Wine | Time for a spirited debate on (gin) dates

World Gin Day took place on June?9th – in our part of the world a curious date to celebrate one of the summeriest of spirits.

The day was as cold and wet as a sweet martini, but nothing a cheeky little negroni couldn’t fix. Best mix is Blue Imperial gin, Antica Formula, Campari (of course): all over ice in an old-fashioned glass garnished with orange peel. I don’t mind Dolin Vermouth Rosso either, and lemon peel may be used to sharpen the mood.

World Gin Day™ is run by Brummie Neil Houston whose website yetanothergin.co.uk gives no hint as to why that date was set. The Netherlands gave the drink its name (genever, meaning juniper), so I checked dates of significance in that country, but nothing coincided with June 9th.

I looked up some notable English dates, as this country has been a bastion of gin production and consumption since the Dutch introduced it in the 17th century. (Interestingly, more London Dry Gin is consumed in Spain than anywhere else in Europe.)

But, Queen’s Birthday aside, St?George’s Day is the closest date (April 23rd) to the warming up months in Blighty. So I can only assume June 9th is a date of some personal relevance to Houston, perhaps celebrating a first, glorious, particularly memorable, gin and tonic of the summer? For without doubt every gin lover has experienced that moment when spring signals summer with a particularly pleasant day, and you just feel like a G&T.

Certainly that has never been a better time to enjoy this most aromatic and fragrant of white spirits. It was just about a decade ago that gin lovers rejoiced in the revival of the nigh-on legendary Plymouth gin when the copper gin?still at Black Friars distillery was recomissioned.

The reviver of Plymouth gin, Charles Rolls, visited Australia in 2001 and he took me through a (blind) tasting complete with separate distillates containing each of Plymouth’s botanicals. The tasting was revelatory and taught me much respect for the gin distiller’s craft.

Eleven years on there are many complex small batch-distilled gins on the market in Australia from California and Oregon in the US, France and New Zealand, as well as gin’s traditional homelands, Holland and England.

The range and quality is exciting. So too is The West Winds gin from Margaret River, Western Australia.

It launched earlier this year and its two bottlings, The Sabre at 40 per cent and The Cutlass at 50 per cent, both showed exceptionally well in a blind tasting I assembled recently (so too did Beefeater, incidentally, which is one of my off-the-rack benchmark gins).

The West Winds gin was the distillery to put most effort behind World Gin Day in Australia but I can’t help thinking we’d be better served having our own gin day, or better, a south of the equator gin day, to celebrate the beginning of our warm, dry months.

The second week of October coincides with the Royal Melbourne Wine Show where I’ll be judging. I usually dip into a gin or two at that time.

It’s also when Rolls will be in Australia. Rolls, who got out of Plymouth some years ago, and his business partner and botanical expert, Tim Warrillow, have created Fever Tree to provide high quality natural mixers.

Or how about November 5th? On this day in 1688 William III of Orange (Holland) landed with his troops in England and later became William III of England, thereby unifying the Dutch and English houses and by default genever into gin and English- speaking culture. That would be the perfect date to celebrate.

Houston and the rest of his gin-loving compatriots are unlikely to celebrate along with us. For that’s Guy Fawkes night – in the wintery dark of the Midlands and beyond, any warmth in their faces will most likely be fuelled by fire, not spirit.

What to drink

The West Winds Gin, The Sabre NV [Australia]

There’s fab exotic – Vietnamese mint-like – stuff lurking among the fragrant, cutting juniper, and fresh-cut lemon rind coriander wafts. There’s both fresh and candied citrus. Has pure power and slipperiness in the mouth and excellent length to back up the intense botanicals. There are wafts of gentle thyme and moscato-like florals. Cedarwoody too. Great mixed almost any way. 96/100, *10/10, $75.

Black Friars Plymouth Gin NV [England]

Spring water pure and the perfect mix of botanicals – nothing sticks out. There’s intensity and clarity. Nigh-on perfect in the mouth as well, with pure juniper berry and citrus peel, but, again, nothing dominating. It is perfectly middle weighted on the palate also. 95/100, 10/10, $45.

Blue Ribbon London Dry Gin NV [France]

Wow, this is super spicy! Intense and ginger peppery, with cinnamon quill type notes. Spicy in the mouth and viscous, despite its lowish 40 per cent alcohol; the spice is almost too intense raw. But a little dilution with still spring water rounds out the palate and fragrant, piney juniper shows through. This is a bit too confronting straight but with Fever Tree tonic, or in a negroni, it rocks. 95/100, 10/10, $80.

Out of/100 = empiric rating. Out of/10 = hedonic (how much I like it).

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