A quick look at... Our Miyagawa Gin from East London Liquor Company

David T Smith heads to the east of London to take a peek at East London Liquor Company's citrus-fuelled gin.

Housed in an old glue factory (thankfully they make something much tastier now), East London Liquor Company is one of the few distilleries in London that makes more than one class of spirits; they are currently ageing their rye whisky, but - perhaps more important for our purposes - they make fantastic gin.

The distillery opened in 2014 and now boasts a bar, restaurant, bottle shop and, of course, a distillery. For their edition of That Boutique-y Gin Company, founder Alex Wolpert and Gin Distiller Tom Hills decided to embrace a refreshing flavour: citrus. Luckily for the chaps, there is a local citrus trader who could help take the gin beyond oranges and lemons (regardless of what the bells of St. Clements might think).

Instead of more typical citrus, they sourced fresh lime and fresh miyagawa for their botanical mix. The miyagawa is a rather mysterious fruit: on the outside, it’s green like a lime, but when you cut it open, it’s orange and looks like a satsuma. This colour-changing fruit originates from Asia, but is commonly grown in Sicily. It tastes like a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine.

The citrus is accompanied by Douglas Fir - no, not the silent film actor, but the coniferous tree - that adds a crisp, green, resinous flavour that really complements the juniper, an essential part of any gin. The resulting spirit is sparklingly bright with an array of citrus and luxurious creamy notes. It works exceptionally well in a Gin & Tonic float with lemon sorbet.

The label shows Alex and Tom in the distillery sipping on Martinis, Tom has olives, Alex has a citrus twist - conflict that perhaps will never be resolved - so let's leave them to it. In the background is the beautiful set of stills, one for whisky, one for gin. The centrepiece is a citrus medley tree that has nonchalantly sprung forth between the two chaps - but they seem to be enjoying their respective drinks too much to notice!

Tasting notes
Nose: A fruit basket of citrus - bold and zesty.
Taste: Marmalade with a little creamy butteriness, reminiscent of a morning slice of toast.
Finish: Mellow with a biscuity element and long-lasting, citrus zing.

DTS

Off-trade/on-trade enquiries should be directed to our UK distributor, Maverick Drinks.

A quick look at… Our Swedish Rose Gin from Hernö

Get the Swedish Spirit - New TBGC from Hernö - Europe’s Most Awarded Gin

Hernö gin is made in the tiny hamlet of Dala; not many settlements can boast just four houses and a world-renowned gin distillery! Dala is just north of the island town of Malmö in central Sweden.

Hernö Gin was started by ginsmith, Jon Hillgren, in 2011 and has since won a plethora of awards: from a hoard of gold medals to the IWSC’s World Best Gin & Tonic, World’s Best Contemporary Gin, and, last year, World’s Best Gin Producer.

One of the award winners was Hernö Juniper Cask, a unique and quirky gin that's aged in casks made not from oak, but from juniper wood. The wood (juniperus occidentalis) has to be specially imported from the USA and is then turned into Ankare barrels by a local cooper. The wood adds indulgent, resinous wood notes to the gin, as well as turning it a light straw-gold in colour.

Batch 1 of That Boutique-y Gin Company’s Hernö Gin takes inspiration from their Juniper Cask Gin by first aging some neutral spirit - the base spirit used for their gin - in a juniper cask. The botanical mix of Batch 1 is similar to that of Hernö Swedish Excellence Gin, but the meadowsweet and lingonberries have been dialed down and a new floral flourish added to the mix with the use of dried rose petals. The rose petals have a pinkish-purple hue and are added straight to the pot still just before it is fired up - who says you can't distill rose, ey?

Once the distillation run is complete, a little of the juniper cask neutral spirit is blended in, adding texture and a cosy finish of woody pine.

The gin label shows friends and colleagues, Jon Hillgren and David T Smith, in a heated exchange over the best use for some freshly harvested juniper wood: Jon wants it to feed the fire under the still, whilst DTS is interested in making another barrel. The onlooker in the background is impartial in the debate, happy to sip on a garishly-coloured cocktail and remain, as ever, Pontius Partridge.

Tasting notes
Nose: A bouquet of rose and pine blossom honey bursts forth from the glass.
Taste: A luxurious, silky-smooth texture. Turkish delight, juniper jell, fresh berries and cream.
Finish: Freshly cracked black pepper.

DTS

Off-trade/on-trade enquiries should be directed to our UK distributor, Maverick Drinks.

Introducing That Boutique-y Gin Company...

That Boutique-y Gin Company is here to bring you a whole host of new small batch gins from some of the world’s most exciting brands and distillers! Allow us to explain a little about our ethos and what you have to look forward to...

Well – it’s been some time coming, but we’re finally here. That Boutique-y Gin Company – sister company to the hugely successful That Boutique-y Whisky Company has finally launched, and boy, do we have some big shoes to step into.

It’s fair to say that this project has been on our minds for a fair while, and we wanted to take the time to explain the company’s ethos, and a bit more about the bottlings you’re going to see coming over the following months and years.

With the recent ‘gin boom’ showing absolutely no signs of abatement, the number of entrants into the market has been absolutely vast. Snap back 5 years to 2012, and there were probably no more than a few dozen gins available in most markets. Today in our home market (the UK) alone, there are over 1,200.

It's fair to say, however, that (with a few notable exceptions) most distilleries are putting out just one or two expressions of their gin, and that whilst they may have thousands or even millions of loyal fans and customers – the ability to put time, effort, and cash into the development, marketing, and distribution of new and exciting lines is severely restricted for all but the best-funded or most hyperactive of distilleries.

We got talking to several of our favourite distillers, and time after time heard the same story. The story about the super-exciting liquids that were either fully or partially developed, but hadn’t been released due to a lack of time to bring them to market, a lack of resources to develop different packaging, or concern about dilution of brand-message in an already-saturated market. The fact that these liquids were languishing in a black-hole of inability to get into our mouths made us sad as consumers – and it’s something that we wanted to fix.

And that’s exactly what we set out to do. We’re working with some of the world’s most exciting brands (both well-established, and new entrants) to both bring to market extant ideas, and to create new liquids from scratch. Some of the gins will be fascinating tweaks to the distillery’s normal recipe (maybe using a different citrus blend, or re-balancing and dialling up the botanical intensity to work better in more assertive cocktails), many will be taken directly from the extensive list of ‘things to try’ written on the notepad or blackboard of each and every distiller that’s ever lived, and some will be completely balls-out-of-the-bath experiments that we hope will resonate with our customers in the same way as they did with us.

For each of our limited-edition individually numbered batches of gin, there’ll be a blog post from our very own David T Smith in conjunction with the distiller, explaining the thinking behind each release, and sharing some of the fascinating story behind its production.

As with every ostensibly simple idea, the reality of getting to this stage has of course been a mammoth amount of effort from all involved, and we’d like to take the time to thank all of the distillers that had faith in the idea, and have helped us get to launch. Rest assured there are many, many more super-exciting gins already in the pipeline, you lucky, lucky lot.

Finally, if you’re a distiller reading this and wondering if you should get in touch – the answer is yes. Yes you should. Details are here:

Email: hi@thatboutiqueygincompany.com

Facebook /BoutiqueyGin

Twitter @BoutiqueyGin