Gin O’Clock – Part Seventy Six
It is not just in what goes into the mix that, thanks to the ginaissance, distillers seek to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd but the way they make it. I first came across vacuum distillation when I bought a bottle of Oxley Cold Distilled London Dry Gin and, lo and behold, here’s another.
Based in Ian Hart’s home in Highgate in London the Sacred Micro Distillery has no truck with traditional copper stills and the like, pinning their faith on a vacuum created in a Heath-Robinsonish collection of glassware. The result is range of gins going under the brand name of Sacred. The one I selected from drinkfinder.co.uk is Sacred Juniper Gin, which has been around since 2011 and what particularly attracted me to it was the description that “it packs as much juniper as you can get in a bottle”.
Let’s deal with the name first. It doesn’t reflect any idolatrous thoughts about the position of gin in the firmament of spirits but, rather, is taken from the Latin name for Hougary frankincense, boswellia Sacra, one of the twelve botanicals which made up the original Sacred Gin which was released in May 2009. Of course, you can always make that connection.
In terms of the botanicals it is a very simple gin, being made from Bulgarian juniper berries, angelica root and orris. Less is often more and the trick is what you do with the botanicals you choose to use. The base spirit is made from English wheat grain and each botanical is distilled separately through three different maceration processes, once with alcohol and the other two with water before being distilled in the glassware under reduced temperatures and under pressure in a vacuum. The process is more complex than this sounds and the final blend to make up the gin which weighs in with an ABV of 43.8% is 95% juniper with the balance being made up by angelica and orris.
The bottle is tall and cylindrical with a long, thin neck and a cork stopper. The labelling is well worth studying as there is more to it than meets the eye. The background colour is purple with Sacred in white against a depiction in gold of iron gates. These are supposed to represent the gates of Highgate cemetery. Look even more closely and you will see birds which represent the Nightingales which populate the woods of Highgate and there are even some laboratory bottles, reflecting Ian Hart’s approach to distilling.
The second label on the front of the bottle provides some information about the spirit, notably that it is “a crystal clear London Dry Gin simply expressed with dominant notes of natural Juniper communis berries”. It also tells me that my bottle is number 903 from batch 16 and that the ABV is 43.8%. The label on the rear gives some more details and a cocktail suggestion, reassuringly stating that it is “distilled with Juniper lovers in mind”.
Of course, the proof of all this is in the drinking. On the nose it has a very intense juniper aroma with a hint of spice and to the taste it is heavily juniper led with hints of citrus bursting through. The aftertaste is long and powerful providing a warm peppery sensation. I never thought I would say this as someone who loves juniper led gins but I think there was a bit too much juniper and not enough to balance it out. This is not a complex gin but if you want to overdose on juniper, this may just be the one for you.
Until the next time, cheers!
