Blackwoods Vintage Dry Gin

Now it isn't often that one associates the word "vintage" with gin. Vintage is usually reserved to those alcohols that experience seasonal variations that provide distinctive nuances in flavour, so it is with some shock that I discovered a gin that claims the vintage title.

Blackwoods is a Scottish gin that states its botanicals are "hand picked" from the Shetland countryside during Scotland short summers in a manner that preserves the local environment. The seasonal variation in the quality of the ingredients (such as caused by an either dry or humid summer) is what leads to distinct differences in the flavours between years.

Currently I have found 2005 vintage on the shelves but if one is to go by the website, the 2006 vintage (it was a foggy summer) is better.

Though I have not tried this gin yet, it appears to lean to the sweeter side with sea pink flowers, wild water mint, meadowsweet, coriander and liquorice making up some of it's more prominent botanicals.

This definitely is a gin to keep an eye on.

Miller's Gin

Since it has been a while since I have graced this blog with something passing as an entry I thought it might be high time that I rectified the situation.

Currently, the lady and myself have been drinking Miller's Gin. A very interesting London gin in that it is distilled in Ol' Blighty and then shipped to Iceland for the final ingredients and the far superior Icelandic water. The results are surprisingly good. In fact, they put your standard 'top shelf' brands that one finds (Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire) to shame.

Miller's is a very smooth gin, pleasant on the palette with almost no harsh bite, and has a sweeter flavour than Tanqueray, making it an ideal gin for a traditional Sweet Martini (Red Vermouth and a marschino cherry) much to the delight of Ms T.

Miller's has over 8 botanicals; including liqourice root, cinnamon bark and nutmeg - but the smooth, sweet flavour comes from their secret ingredient (which we have decided must be peppermint).

An excellent and versatile gin.

Hendrick's Gin

We bought our first bottle of Hendrick's Gin yesterday and were very eager to see how it tasted.

Whilst there are no hard and fast methods for tasting spirits, I read of a particular method that seems to do the trick. One takes a smal mouthful and head tilted forward holds the liquid in the front of their mouth and uses their tongue to dab away so as not to overpower your taste buds with the "fire".

The Hendricks Gin company are a small batch gin distillary in Ayrshire, Scotland. The curious thing about Hendricks is that they use cucumber infusion to give an unique twist to their gin.

On tasting the gin, one first detects the juniper berries. This is quickly followed by a more herby texture - quite possibly the cardomom and Bulgarian Rose and finished off with a spicy tang. Overall its a pleasant gin and when mixed in a martini creates a drink that is very smooth and lacks the bite of some other gins. Over all I would say that this is a gin for afternoon martinis whilst one reclines on cane furniture during an English summer. Bravo.

A Short History of Gin

Gin, the primary component of the traditional martini has an interesting history. Although there are unsubstantiated claims that it was first distilled in Italy, the only confirmed beginnings place it in Holland during the early 17th century. Initially used as a medicine to treat stomach complaints, it was later flavoured by the Dutch with Juniper berries to make it more palatable.

The British first experienced gin during the Thirty Years War where it was administered as a courage booster and warmer during the long campaigns in the damp weather. Many soldiers brought it back to England with them where it began to appear in chemist windows. Distillation began and although the quality was questionable, the drink soon became a favourite with the poor.

A reform introduced by King Charles I helped to improve the quality of distillation in London and English gin instantly began to improve. Over the years more changes in the laws loosened the distillation laws and by 1689 gin was being distilled in large quantities and began to outstrip sales of beer and ale largely as it was cheaper.

Heavy drinking by the poor was rife and by the 1730s gin consumption was starting to become a problem. The Gin Act was introduced in 1736 that made the liquid prohibitively expensive. At this, many riots broke out and many openly ignored the law. It was repealed in 1742 and more reasonable limitations placed on the price, excise and liscenses for gin production introduced.

Gin palaces (pictured) began to thrive during the early 1800s and more reforms during the 1830s aimed at controlling the wide availability and cheap price of gin helped to create an industry that is famous today for producing high quality and subtly flavoured gins.

Gin production
Gin can be made by two methods. The premium method is "distilled gin" such as London or Plymouth Gin, or by flavouring existing alcoholwith natural ingredients which is described as "compounding gin".

Gin can be made from any spirit alcohol that matches the original agricultural strength (96% ABV) and EC regulations on purity. This is generally from grain or molasses and posesses no flavour, the process being fairly similar to creating vodka.

