Mister Cocktail

After a long weekend, this day feels like a Sunday to me, that’s why I probably  postponed the G&T Sunday posting to today. It’s been a great weekend and I celebrated being married to the Mrs for 1 year exactly last Saturday and treated our guests to a nice amount of G&T’s, which were happily accepted. The next day we enjoyed a friends’ birthday in the park in Amsterdam where we also filled the booze table with 2 nice transparent blue bottles of gin accompanied with some quality tonic. Again, people were happy with this. The gin-craze is slowly starting in Holland, a good 250 years after it ended in the UK (which was 1757 in case you’d like to know).

For this G&T review I choose The Botanist, which had been looking at me for some time from the spirit cabinet. Of course this wasn’t the first time for me to mix it at all, but sitting down and really describing what happens in several mixes is a different ballgame from enjoying one in the sun while reading.

This gin is created by the Bruichladdich Distillery which is located on the Isle of Islay, in the North-West of Scotland. This area is famous for it’s peaty whiskies and this distillery has always been in the centre of innovation since it’s opening in 1881. The still which produces The Botanist is a Lomond Still, the very last of its kind and affectionately called Ugly Betty. This is a steam powered, low-pressure still which takes 17 hours to complete the distillation cycle. And this gin requires two of them: 1 for the ‘standard’ gin botanicals and 1 to infuse the 22 local botanicals in the gin.

The result in taste is a complex, yet strangely accessible gin. The nose contains a lot of sweetness and freshness from the flowers, fruit, herbs and spices: there’s chamomile and elderflower, orange and mint. The juniper in this gin is quite strong, but never overpowering.  In the mouth there’s all these herbs that work together and the huge range of wild flowers they are using work their magic here. Getting the right ingredients at exactly the right time is a proof of intimate knowledge of local vegetation by the distiller. The one that stays there in the aftertaste in the mint (peppermint and water mint leaves). My taste buds are not that refined, so naming all ingredients is too far fetched for me, but you can find the complete list of botanicals on this great gin-blog (but please keep reading mine as well).

Schweppes Tonic: The Botanist benefits quite well from the strong bitter and sweet notes in Schweppes although it struggles to keep itself upright next to this tonic at some moments. The floral notes still shine through and the complexity of the gin still shows.
7.5/10

Fever Tree: These 2 meet each other in a soft and sweet middle taste, which works towards a slightly bitter aftertaste with long floral notes and a lovely taste of mint. I used a slice of lemon to balance the drink more.
8.5/10

Fentiman’s: The Botanist is quite low in citrus taste and benefits really well from the stronger citric notes in Fentiman’s Tonic. This tonic water contains kaffir lime and lemon and balances this gin in a great way. The sweet and floral notes in the gin get all the room they need to come through and are nicely balanced by the quinine.
9.5/10

Conclusion: The tonic water that compliments The Botanist best is Fentiman’s Tonic: in gins with higher levels of citrus notes (could be from lemon, coriander, orange etc) this tonic water tends to overpower, but here they go together just fine!

How to: I mixed 50 mls of The Botanist Gin with 100 ml tonic water in a longdrink filled with icecubes. For garnishing I used a lemonwedge. I tried it with lime, but found this too strong for my taste. I also tried orange and orangepeel and these proved to be quite pleasant as well, taking the drink to a sweeter side. If you prefer an ever more herbal taste, I tried it with a sprig of thyme which worked very nice as well.

The Sorrento area in southern Italy is famous for it’s Feminello St Teresa lemons, better known as Sorrento Lemons. Enormous, sweet lemons that are specific to that region. The limoncello is created by macerating the peels in alcohol for 4 days. After this it is blended with sugar syrup and water. A lot of my friends make it at home, it’s that easy! Although buying neutral alcohol is not that easy in some countries, like mine.

I once managed to buy 5 litres at a NATO-base in Brunssum in the deep south of Holland after giving a seminar for the bored-to-death soldiers who drenched their evenings in alcohol. Anyway, I created my own limoncello, but after tasting Villa Massa, I realised getting the right ingredients is a bit more difficult here, then it is in Italy!

Villa Massa is an old brand of Limoncello, based on an over-a-century old family recipe dating back to 1890. Of the Famiglia Massa that is. It is created in their family farm (which is called Villa in Italian), located in Piano di Sorrento, close to Naples and in the very heart of the limoncello-area. Because it is made from only Sorrento lemons and also created and bottled in this area, it is one of the very few Limoncello’s that have the P.G.I. mark, a proof of authenticity that a product receives when the ingredients are only from a certain area.

