Innehållsförteckning för Sep/Oct 2022 från Gin Magazine

I’m going to start this column on a slightly soppy, personal note (don’t roll your eyes, I know you love a bit of soul-bearing). I’m lucky enough to have an amazing fiancé. In some ways our relationship has been what you might call unconventional, and it has not been without its stresses and strains, but at the end of the day – and this is each and every day – I am so thankful that I have another person with whom to share my life. He has stuck around when a lot of others would have bolted, has made the worst days bearable and the best days truly magical, and I can only hope that he feels I have enriched his life in the way he has enriched mine. Having…

Melissa and Lee Katrincic are the co-founders of North Carolina’s Durham Distillery. Founded in 2015, gin has always been its focus. The distillery produces Conniption American Dry Gin, in addition to a Navy Strength Gin, a barrel-aged gin and several canned cocktails including a gin and tonic. But most recently Melissa and Lee made headlines by founding the US Gin Association to help gin producers band together to advance the category stateside. We sat down with Melissa Katrincic to learn a bit about the association and their plans for American gin. Aaron Knoll (AK): Firstly, what is the US Gin Association and why create a new association solely for US distillers? Melissa Katrincic (MK): We founded the US Gin Association in 2021 with the intention of finding community for US…

Yoknapatawpha County (pronounced just like it’s spelled) is the setting for almost all the books by the great author William Faulkner (no relation). Substituting the name Jefferson for the county seat of Oxford, Mississippi, and similar names for almost-recognisable places, the novelist names one real place – Taylor, Mississippi – in his otherwise In Go Down, Moses, Lucas Beauchamp hid his moonshine still every dawn in the creek bed not far away. No doubt there were previous distillers in Taylor, but none legal. Wonderbird Spirits is the first legal distillery in Yoknapatawpha County – but unlike the county, Wonderbird is real, located fewer than 10 miles south of Faulkner’s Oxford home. The distillery’s co-founder Rob Forster felt drawn to Oxford after his father, an Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) graduate and…

What is a strowpedo? I had one at a bar recently – it’s a delicious drink with sorbet and Champagne in it and maybe gin? If not, is there a gin version? JAN, NOTTINGHAM Hey Jan! I guess you mean a Sgroppino (I had to look the spelling up!): an Italian cocktail from Venice. It roughly translates to ‘liberator of the stomach’ (thanks to Vanessa of ilgin.it) and was originally designed as a palate cleanser to be enjoyed between courses of a meal. The drink consists of vodka, lemon sorbet, and Prosecco. There is some discussion as to whether the vodka and lemon sorbet should be blended together, or whether the drink can be built in a cocktail glass or Champagne coupe. To save time (and washing up!), let’s go…

The gin market in South Africa, like that of many countries before their local gin renaissance, used to be dominated by a couple of multinational-brand imports and a couple of more affordable, domestic brands. The biggest of these is Old Buck, a gin distilled by Henry, Tayler & Ries, which is part of spirits giant Distell. The second biggest is Stretton’s, which is made in Durban by Edward Snell & Co. Both are dry gins, but have recently expanded their ranges to include fruitier flavoured gins. Things began to change on the South African gin scene in 2011 with the release of Inverroche Gins, but first, let’s look at some of the things that make the country’s market so unique. Firstly, from a regulatory point of view: the minimum ABV…

Loch Ness is renowned the world over for its elusive ‘monster,’ but the gin distillery developed close to its shores by Daniel Campbell and Adam Dwyer is probably the smallest in Scotland. Measuring just 24 square metres, the Great Glen distillery is situated in a former shop once run by Campbell’s late mother in the busy tourist village of Drumnadrochit, Inverness-shire. Campbell has 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry to his credit, completing a course in hospitality management at the renowned César Ritz Colleges in Switzerland before going on to work in five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants. He subsequently launched a successful tea and coffee business based in Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Adam Dwyer spent 20 years as a chef in numerous Michelin-starred and high-end establishments around the UK, for…

“It’s just another way of processing starch, really,” Jamie Baxter says. He’s telling me about the breakfast cereal company he owned before he “accidentally” fell into the world of spirits and launched his successful distilling consultancy. After selling his company to European cereals giant Morning Foods in around 2006, he was approached by William Chase, founder of English potato crisp brand Tyrells, who wanted a way to add value to the cereal crops he was growing in rotation with his spuds. “He took me on [and] we were going to build Tyrells muesli factory,” Baxter explains. “Just before I joined the company I had booked to go on holiday, so five or six weeks after starting I went off on two weeks of holiday. When I came back, I found…

Charlie Hendon, Burleighs Gin’s heavy metal-loving head distiller, enjoys nothing more than packing up her car and heading down to Cornwall for a summer music festival. A self-confessed sun lover, Charlie’s idea of heaven is to soak up the rays on a Greek island. What have been some of the most memorable and interesting countries and places that your work has taken you? Burleighs is a small craft distillery in the heart of Leicestershire, so we do several events within the county such as Burleighs Picnic in the Gardens and the Great Burleighs Express, but being head distiller, I do have to spend the majority of my time at the distillery. Whilst many of our gins have Leicestershire roots, our pink edition takes inspiration from Japan, as it uses Japanese…

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It often feels like gin competition results are announced every day, with winners proudly splashing their success across their social media platforms. With so many awards, one might ask, are there too many? Does everyone walk away with a medal? Would it make you choose one gin over another? Not all competitions are created equal. At worst, some are merely a money-making scheme for the organisers; at their best, they can reveal some of the best spirits around, scored by experienced judges. I have to admit that I have some skin in the game. I’ve been judging competitions since 2017 and now judge for the World Gin Awards, Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, and American Distilling Institute Spirits Competition. The San Francisco World Spirits Awards and International Wine and Spirits Competition…

Taster biographies Bethany Whymark After studying English literature at university, Bethany spent five years working as a journalist for regional newspaper groups in the east of England before moving into the spirits industry. She now edits Gin Magazine, trade website TheDrinksReport.com and Rum Magazine. David T. Smith David T. Smith is an independent spirits writer and consultant who specialises in gin. He is a chair judge for a number of spirits competitions and has written widely on the subject, incuding The Craft of Gin, Forgotten Spirits and Long Lost Liqueurs and Gin Tonica. He was winner of the 2016 Gin Communicator of the Year award. THE PROCESS • All samples are blind tasted, with ABV and style the only information disclosed.• Samples are tasted individually over a two-week period.• Tasters…