Notice something different about the gin section lately?
by Mary Bailey
Not only is it much bigger, it’s filled with brash new bottlings, in almost every shade of the rainbow. No longer does the UK have hegemony over gin. You’ll notice gins from all over the world now, Italy, Spain, the US, Canada. Especially Canada.
“There are tons of good Canadian gins,” says Tara Smith of Hicks Fine Wines in St. Albert. “You can feel the passion of the distillers, always quality over quantity, and it’s supporting the smaller guys.”
“We have several customers who say they collect gin,” says Juanita Roos of Color de Vino. “We find that people want to try different things,” says Kelsey Roos. “They no longer come in and buy the same thing every time.”
This burgeoning interest from the gin loving public who are not afraid of flavour has created an explosion in gins made at artisan distillers.
“Local is coming on strong”’ says Dave Gordon of the Whisky Drop, “in beer, in whisky and in gin. The local flair, the story behind the gin, the botanicals picked locally in Alberta, BC, people are into that—something born and raised in Edmonton or surrounding areas. Our number one is Strathcona Seaberry. It’s a London Dry style with good flavour components and a less bitter finish.”
You can’t get much more local than Strathcona Spirits. The tiny distillery in the pink building on 81 Avenue opened in 2018. “We wanted to make a hardy gin, using unique ingredients from the Prairies like Badlands’ juniper along with other standard botanicals like cubeb pepper and angelica,” says Adam Smith, owner and head distiller. “We experimented with yarrow and a few other berries. Then the guy who led me to the juniper on the Red Deer River suggested sea buckthorn. ‘There’s more than enough in Edmonton,’ he said.”
Making small batches of gin comes with differences in flavour. “We’re proud of the fact that there is some variability in batches,” says Adam. “We have seasonal differences and wild foraged ingredients, grains directly from farmers, that’s our terroir. We are also letting the gin rest for longer than we did in the beginning. At the same time, we do walk a pretty consistent line, it doesn’t wander that much. When we stack up numerous batches, I think what emerges is the element of the seasoning of the pot, and the longer seasoning time—a bit more elegant, a bit more complex.”
Caitlin Quinn, head distiller at Eau Claire Distillery in Turner Valley knows all about the seasonal differences. “The time of year influences flavour and we have huge temperature swings, -30 to +30 to deal with. Alcohol expands and contracts. And it’s much drier here than in Scotland. The angel share (what’s lost to evaporation) is about 12 per cent. Big distillers strive for consistency to guarantee a flavour. We’re more touchy feely. For us it’s batch to batch.”
Caitlin, a graduate of Harriet Watt, the only English-speaking distilling school in the world, was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Scotland. She did her Masters at Edinburgh Gin, and came to Eau Claire right after. “Scottish people are more aware of distilling as a career and many learn on the job,” she says. “Going to school gives you the scientific background. I did an honours in chemistry; knowing the science makes for safer choices.
“The Christmas Gin was the very first recipe I created with Eau Claire. It has the three gifts from the Wise Men —gold, frankincense and myrrh. It’s still one of my favourites for a savoury cocktail, in a martini.”
Flourish is the newest gin offering from Eau Claire (see page 18). Its look is a departure from the core offerings with their fantastical social animals chatting or playing cards. Rather, it’s in a tall slim bottle with a label covered in hand drawn flowers and berries, no dancing bears in sight.
“We wanted something very different from our classic Parlour Gin, a cocktail gin mixer with floral and fruity notes,” says Caitlin.
“Our atmosphere is based on innovation;” she says; “playing around is encouraged. I have an idea, other staff have an idea, it’s very collaborative.” During Covid, that has taken on a different form. “Every day is different, we are taking it as it comes,” says Caitlin. “There are fewer people around, not as many people on site, more video conferencing. We’re working on different barrel types for the whiskies and playing around with the different gins that came out of Flourish. I’ve been at home playing around with flavours, with cocktails.
Caitlin’s Bramble
“This is my favourite way to drink Flourish right now.”
2 oz Flourish and a ½ oz St-Germain (elderflower liqueur) topped with lemonade over ice.
The Gin Revolution
We can trace the renewed appreciation of gin to 1999, when Hendrick’s Gin came into being. The bottle shape, the label, the taste, the roses—there was nothing like it. The host of botanicals, including an infusion of Bulgarian roses and cucumber, created a heady experience.
Hendrick’s set off a revolution still being felt in the world of gin. Gins infused with flowers, gold, vegetables. Gins with colour. “A lot of people just love the colour,” says Dave Gordon. “Take a shelf with 15 gins, 12 are clear and then there is a yellow one or a pink one or a purple one. The oak-aged gins have a slight colour tinge too.”
Victoria Spirits Empress 1908 is a great example: it is infused after distillation with an Empress Hotel tea blend and butterfly pea flowers. The colour changes from blue to violet to pink, depending on what you mix it with (due to the pea flower meeting citric acid).
I asked Tara Smith about this new wave of gin. “Why do people like them? Because they’re interesting,” she says. “We been drinking London Dry for a couple of hundred years. If you don’t want to make a cocktail you don’t have to, but it’s still super fun because your drink is purple. It could be as simple as putting a couple of cherries in Midsummer Solstice. It doesn’t always have to be complicated.”
Eau Claire makes a seasonal gin with honey and saskatoons from nearby farms (Chinook Arch Meadery and The Saskatoon Farm). “Local ingredients, perfect product,” says Caitlin. “Saskatoons are not a sweet berry and they are hard to work with, seedy. Honey brings the sweetness.”
Then there is the barrel aged gin. More controversial; people either love it or hate it. Victoria makes the Oaken Gin; Strathcona makes two, the White Oak Pinot and the Barrel Aged. “I love smoke and oak in spirit and cocktails,” says Adam. “I was reading about botanical spirits and which gins work best in barrel and discovered it’s gins like ours, with their heavy botanical load. We use quarter cask virgin American white oak for the Barrel Aged Gin and small barrels from SpearHead Winery in the Okanagan for the Pinot. It was going to be a limited release, but it was so popular we decided to keep making it. The Japanese love the Barrel Aged Gin, there is the uniqueness of bold gin in virgin oak.”
Gin is even coming in non-alcoholic versions. The British Seedlip was the first of the gin alternatives, creating a distillate with botanicals then de-alcoholizing the spirit. Seedlip has since been bought by global drinks company Diageo. The Swedish Ceder’s is the newest of the alt gins.
Notes on some notable gins
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Click images to zoom |
Valley Spritz
| 65 ml | Ceder’s Crisp |
| 50 ml | cloudy apple juice |
| 50 ml | cucumber juice |
| 7.5 ml | lavender syrup |
Top with tonic and garnish with red apple and line wheel and sprig lavender.
Tomato editor Mary Bailey was willing to taste all of these gins for you, all in the name of research.