"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

Gin Trends in 2015

It has been a busy year in the world of Gin for those of you that haven’t had time to accustom yourself with it here is a list of just some of the many things that have been happening.

New Distilleries

First thing is you can’t help but notice the number of new distilleries popping up. This trend isn’t only happening in London but all around the world from The US to Australia to South Africa, Scotland, Spain, Belgium and just about every other developed country. Craft spirits is a real and growing trend and most of these new distilleries are producing a Gin. With the Gin sales steadily growing in most countries and booming in some like the UK where there has been a 25% growth in sales value since 2012.

How to taste Gin and build up a strong flavour memory

You have just purchased a new bottle of Gin and you are excited to get stuck in and have a few G&Ts, and rightly so. However before you dive on in I would suggest that you get to understand this Gin and where it fits compared with other Gins. This knowledge base will make the whole Gin drinking experience so much more enjoyable. First of in order to get a clear picture of the Gins taste you need to have a frame of reference I suggest picking 3-4 other Gins and trying your new Gin back to back with these other gins.

Trust me this is half the fun of Craft Gin and what better way to spend an evening/afternoon.

One of the best things about Gin is that once its opened you can simply put it back into the cupboard ready for next time. This makes it ideal for regular taste and compare sessions allowing you to build up a strong flavour memory/patchwork to reference and allowing you to better understand the gin category as a whole

Gin can be a great Winter Warmer

When you think of Gin you most probably think summer and tonic. The humble G&T first created to keep British soldiers Malaria free is a fantastic drink and one that almost all Gin drinkers consume on a regular basis but in its traditional format ie plenty of ice and tonic tends to be a bit cold for those chilly winter evenings.

One of the best things about Gin for me is its versatility as a drink. If you’re anything like me there is a different drink and a different way of drinking it that covers just about every mood/situation/weather scenario. Now these differing scenarios could be filled with a different spirit/beer/wine/cider or whatever you normally drink. On the other hand this post will hopefully give you some ideas on how to make simple changes to adapt your Gin collection to suit just about any scenario. Yes that’s right I drink a lot of Gin in Winter!

Winter is stereotypically the season for strong dark spirits heavy dark ales or deep mahogany coloured red wines. There are plenty of great winter Gin drinks that I enjoy that don’t require a lengthy internet search for obscure boutique ingredients. Here are some of my favourites.

A Botanical Adventure

There is an amazing diversity of flavours in Gin these days, the booming craft market has seen that anything from earth worms to rare forest fungi are being used to flavour Gin. This leads to a sometimes confusingly wide variety of flavours available to the modern distiller and Gin drinkers. The trend currently gaining popularity is attempting to categorise these Gins into a limited number of niches that more accurately align with your taste buds than the terms London dry or contemporary. 

Buddha's Hand Fruit

These categories are often characterised by certain botanicals so lets give you a bit of a rundown on these categories and some of the Gins that fit into them. You will have to note that the categories are in no way definitive as different taste buds experience different flavours more strongly and some Gins will balance on a knife edge between 2 categories. However hopefully my experiences will be useful to help you figure out where your taste preferences lie and help select your next bottle of Gin.

The Juniper Dilemma

Should Juniper be the dominant flavour or one of many flavour components.

Juniper a coniferous plant in the genus Juniperus has a fleshy fruit like female seed cone which when distilled gives Gin its distinct Pine flavours, or so Wiki tells me.

Current Market

When one thinks of the flavour of Gin, Juniper is what most people believe they are tasting.

That is ofcourse not necessarily the case, what im saying is that people don’t necessarily know what the flavour of Juniper is and many popular Gins arguably don’t taste like the pine needles from your Christmas tree. People have come to associate Gin as a spirit that is generally refreshing and can be spicey, fruity, floral, earthy or Piney or in the case of a good one all of the above. So basically when you consider the current market offerings there are many often big name products that I would not consider as having juniper as the predominant flavour.

The Dilemma

So the Dilemma that is creating a bit of a stir at the moment is ofcourse how to define Gin should Juniper be the predominant flavour or just a flavour component. Should the Juniper content be legislated or is a wif of a single juniper berry in the general direction of the distillery enough.