“Gin: It’s just juniper flavored vodka.” —Some unknown asshole
As distillers, we’ve all heard it. Someone walks into your tasting room to sample your wares, and when you get to a pour of juniper juice, the customer immediately grimaces. “I’m not much of a gin person,” they say.
Likely, the “gin” residing in their mind is some cheap air-freshener-pine bomb that they overindulged in one night in their indiscriminate youth. At the least, it was likely a far cry from the myriad delicate flavors and high-end bottlings available to gin drinkers today.
I’m known to most folks as a whiskey producer, but I’ve also spent a large chunk of my career making other spirits, including rum, liqueur, brandy, and yes, gin. I love making gin, and I feel like I learn something new with every batch as I obsessively try to pull and tweak different variables to produce what I hope is the “perfect” gin (in my eyes, at least.)
So, whether you’re new to gin production or a veteran, allow me to wax philosophic here on some of the many production decisions that go into making a standout gin.