The flavouring ingredients are termed botanicals, and the amount, quality and variations may differ between companies, although all gins contain Juniper berries and the most common ingredients are coriander, angelica, orange peel, lemon peel, cardamom, cinnamon, grains of paradise, cubeb berries and nutmeg. Typically a fine gin contains six to ten botanicals.

80 Views of the Martini

So as described, there are almost innumerable variations accorded to the martini. Even with the standard ingredients, variations in quantities or preparation can change the flavour considerably.

The next few entries will look at these variations, starting with the quantity of gin to vermouth.

The original martini was equal parts gin and vermouth. An early recipe I have found describe how to make a Dry Martini.

Dry Martini

1 part Gin
1 part Vermouth
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Orange Bitters (for extra dry)

As time has altered tastes, the vermouth has almost completely disappeared from the drink. The original recipe used dashes of angostura bitters and orange bitters to create an extra dry martini, but by today's standards the quantities of vermouth to gin would make it 'wet' instead. These days, a dry martini is created by adding as little vermouth as possible. This is largely due to the ending of prohibition which has improved the quality of gin (during the prohibition gin was made in backyard, or bath tub distilleries), requiring less mixer to make it palatable.

The majority of martini anecdotes base themselves around the amazing disappearing vermouth, the most famous of which is that told of Winston Churchill who would forgo vermouth completely and instead bow, drink in hand, in the direction of France.

Vermouth avoidance amongst the famous was rife; General Patton would salute the gin bottle towards Italy, Alfred Hitchcock would merely 'glance' at the vermouth bottle, and Ernest Hemingway would order a "Montgomery", a martini mixed at a gin:vermouth ratio of 15:1 (these supposedly being the odds Field Marshall Montgomery wanted to have before going into battle).

Others would create martinis by rubbing the cork from the vermouth bottle around the glass, or by letting light pass through the bottle onto the glass.

Today, bartenders have found other ways of creating a decent 'dry martini' without the drama of salutations towards distant lands. One lovely bartender at the Sly Fox Hotel in Sydney would make me dry martinis by pouring a small amount of vermouth over ice cubes sitting in a martini glass. After a few moments of resting, the contents of the glass would be shaken out and the gin poured in. Another variation uses the cocktail shaker. Ice and vermouth are added and then the vermouth drained, leaving vermouth coated ice cubes to chill and flavour the gin.

For The Record

One cannot start a blog about the Martini without first revealing their own preference. For such a simple cocktails, the variations possible in its creation are astounding and the results significant.

Matthew's Perfect Martini

4 parts Bombay Sapphire Gin
1 part Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
3 olives

Technique is also as important as the ingredients (and I shall write further on this). I store the gin in the freezer so that the drink is as cold as possible when served, and ice is occasionally omitted during the combining stage if it will taint the overall flavour. Occasionally I add a few drops of olive brine.
The mixture is stirred (or swished as I prefer), but occasionally on a hot day I will shake with ice.

So, the preference has been stated, and now we can get into the hard work of discussing technique, ingredients and variations.

A short history of the Martini

The Martini is possibly the most iconic of all cocktails, and it is fitting that its invention is mysterious and mythical.
Many attribute the Martini to an earlier, sweeter cocktail called the Martinez, containing sweet vermouth and Old Tom Gin (2:1) with 2 dashes of maraschino cherry liquid and 1 dash bitters, but even the true origin of this cocktail is readily debated so it does not provide a good point of reference.
Others suggest that the name comes from Martini & Rossi, a trade name for an Italian vermouth.
Another claim that it was invented by Signor Martini di Arma di Taggia, the bartender at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York in 1912 has been discredited.
Regardless of its invention however, the drink first started to enter the social subconscious in the early 1900s with the first listing in a bartenders book The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them in 1907. It was not until the prohibition years though that the drink soared in popularity as gin overtook whiskey as the favoured tipple (gin was quicker to make as whiskey had to be blended).

Traditionally, a Martini is Gin mixed with a lesser quantity of vermouth - the ratios varying considerably over the course of history (largely proceeding from a 'wet' martini - equal parts gin and vermouth - to a 'dry' martini - more gin and only a hint of vermouth). When the health conscious 70s swept the martini from the table, its resurrection in the 80s and 90s brought with it the vodka variation. Mixed in a similar fashion but replacing gin with vodka, this drink is often decried as an abomination by purists who prefer to call it a vodkatini rather than by the martini monicker.