Hendrick’s Gin’s Master Distiller, Ms. Lesley Grac, has been adding new limited releases to compliment the brand’s growing family of unusual piny spirits. Four of these new expressions, Hendrick’s Flora Adora (featuring a bouquet of fragrant flowers laid out especially by Ms Lesley Gracie), Hendrick’s Lunar Gin (rich with night blooming floral essence), Hendrick’s Neptunia (expresses the sensory delights of the sea coast), and Hendrick’s Orbium (re-imagined with extracts of quinine, wormwood and lotus Blossom) have become available in my locale, and I am expecting delivery of each of these at some point this summer.
This means it is a good time to reacquaint myself with Hendrick’s Original Gin and its unusual infusion of cucumber and rose petal.
The people who make Hendrick’s Gin pride themselves on being just a little quirky, and perhaps a bit eccentric. Their offbeat website revels in the odd and the peculiar and seeks to convince all who peruse the site, that Hendrick’s Gin is special exactly because of the things which make it odd and peculiar.
Hendrick’s and Fever Tree Tonic
The gin is produced in Scotland, in the village of Girvin, Ayrshire. The distillery sits just about a mile inland overlooking the island of Ailsa Craig. It is made small batches, on two different stills with 11 different botanicals, and infused with cucumber and rose petals.
Here is a link to my recently revised review of Hendrick’s Original Gin:
Review: Hendrick’s Orignal Gin
This recent re-evaluation sees my scores for Hendrick’s Gin elevated by a few points as either my appreciation of the spirit is improving, or the spirit has improved.
Chimo!
(PS: Look for my upcoming review series of the Hendrick’s Limited Edition Gins to begin in June.
Empress 1908 Elderflower Rose Gin is produced by the team at Victoria Distilling in Sydney, British Columbia. Their spirit is inspired by the city of Victoria (also known as ‘The City of Gardens’) where flowers blossom almost year-round. (Due to its location on the southern tip Vancouver Island, the warm pacific waters keep even the harsh Canadian winters at bay).
Levenswater Gin is produced in Ontario Canada by Niagara Falls Craft Distillery. It is part of a family of spirits which includes Levenswater Spring 34 Gin, Levenswater Harvest Gin as well as the Levenswater Barrel Aged 34 Gin. These spirits are produced from a base distilled from potatoes with botanicals which have been selected to represent the seasonality of the spirit, fall botanicals selected for the Harvest Gin and spring botanicals selected for the Spring 34 Gin. The barrel Aged Gin is apparently a version of the Spring 34 Gin which has been aged in oak for 3 months.
The Liberator brand is an authentic small batch craft spirits brand produced by Highwood Distillers to honor the WWII RCAF base that was located in their home town of High River as well as to honor the brave men and women who fought in WWII. This is a small volume bottling created such that Highwood would have a line-up of 100% Alberta made craft spirits produced for the local market.
The Rum Howler Blog 