The Gin Guy: "Terroir" Why You should discover more NZ made Gins

With World Gin day happening tomorrow and the first annual NZ Gin Distillers conference completed I thought it was a good time to reflect on Gin and in particular NZ made Gin.

New Zealand Gin

Already this year I have discovered 4 new Gin brands. Curiosity Gin from Christchurch, Riot and Rose Gins from Marlborough, Sacred Spring Gin from Takaka and Juno gin from New Plymouth. Four New Gins from four different parts of the country. So from this I think we can safely say that the Gin revolution is not something limited to our major cities it is a national phenomena or actually an international phenomena to be more specific.

London the home of Gin as we know it has always had a huge Gin drinking culture and guess what it has been showing strong growth over the last 3-4 years. Our closest neighbor Australia has a new distillery opening just about every week there are now well over 100 different Australian distilleries making Gin.

So why why are there so many new gins in Australia, London the US, Spain and even NZ? The simple answer is people love buying local and are starting to realise that Gin has such a vast scope for different flavours and that these flavours can often provide a sense of place and time.

More than any other alcoholic beverage Gin is a blank canvas for the distiller any fruit, bark, root, seed, insect, leaf that you want can be included as long as Juniper is part of the mix. This has meant that Gins are starting to taste like the regions in which they are distilled.

In the wine industry you might refer to Terroir which is French for having a sense of place. This is actually quite applicable to Craft Gins and because different botanicals grow, flower and fruit at different times of the year it is even possible to have seasonal Terroir in Gin.

New Zealand Gin market is growing rapidly for these reasons. If you want to experience a sense of dense native bush or a taste of the Canterbury plains or summer picnic in the sunny north then get out there and discover some more NZ Gins. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the variety of flavours already available and know that this is just the beginning for NZ Gin.

Some information on some of the NZ Gins currently available:

Hidden World Gin - Auckland

Karven Gin - Auckland

Vaione Gin - Auckland

Sacred Spring Gin - Takaka

Reid & Reid - Martinborough

Revenge Gin - Auckland

Curiosity Gin - Christchurch

The Source Gin - Cadrona