This is my penultimate review of gins and this is the gin that turned me on to gins. Our absolute house favorite – Sharmila will swear by it – this is our de facto drink many a evening. Bensan – then a bartender at the Arola bar in JW Marriott, Mumbai (and now an even more famous bartender at the Shangri La in Abu Dhabi) had asked us to try this gin with a Fever Tree Indian Tonic Water. He even had taught me how to cut the cucumber the proper way and slip it between the ice before pouring Hendricks in it. (You can see it in my blog entry dated Jan 2, 2014). We have never looked back ever since. Anybody who wants to ever try out gin – our guaranteed response is – “Try Hendricks with some Fever Tree”.

Now this is a very unique gin and I also consider their process to involve some cheating. I will get to that in a second. It has a very distinct flavor of cucumber and rose petals in it. Which explains the cucumber as a garnish.

Two things had surprised me when I started the research on this gin. First, it is made in Scotland. Somehow I associate Scotland to hard scotch whiskies and not soft cucumber. The other is that Hendricks is a very young gin. It is not even as old as my elder daughter!!

The distillation is very unique – in fact it uses two different distillation processes and then mixes the output! The botanicals are all the traditional ones – juniper, angelica root, coriander, lemon, orange, orris root along with some interesting ones – caraway, chamomile, cubeb pepper, cucumber, elderflower, rose and yarrow. All that is fine. But in the end, they add Bulgarian Rose essence and Cucumber essence. And that is where I feel they cheat. The nose, palate and finish should come from the distillation process and not by adding essences later. (People can always go to flavored vodkas for that). Well, that is my point of view certainly.

The bottle shape is a throwback to the olden times when gin – specifically juniper – was vaunted as a medicine. (In general all alcohols were originally thought to be medicines. If you ask me, they still are 🙂 ). The bottle looks like a traditional medicine bottle.

This is a staple gin in every bar in US. In fact, ironically, it is not as popular in its country of origin as it is in US. It is one of the highest selling (if not THE highest selling) gins in the USA. The origins of this gin is pretty interesting. A renegade son of a pastor – way back in 1830 – that would be nearly two hundred years back – started making gins in a distillery in London.

The formula has never changed since. The ownership of the distillery has changed many times. In fact, even the location of the distillery has changed! After the second World War, the distilleries were relocated to Scotland. Which is where it still is.

This is quintessential gin. Very juniper forward. And also very few botanicals (I think only four). The distillation process itself is fairly standard with the exception that the botanicals are not macerated.

The nose is juniper forward, the palate has the juniper followed by a citrusy spicy flavor that will fill your mouth and then the finish is spicy and long. Got some fair amount of strength/heat to it due to the near 100 proofness in alcohol content.

I had thrown this bottle in the car when Sharmila and I went for the roadtrip. It did not even last half the trip 🙂

I went deep inside my liquor cabinet and fished this bottle out. For the life of me, I cannot remember where I got this bottle from. I had not heard about it before and kept reading the label on the bottle to figure out what might have piqued my interest. Nothing stood out. Perhaps, I was given this as a gift.

In any case, tried researching on this gin. There is not much material on this gin. Part of the reason is that it is a very new gin. In fact, it started making enough to ship to the south only a few months back. The distillery is based out of Fredericksburg, VA.

The distillery makes three gins – curiously named Recipe #4.2, 6.3 and 7.4

This is the 7.4 version. Made from base alcohol of corn extract (they proudly call it American Corn), this gin has Jasmine Green Tea, Ginger, Lemongrass, Italian Juniper, Coriander and others as its botanicals. The herbs are vapor infused in a standard copper still.

With Green Tea, Ginger and Lemongrass, I was expecting a very different gin. I cannot say it met those expectations. Perhaps, they need a few more years to tinker around the right amounts. They call it “Curiously Bright and Complex”. I am still curious. Did not see the bright or complex part.

On the nose, it was more citrusy. The palette was pretty flat juniper. I was hoping to get some tea, ginger and the bite of lemongrass in the nose and palette. Did not get that. The length was reasonable.

Probably good to use this in cocktails.

I will give it a second try to make sure I am not selling this gin short. But as of now, I will wait for a few more years till they have figured out a better way to get the botanicals to have a stronger say on the nose and palette.

Gin (Tanqueray Rangpur), sweet vermouth and brandy…

In most bars in US, you are guaranteed to get the iconic blue colored bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin. The one that might be less seen is the gin that predated the Sapphire – called the Bombay Dry gin. The bottles look very similar except that Bombay Dry Gin is a clear bottle (not blue).

The original batch of Bombay Dry was made around 1960 and the recipe calls for an original one from nearly 100 years before that. The botanicals are Juniper Berries, Coriander Seeds, Liquorice Root, Almonds, Lemon Peel, Cassia Bark, Orris Root and Angelica Root. The base is neutral grain spirit.

What is slightly unique about this gin is the distillation process. Around the 1960s, the more common process was to throw in the botanicals into the base alcohol and boil it and distill it altogether. This distillery uses the vapor infusion. Basically the vapors of the boiling base alcohol is made to go thru a few copper baskets that are heavily perforated and hold the botanicals. Experts claim that this gives it a more full flavor since the oils do not get destroyed.

Coming to the gin itself – it is all juniper and citrus. Specifically juniper and lemon. The nose is clearly lemony. The palate starts with the juniper but slowly cedes ground to the lemon if you hold it in your mouth for some time. The length is reasonably long.

Good gin to have neat, with tonic water or just about any cocktail that I can think of!

Gin (Beefeater), Yellow Chartreuse and orange bitters.

The Beefeater went great with this cocktail.