The bottle: The bottle is made of frosted, slightly green glass with a label that displays the entrance of the family mansion. Visually not the most exciting appearance, but it accentuates the tradional area where it originates from.
85/100

The nose: The scent of fresh lemons with a somewhat bitter nose from the zest. This contains some oils that are more bitter, but it all balances out really nice.
90/100

The contents: Lovely and gentle sweet taste, slightly tangerine, typical for the Sorrento lemons. Pretty sweet and enjoyed straight from the freezer, giving it a smooth, silky-like texture. There’s a slight hint of bitterness in it, coming from the essential oils in the lemonzest.
90/100

The mixability: Limoncello is traditionally drunk after dinner, straight from the freezer. But it is also perfect for mixing with soft drinks, like Tonic or in cocktails. See below for a recipe.

Overall: This is a very nice liqueur, well belanced and very accessible. Enjoyed in many ways and  always refreshing.
90/100

How to: A cocktail is best enjoyed in good company, so I will give you a recipe for a nice jug of Villa Masso Mojito, enough for you and your 5 best friends!

Cut 3 nice lemons in quarters and squeeze these into the jug. You can drop them in after this, they make a great decoration with their bright yellow peels. Pour in 36 cl Villa Massa Limoncello – you can pick up small bottles of VM that measure 35 cls, also perfect. Place 10 large sprigs of mint (about 60 leaves) between your hands and bruise them slightly by ‘clapping’ them: this releases the flavour, but keeps the bitter oils inside the leaf! No need to get the leafs off of the stem, just leave ‘em on.
Fill the jug with icecubes and some sodawater and stir gently, combining all flavours. Do you prefer a sweeter taste, use lemonade instead of sodawater.

What do you know about Drambuie? Most people already got the country wrong, thinking it’s French and pronounce it that way. How wrong. It’s Scottish and therefor pronounced as Drambuie. The whiskies used for Drambuie come from the Speyside, perhaps the most famous part of Scotland for producing whiskies, but certainly the most productive. This areas delivers somewhat sweeter whiskies and are perfect to combine with herbs and spices. Which is why Drambuie tastes so nice.

Quite recently, the line of this over a century old family-owned company has been extended with the Drambuie 15 Years Old.  The name kind of reveals what’s inside the spirit, but if you haven’t guessed by now: it’s Speyside Whisky with a minimum aging of 15 years. The master blender has accumulated a fair amount of great whiskies and could choose from them to blend together with the famous elixir of Drambuie. With a secret formula I might add, but with a little browsing one can get to anise, saffron and cinnamon, although nowhere confirmed.

The bottle: I know good things come in small packages, but in this case it literally came in small packaging. The good people of Drambuie sent me a 5 cl sample bottle and although I can say it looks nice on the picture, I only can describe a bottle when I’ve held it in my hand.
…./100

The nose: In the nose there’s a loverly maltiness, that is accompanied by honey and spicy notes, together with hints of citrus, like orange and lemon. The spirit is bottled at 43 % ABV (or 86 proof) and that’s noticeable here, really emphasizing the influence of the aged whiskies.
91/100

The contents: A very warm taste and a silky mouth feel, despite the high ABV. The citrus notes come through really nice and it’s remarkable how this spirit goes from whisky to liqueur and back several times in one sip: sweet notes, malt, orange, wood, butterscotch, a little salty even at times.
93/100

The mixability: This one is enjoyed best neat (I used a Glencairn Glass) or over ice.

Overall: A very rich spirit that has all the maturity of a Speyside whisky and the characteristics of a great liqueur. It rivals other liqueurs like Bénedictine B&B and Grand Marnier 100 and will be very nice additition to your spirits collection. But then of the one that you want to drink regularly!
92/100

I must admit that this gin is a somewhat difficult to find spirit, but since I left almost my entire stock of gins in G&T’s Really Really Nice Place last week, I had no choice but to dig in on my more exclusive stock. No worries though, as I wanted to treat myself to something special anyways, after the successful tour I did with Hidetsugu Ueno last week. We visited Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London for several masterclasses and we visited a fair amount of bars.

Back to the topic now, since it’s still Sunday while I’m writing this and  it’s best to finish before Monday kicks in.
I already reviewed the ‘normal’ Citadelle Gin here in the mix with Schweppes, and if you’d like to learn a bit about the story of the brand, please follow the link or go to their site.

