Discover the Delicious Notes in Sir Edmond Gin: A Comprehensive Review
Sir Edmond Gin was a pleasant surprise, a bolt from the blue. We are now used to pyrotechnic gins with a thousand botanicals, where we can savor a saraband of aromas and flavors, but this is different.
It’s true. Gin makes us travel like no other distillate: it takes us to the East in search of precious spices, to the Black Forest, to the Scottish cliffs, to the Cervia salt flats, but we had not yet made a trip to the island of Réunion.
It starts with a very original concept. The aromatic core of this gin is bourbon vanilla and not so much juniper, which plays an ancillary role, adding depth and freshness but never being overwhelming.
As a result, Sir Edmond gin is a rebellious distillate, as Edmond himself does not think outside the box, but rather crumbles it to forge his own path.
And the result, which we anticipate immediately, is seductive and intriguing but also unsettling. Not everyone will like it, but its purpose is not to standardize the taste of gin but to create a flavor earthquake.
Very inviting and titillating, not so much for the palate as for the nose. It’s rare to find a riot with so much spice and wealth, especially when it’s put in such a clear way.
How is it produced, and what botanicals does it contain?
It is produced by the Herman Jansen distillery, which has been active since 1700. Traditional copper alembic distillation of two distinct distillates flavored with five botanicals: cardamom, ginger, juniper, cinnamon, and angelica. The vanilla is infused and left to macerate for eight weeks. Then they blend both spirits, rest in steel, and then are bottled.
We must be honest: we first thought that a vanilla gin was a gamble. It is too difficult to use vanilla delicately in a gin blend. Vanilla is so overbearing and self-referential. It engulfs every other nuance. The risk of marking the gin with indelible scents was palpable.
And for this, we were eager to taste it.
Well, as soon as we opened the bottle, we were surrounded by coils of rich, sumptuous scents that were still developing, but were kept fresh by icy blades of juniper and ginger. Cardamom and angelica counterbalance the fleshy aromas of mango and banana. But we must admit that the spicy scents are the most evocative: a background of incense and myrrh wrapped in a close embrace with vanilla.
But the punch in the face given by the juniper is missing, you say. Yes, of course, but this gin was born to make love, not war, and has no belligerent intentions. Vanilla is just the beginning of the journey, a starting point. Then it takes off.
It is soft, delicate, ethereal, and pungent on the palate, with lashes of pepper and lemongrass, but it never breaks down. It moves fluidly, is balsamic, and is modulated in an elegant symphony that caresses the tongue. The body is slender; the structure is medium. The finish is splendid and long, where jasmine flowers and tropical fruit bloom.
Price
52-54: high in price, but it is a miniature work of art that deserves a place in the collection of every gin lover.
Cocktail to make
The vanilla flavored Gin Tonic is ok but doesn’t enhance this bottle’s spicy notes. It is much better to use it for more extroverted and sumptuous cocktails like Ramos Gin Fizz and Singapore Sling.
