By
George Brozowski
Of
the 85 or so London dry gins available throughout
the world only a handful are actually produced in London.
London gin is one of 4 recognized types of gin and actually
has nothing to do with London, the city. London gin is dry
by definition so using the word dry is an unnecessary redundancy.
By definition, traditional London gin's flavor is introduced
exclusively through the re-distillation, in traditional stills,
of ethyl alcohol in the presence of all natural plant materials
and may not contain any added sweetening exceeding 0.1 grams
of sugar per liter of final product, no coloration nor any
other ingredient besides water.
Sounds
to me like gin just might be another flavored vodka!! Now
don't bunch up your knickers, I know that vodka is vodka and
gin is gin, I wasn't born yesterday but honestly, would juniper
flavored vodka taste like gin?
Ford's
London dry gin is definitely not flavored vodka and
is actually distilled in London from British wheat and flavored
with juniper and coriander from Italy and Romania, and bitter
orange, lemon and grapefruit peels from Morocco, Spain and
Turkey, with floral notes added by jasmine flowers and orris
from China and Italy and spiced up with angelica and cassia
from Poland and Indonesia and steeped for 15 hours before
distillation. Sounds like this Fords gin has a lot going for
it.
Let's
go for it! The bottle has been uniquely designed to pour easily
and yet convey an old world look. The labels are chock full
of information and look as though they have been stamped like
a passport from numerous countries. The nose is complex yet
balanced with juniper up front followed by citrus notes and
vanilla and is bright without being overpowering. The palate
also has the juniper front and center followed by citrus notes
of grapefruit, lemon and orange backed by floral touches and
is full bodied and bright yet highlights the essential oils
of the ingredients and, less I forget to mention, it is smooth
in the mouth feel. The finish is long and smooth highlighting
the citrus flavors over the juniper. This is a well balanced
dry gin that doesn't over do the juniper and doesn't down
play the other ingredients. Tonic water smoothes out the flavor
further and tends to hide some of the distinct differences
in the well blended flavors and although it works well with
tonic I might just forget the tonic and simply add an ice
cube so the palate remains more distinct and pleasant. This
is a very nice dry gin and worthy of a place in your bar and
mine as it becomes one of my favorite dry gins.
You
can get some for around $27.99 in the 750ml bottle size.
For
more Rants & Raves click
here.
http://www.fordsgin.com/