Hi 

Hope June has been gentle on your loved ones and you.

On the fine spirits front, India seems to be reveling in Gins right now. The Vault has the largest collection of handcrafted gins in the country, over sixteen of them, and it is beautiful to see how experimental and diverse the audience is, for gins. Each new handpicked introductions, are selling out, offering us such valuable feedback, that the enthusiasm to discover the truly well-crafted ones, continue.

Even as you nose and sip your gins, or turn them into delicious cocktails, I would like to share with you the two essential components to knowing the season’s favourite spirit.

Juniper – the non-negotiable berry in a Gin:

We have got a saying, `A Gin is as good as its Juniper’. Needless to say, Juniper is an essential ingredient for it to be classified as a Gin. Gins generally carry a lot of Terpene compounds, and a lot of them are derived from the Juniper Berries that are used in the blending process. These low spreading bush type plants, with their green Juniper berries offer the flavours that are resinous, woody pine notes. As these berries mature a more citric twist joins the existing flavor characteristics. The exterior skin of these berries are rather tasteless, that’s why these berries are dried or are crushed a little before distilling. Some of the Gins have a predominant Juniper flavouring and the distillation process concentrates on hero-ing these green berries.

Distillation – Three different ways:

Many spirits go through a distillation process, but what makes it special in the chemistry of Gin-making is, that there are three different distillation processes available, and each one of them work their own magic to amplify the bouquet of the botanicals used, giving the Gin its character.

– Compound Gin: When making a compound gin, the selected botanicals are added to the spirit without redistilling it. It’s essentially an infusion. Thus Compound Gins can have tints of colour.

– Pot-Distilled Gin: In this case, the selected botanicals are macerated in a neutral spirit and re distilled batch-by-batch in a pot still to bring out the required essential oils that build up the Gin’s flavour profile.

– Column-Distilled Gin: This process involves using highly concentrated spirit which is then re distilled multiple times along with the select botanicals in a continuous process, to deliver the final product.

I encourage you to explore Gins from all three distillations. And the next time, you are nosing, sipping and savouring a gin, do try to sniff out the mother ingredient, the Juniper berry, and check if the distiller has played it forward, or muted it to bring forth other botanicals. After all, knowing a little more about the spirit, always adds an extra dose of fun.

If you wish to taste any craft Gins from our collection, and would like to know which distillation process they fall under, do not hesitate to reach out to me on concierge@vaultfinespirits.com

Cheers
Keshav
Founder-Curator – The Vault
Life-time Induction- Gin Guild, London

LIST OF LOCAL RETAIL PARTNERS IN MUMBAI:

WORLD OF WINES- Nariman Point
Bhavesh: 7710075100

LONDON WINES- Parel
Gul Ajit: 90046 00755

PARRY WINES- Bandra
Sunil Chawala: 9867238611

TOP MOST WINES- Khar
Maruti: 99300 54321

SILVER COIN- Living Liquidz- Khar
Jatin: 91670 32916

JUBEN WINES- Juhu
JP: 96996 53077,  Satyam : 98671 10001

ARADHANA WINES- Andheri
Deepak: 9588082101

THE WINE CELLAR- Marol
Nikhil: 98207 04500

You can always email us on concierge@vaultfinespirits.com

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