6 gins that will transport you far beyond your local bar.
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by individuals willing to be “banned from public bars in perpetuity.” Thankfully my exile will be softened by my home bar, fully stocked with a wide array of contemporary gins that expand the category beyond the classic, juniper-forward London Dry. Some are floral, some are citrusy, but my favorites are infused with a sense of place.
Gin starts out as a neutral spirit that can be distilled from just about anything with sugar content, the most common raw material being various grains like corn and wheat. From there, it goes through a secondary distillation process in which botanicals are introduced to impart flavor and character. Technically speaking, for gin to be gin, the dominant note must be juniper. But beyond that, anything else—from brussels sprouts to red wood ants—is fair game .
For terroir-driven distillers around the world, this simple formula presents an opportunity to tap spices, herbs, and fruits that suffuse gins with geographical specificity and soul—and for an avid traveler who’s been mostly grounded the past two years, these spirits are sensory souvenirs of trips past. Amalga Distillery’s gin recalls summers spent crabbing in Southeast Alaska. Nikka’s offering evokes a meal of grilled unagi and sansho pepper in Tokyo washed down with very cold beer.
For this herbaceous, floral expression, Glendalough relies on plants like red clover, blackberry leaves, and elderflower, most of which are gathered by a single local forager from the area around the distillery in Ireland’s Wicklow Mountains.