Alcademics

Tag: gin

  • Picking Juniper Berries in Tuscany: A Photo Album

    In May I visited Italy to learn more about the botanicals used in Bombay Sapphire. From Tuscany they get both the juniper berries and orris used in the gin. 

    Hills Tuscany Juniper Harvest with Bombay Sapphire_tn

    In the rolling hills of Tuscany at high elevations where there are few trees and many wildflowers are found the juniper bushes. 

    Bush Tuscany Juniper Harvest with Bombay Sapphire_tn

    They're kind of ugly, sprawling little bushes.

    Bush closerup 4 Tuscany Juniper Harvest with Bombay Sapphire_tn

    They're full of clusters of berries- more than I'd expect. We were there during the off season, so not many are the blue color of ripe berries. 

    Tuscany Juniper Picking with Bombay Sapphire harvesters2_tn

    Juniper is harvested by hand, using wide round baskets and short sticks. 

    Tuscany Juniper Picking with Bombay Sapphire wacking bush_tn

    They stick the baskets beneath a branch and whack it with the stick so that the blue, ripe berries fall off but the green, unripe ones do not. 

    Inspecting Tuscany Juniper Picking with Bombay Sapphire_tn

    Some of the needles stick to the berries. Any green ones that get in are sorted out later. 

    Tuscany Juniper Picking with Bombay Sapphire berries in basket_tn

    I tried it, but wasn't very good at it. 

    Camper pose Tuscany Juniper Picking with Bombay Sapphire_tn

    But then again, there weren't actually any ripe berries to harvest at this time of year. 

  • Gin Definitions

    A few months back I attended a seminar hosted by Plymouth and Beefeater gins. This was held on the same day the new EU definition of London gin became law.

    The law sets down three categories of gin by production method- not by flavor. They are:

    Gin- Can be basically vodka with flavors added at bottling time.

    Distilled Gin – Flavors are distilled with the neutral spirit, then additional flavors may be added after distillation.

    London Gin – Flavors (must be natural, not artificial) are distilled with the neutral spirit, then nothing may be added after distillation except more neutral spirit and water and a tiny amount of sweetener. You will notice that it does not need to be distilled in London.

    The full definitions are here. 

    I was confused about one point after the seminar so I thought I'd clear it up here. Gins like Hendrick's and Martin Miller's are not London gins because they add flavors after distillation (so they are distilled gins). Gins like Bombay Sapphire that are made in Carterhead stills (and meeting all the other requirements) are London gins, though they are made a little differently than gins like Beefeater and Plymouth.

    In the Carterhead still, botanicals can be placed in the vapor stream of the still instead of (or in addition to) putting them in the pot and infusing them in the neutral spirit. This adds a lighter touch of the botanicals to the gin. Initially I thought this disqualified gins distilled in this method from being labeled London gins. (I was thinking that if the botanicals were not in the pot, it was considered post-distillation.) But that's not true. I guess if it's all contained within the still set-up it's not considered post-distillation.

    In the end, there are good and interesting gins in each category, and the categories don't account for flavor. Increasingly people are referring to gins as traditional vs. "new west" in style; boldly juniper-forward in flavor versus lighter in style with non-traditional flavorings and usually less dominated by juniper. So perhaps a gin officially labeled as a London gin can also be "new west" in flavor.