Having a gin with such a colour in your glass is something special in itself: pale gold reveals the influence of barrel-aging and I can imagine that a long time ago most gins carried this colour as a result of transportation and storage. The nose of this gin is more smooth and sweet than that of the regular Citadelle, although that one has already some great sweet notes in its taste: cinnamon, orange and liquorice. In the taste, the wonderful high and citric notes from coriander, juniper and lemon are even more balanced after the maturation: more vanilla and peppery notes have been added and all work great together.

Schweppes: I decided to keep this brand in the testing, as it is the one that is readily available all over the world, as opposed to the other brands of Tonic Water. And even though it doesn’t come out on top most of the times, it is good for reference.
The softness of the gin somehow rules out the strong bitterness that normally dominates a G&T with Schweppes. The main flavour I’m getting is orange, which is actually quick pleasing. Long citric notes, along with the spices and peppery aftertaste still come through, making this a nice drink.
8.5/10

Fever Tree: Again, I get that feeling of excitement when I’m mixing with FT. The taste is soft and lingers to the sweet side, although some bitter notes remain in the aftertaste. The taste is fruity and floral, yet very mature and the extra depth that has been given to the gin still shines through in the mix with this tonic.
9.5/10

Fentiman’s: I always enjoy Fentiman’s as their bubble is very powerful, sending the aroma of the mix into the air. I needed to adjust the gin:tonic -ratio a bot to find the right balance – a little more gin is required in this mix versus the FT & Schhh. But the mix couldn’t really please me this time: the taste of Fentiman’s is a bit overpowering, especially the strong presence of lime. Should you be a great fan of strong lime in your G&T than you might like this better, but another gin with it is probably the best option.
8.0/10

Thomas Henry Elderflower Tonic: I received a sample of this a week or so ago and I figured this is a good occasion to test it, since there’s so many nice floral notes in the Citadelle Réserve. It’s a fun addition to the drink, but it’s one that you would really have to want. The quality of the tonic water is good and the flavour of elderflower is not artificial
8.0/10

Conclusion: The Citadelle Réserve 2011 is a great gin to mix with tonic, although it’s also great to sip neat, or to create a Dry martini with. It requires a soft Tonic Water to accompany it and Fever Tree is the obvious choice. Need I say more? Don’t think so!

The G’Vine people not only thought about the botanicals with which they wanted to create their gin, bus also about the base-spirit. Most gins are based on a neutral grain spirit, but G’Vine opted for a wine-alcohol which delivers a more smooth and soft taste to start off with. Another great addition they made to this gin is a special distillate of macerated grape flowers, that only flourish for a few days in June.

Next to these 2 distillates, another distillate is made with 9 botanicals. Some are traditional to gin, like Juniper (duh), Coriander, Cassia, Liquorice and Cardamom. But 4 others create an even more exotic flavour: Ginger Root, Cubeb Berries for some peppery notes, lime and nutmeg. The result is a wonderful combination of a soft and floral base with a very well balanced range of botanicals, great to sip neat, even better to mix! After that, all three distillates are blended together and distilled yet another time to perfection.

This week I decided to replace Schweppes with another Tonic water, so I’m going to look for a new addition (anyone got a good suggestion for me?). This week the free slot is for Thomas Henry Tonic from Germany.

Fever Tree: the nose of this combination is very soft, the flavours are kept sort of a secret until the first sip. A gentle bitterness at first – quinine of course, with the cardamom- combining very well with the nice citric notes from lime and coriander. The sweet notes from the nutmeg, cassia and liquorice form the middle part with the spicy notes appearing at the end.
9.5/10

Fentiman’s: the nose in this mix is much stronger with more perfume and citrus coming through. The strong limetones in Fentimans don’t overpower the citric notes in G’Vine, but compliment them. The stronger bitterness in the tonic also works great with the sweeter notes. The aftertaste is long and lingering, a pleasant surprise almost resembling a nice champagne.
9.5/10

Thomas Henry: A pleasantly sweet nose in this mix with the soft bubble of the tonic. The taste doesn’t start with bitter, but with the more sweet and floral notes. Soon after there’s the bitter notes of the quinine which somehow very much accentuates the cardamom and cubeb berries. The bitter notes stay all the way through the aftertaste
8.5/10

Conclusion: This is just a great gin, that is very versatile in mixing drinks. I liked all tonic waters very much with G’Vine, and, again, it comes down to personal taste which direction you want to take your G’Vine & Tonic. The mix with Fever Tree is very soft, where the mix with Fentiman’s is much more fresh. Thomas Henry makes a great mix as well, but the combination is not as good as with the other 2 tonic waters.