A Rouge Martini is a rather simple cocktail made from gin and Chambord liqueur. I used the Death’s Door Gin today. Like I was surmising yesterday, the simplicity of the gin made it pretty good for a cocktail. The raspberry was not drowned by the junipers or other botanicals. I might increase the gin to liqueur ratio next time (I used 2:1 this time) to let the raspberries be a little more understated. Overall though, for a wet and cold evening, getting ready for the Super Bowl, it was a great drink.

I am sure the experts must be wondering how does the blackberry fit into the scheme of the gin or Chambord. Well, it does not. Ideally, the right garnish would be a raspberry (or a string of raspberries with blackberries). I could swear I had some raspberries in the kitchen. Evidently not. Ergo, just blackberries 🙂 Not sure it did anything to enhance or take away from the nose of the drink but it had a good visual effect, all the same!

For such a dramatic name, the distiller’s website is fairly frank about this gin being very simple. In fact, other than the mandatory junipers, the only two other botanicals are coriander and fennel seeds. The distillers claim that you can taste all the botanicals – well that is because there are only 3 of them.

The base alcohol is more interesting though – it is made from winter wheat, corn and barley!

The distillery was established in 2006 in Washington Island in way up north Wisconsin.

For a simple gin, it is surprisingly good. While I will not claim to be an absolutely great gin but it is mild and soft enough to make it a go-to gin especially with tonic water. I tried it two days in succession and I liked it on second day more than first day. And because of that softness and not being too forward in anything, I suspect it will make a good gin for cocktails.

The juniper is predominant in the nose and I was surprised by the citrusy palate (suspect the corianders). The finish was fairly uneventful other than the remnants of the juniper.

People who have read the Ian Fleming’s 1953 classic “Casino Royale” or have seen the 2006 Bond movie would recognize this double agent’s name (Vesper Lynd) for whom 007 was going to give up his career; however she died… but the recipe was made famous in the movie… “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel”. Translated to Rajib’s bar who is still experimenting with the Canadian Ungava gin, that would be gin, vodka and Lillet Blanc in those proportions…

This is from last night. It was a rainy, dreary night. Went with a classical Martini made with the Ungava gin. Extra dry and dirty. I was not too sure if the ice might take the edge off the gin – so made it stiffer than normal.

Ungava gin, Grand Marnier and freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice.
Very citrusy drink – in the nose, palette and finish. The junipers were completely overwhelmed.
Not very stiff but eas not exactly light either…

In case you are wondering, this is NOT my second cocktail of the evening. The Lychee Love is something I had made in the middle of the week and forgot to post. This is the cocktail I made for this evening – Melon Gin. It primarily accentuates ginger and melon together with gin. It has Ungava gin, muddle ginger bits, Midori melon liqueur and ginger ale.

Refreshing but a little on the stiffer side…

I read this up in an website dedicated to cocktails. Took their advise and mixed lychee with the herbs of northern Quebec. The result was rather nice. Very soft on the palette, it was very smooth. Great as an evening drink.

Ungava gin, Soho Lychee liqueur, lemon juice and simple syrup.

I had seen this gin first at the duty free shop in Aruba airport. It said it was from Canada. I was not sure how a Canadian gin would be like – so never picked it up. Came home and studied it up. And boy, did I regret it! Turns out this is a very unique gin. Made from very unique botanicals and herbs from north of Canada (North of Canada? Isn’t the whole country in the north?), it had great reviews and some fantastic feedback.

I looked for the usual places in Atlanta for this, unsuccessfully. Found one store in DC that could send a bottle to me but the delivery would cost me twice the price of the bottle. Filed that away under the “When I am in DC next, need to pick up a bottle” section of my mind.

The other day, I swung by a liquor store in Cumming after finishing my hospice time. I think I was there to pick up some wine to gift at a party that evening. As is my wont, I strolled over the gin section to see if there was anything interesting. I expected nothing. Guess what? There was a bottle of Ungava!

I think I forgot to buy the wine in the excitement but I certainly got a bottle of Ungava.

Opened it up last night.

First, the gin is made in northern part of Quebec. In that frigid environment, on the banks of the Ungava bay you get some unique botanicals. Six of theme are used in Ungava – Wild Rose Hips, Crowberry, Labrador Tea, Cloudberry, Arctic Blend and of course the mandatory Juniper is Nordic Juniper. Frankly, other than the Rose Hips (which is the fruit in a rose plant), I do not think I had ever heard of the rest.

Now the process is somewhat unique. The base alcohol is derived from local corn. Then the six botanicals are used in the distillation process like every other gin. The twist is that these botanicals are again used to do an infusion (like you get infused vodkas, for example). Among other things, this infusion gives it the unique yellow color.

The nose is very juniper-y and if you give it a few more seconds, you start getting the citrus in the drink. The palate is very complex. To be sure, not knowing most of the herbs, I could not identify much other than there was the juniper and the citrus. There was a hint of floral taste too.

The finish was not as prolonged as I expect from gins and was again a very juniper-y finish.

Gin, Dry Vermouth, Anisette and Orange Juice.