ingredients: Boomsma Jonge Genever, Noilly Pratt Original Dry Vermouth

Makers: Boomsma, Leeuwarden, Netherlands; Noilly Prat, Marseillan, France

Garnish: lime-stuffed olive

This a definately a different kinda martini.  Although made with gin and dry white French vermouth, there’s very little dry about it.  If it were a musical, it would be La cage aux folls; its Big, sweet and fruity.  Kinda of like a slightly herbal, higher abv kool-aid.  But in a good way.  Peaches, apricots, oranges, a bit of leftover licorice.  Too bad this this the last couple ounces of my Boomsma gin.  This is mad yummy.

Now Drinking

Gin & Tonic

Ingredients: Boomsma Jonge Genever, Q Tonic water

Garnish: Lime wedge

Makers: Boomsma, Leeuwarden, Netherlands; Q Tonic, Brooklyn, New York.

Boomsma Jonge Genever is a Dutch-style gin.  For those who may not know, gin is vodka (grain spirit) infused with certain traditional botanicals, like juniper.  As with most liquors, there are a number of different styles of gin, although with gin, the differences are more subtle.  If this one is any indication, Genever is heavier bodied than London dry gins.  Smelled and tasted neat, the traditional juniper scent of English gins seems to be practically non-existant.  Delicate orange peel and licorice are leading the way here, but more by example than by force.

Q Tonic is a specialty tonic water that claims to be a return to traditional tonic water.  It uses real quinine, a substance found in the bark of a South American tree called the cinchona, and agave nectar rather than high fructose corn syrup.  Q tonic is much more citrusy than mass-market tonics, although whether that is a result of the quinine or the lemon juice added to it.  It has a nice bitter finish, like a good tonic should.

But of course the point is to have them together.  They are a good match for each other, and for the ice and the lime.  The gin comes through on the nose and upon entry.  The sour-bitter of the tonic is a perfect complement to the orange peel and licorice of the gin.  If one might dare to say such a thing about a G & T, it’s a triumph.  I’ve had this gin with the standard supermarket tonics and the sweetness of the tonic overwhelms the delicate botanicals of the gin.  Not so with Q.  It elevates this humble drink to another level.