Last summer I received this beautiful bottle of Cotswolds Dry Gin for my birthday. I suggested my mom to bring this gin from Sluis (the Netherlands). They bought this bottle at ‘Slijterij de Vuurtoren’. A pleasant store in the centre of Sluis, worth a visit! The first time I tasted this gin was at the 'Brugse Gin Club'. This gin immediately appealed to me because of its fresh character, in which the juniper is very clearly presented. (Ofcourse there’s a lot of juniper, it’s made in England, they know how to make gin!) More about the taste will follow tomorrow! Behind this gin is a beautiful distillery. You can find a lot of information about the distillery on their website. To make the gin they started to search for a neutral grain alcohol. At Haymans in Essex they found a 96% proof alcohol that is still completely flavourless. They will add the flavours by using pure, fresh botanicals. In the 500L copper pot, they will add all the basic botanicals, including the most important of all, juniper berries! After 15 hours of maceration they add the other botanicals. The heart of the distillate, or just the very best, is the only thing they use to make their product. After distillation, they leave the distillate to rest for 5 days, so that all the flavours blend together. When resting, the distillate has an ABV of 83%. After the addition of filtered water, the gin receives an ABV of 46%. (Quick ‘how to make Gin’ lesson by Gintasticbelgium) The botanicals used in this gin are: juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, lavender from the distillery itself, bay leaf, grapefruit, lime, black pepper and cardamom. A very nice extra fact is that this gin is 'Non-Chill Filtered'. Or in other words, they will not filter the gin. According to them, the taste is lost and you lose extracts and oil during filtering. Cool fact: The non-filtered gin gives the gin a cloudy look when adding tonic. We are really talking about a top quality gin!
Cheers, Gintasticbelgium
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