As much as we all love Scotch whisky and the drinking culture that goes along with it, the Scottish make some incredible gin as well; much of it at the very same locations where the whisky is made.
It’s a funny thing because so many folks I know are willing to pay more for a boutique-y “craft” gin rather than settle for a regular old bottle of Tanqueray. Tanqueray isn’t all that cool these days, as we’re now thirty years removed from Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice.” Yet, what always stands out to me about modern gins in contrast: most craft gins don’t distill their own base spirit! Not that it matters in the end, but the one thing you can say about Tanqueray: it’s actually distilled from scratch by Tanqueray at Cameron Bridge distillery in Scotland, not simply purchased and passed through a still with botanicals.
The same goes for Hendrick’s, made at Girvan distillery in the Lowlands. The giant column still that makes grain whisky for William Grant, and a number of other blended Scotch whisky companies, produces the grain neutral spirit for Hendrick’s, which is then re-distilled on an old Bennett pot still and a Carterhead with a vapor infusion chamber on the lyne arm. They were purchased in the 1960s from London’s closed Taplow Distillery (and today there’s a third still, made from an exact replica).
Regardless of where the base spirit comes from, gin is big business these days. With so many new expressions to choose from each month, it’s hard to imagine a home for every new label on the market. Today, you can find gins from Japan, China, India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and everywhere in between; many of them using distinctly-native botanicals, adding a unique “terroir” to their spirits.
The Hendrick’s “gin palace” at Girvan Distillery
Craft gins have been multiplying in number for more than a decade at this point, and it can be hard to keep up. To paraphrase an old Pavement song: I saw another one just the other day; a special new gin. At this point, many of us have been conditioned to think small and local when it comes to quality, but in the case of gin those attributes don’t really mean anything. You can run booze through a still anywhere, but where was the liquid actually made? Your guess is often as good as mine.
Not to imply that you have to make your own grain neutral to make good gin, it’s just to point out that some of the brands we consider to be mass-produced actually are more crafty in nature than we’ve come to believe. In fact, the craft gin craze in essence begins with Hendrick’s. Born in 1999, roughly a decade before the pre-Prohibition cocktail craze took hold, the team at Grant simply wanted to make something more innovative than than Bombay Sapphire!
How did they do it? They blended a heavy, more juniper-concentrated distillate from the Bennett still with the lighter, more floral spirit from the Carterhead still. Much like Grant built its reputation on the back of blended whisky, its soon-to-be-world-famous gin was also the result of a skillful marriage. That, and the uniquely-scented aromas of rose petal and cucumber that would become Hendrick’s calling card with bartenders and gin aficionados everywhere.
The real mind behind Hendrick’s and its subsequent spin-offs is Lesley Gracie, who has become somewhat of an enigma in the industry. Her nose for creativity has resulting in a number of new Hendrick’s editions, including the fantastic quinine-infused Orbium that allows you to make a gin & tonic with soda water rather than the tonic, and the newly-released Lunar expression that uses botanicals that bloom at night. I’ve been sipping on the Lunar at home all week and I’m totally smitten. Drinking it neat, it tastes almost like an herbal-spiced fruit tea. In a cocktail, it never gets lost; I could still make out the spice notes in a Corpse Reviver #2 last night.
Despite having been to Scotland almost a dozen times, I’ve only been to Edinburgh once—and only for an afternoon. Why? Because there aren’t any major whisky distilleries in Edinburgh! But there is one fantastic gin distillery, aptly named Edinburgh Gin. While it was contract-distilled out of England for its first few years of existence, today its made right in the center of the city with a beautiful visitor’s center, to boot. I’ve never been inside, but I’m a fan of the gin and it’s on my list of distilleries to visit once travel resumes and I can get back over to the UK.
If you’re looking for a wacky new flavor of gin that completely reinvents the wheel, then look outside both England and Scotland, as even the most innovative of new recipes never strays far from the classical line. The same holds true for Edinburgh, with its three core flavors that offer diversity, but are traditionally-tailored for the London dry palate. The standard edition is fruitier on the nose that most classic gins, and perhaps a bit rounder on the palate, but the lemon peel and savory spice flavors on the palate keep it grounded in familiar territory, and the gin finishes clean and fresh.
The Seaside gin is the lightest and breeziest of the three, distilled with actual seaweed, and balances savory with sweet to finish dry and neat on the palate. I know Tristan Stephenson, who wrote the fantastic book Gin Palace (from which gleaned some of the details for this post), likes this one with tonic water, lemon, and pinch of sea salt. He’s also a fan of the Cannonball gin, Edinburgh’s navy strength heavy-hitter that bursts forward with huge notes of black peppercorn at 57% ABV.
If you only drank gin from the UK for the rest of your life, you’d do pretty well. Concentrate that focus purely to Scotland and you’re still pretty high on the horse. While my wife doesn’t concur, I could move to Scotland tomorrow and never look back. Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast, a gin martini for lunch with tatties and neeps, a pint of Tennants after work, and a glass of Scotch whisky in the evening before bed.
That’s good living.
-David Driscoll