YAG Tasting #2 – Premium Gins

Recently the second YetAnotherGin tasting took place, details of the first, this time the focus was on premium gins.

As before this was a blind tasting, the people who came to taste had no idea which gin was which, all they knew is that the gin was likely to be on the table shown above.

Everyone was eager to get started and we had a brief recap about gin, and explained how we weren’t focussing on any particular style in the tasting. Instead we were looking at which gins stand up their premium pricetag.

The gins tasted wered:

• Tanqueray 10
• Beefeater 24
• Edgerton Pink Gin
• Sipsmith London Dry Gin
• Chase Gin

The general definition of ‘premium’ for these gins were the fact that they were around the £25+ pricepoint, as well as the fact they were slightly more unusual (in cases where they had a sister product, like Beefeater and Tanqueray).

You also notice that compared to the previous tasting, the gins in this set were all higher ABV ranging from 41.6-48%. It was interesting to see as people tasted the gins what they thought regarding the presumed strength level vs. the actual strength level.

Tanqueray 10
People didn’t feel the high strength of this gin, and this came out quite strongly rated. People detected the citrus notes within it, but could tell it wasn’t citrus in the same way as some gins that they had tried before. One person correctly identified it tending more towards the grapefruit, rather than lemon edge.

Beefeater 24
This was probably the least well received, overall people didn’t mind it, but it didn’t stand up as well as the Tanqueray or the latter gins tried. Personally I do quite like it, but there were other gins that I’d go for. I know that recently Beefeater have been doing some tours with their reps, and Master Distiller Desmond Payne, it would be nice to do a comparative Beefeater tasting to see how this sits in their portfolio.

Edgerton Pink Gin
When a gin is bright pink, and you only have one bright pink gin in your collection then it’s a bit of a giveaway to the tasting panel about what it might be. Luckily though no one had actually tried it before and whist some people felt that the colour might be a bit of a gimmick, it went down quite well. A lot of people could detect that it had more of a spicy finish, which is down to the use of items such as cinamon and nutmeg as botanicals. At a RRP of £37 people were not so sure of it, but it seems to be discounted down to the £30 mark online at the moment.

Sipsmith London Dry Gin
This London Dry was the lowest strength tasted, but for me one of the more complex gins from flavour. It stood up against the others really well and was a strong overall favourite from the panel, with a lot seeing how it could do well in a Martini or a G&T (we made a Martini from it at the end of the session, which the panel tasted and enjoyed). A lot of people liked the backstory of the Sipsmith brand, which was discussed once the tasting was all over.

Chase Gin
The Chase gin was one that people weren’t too sure on. On the nose you can really detect that it’s quite strong (48%), when tasted it does have a slight harsh burn but on repeated sips there is no hint to that at all. One of the tasters noted “Baffled by Chase though, not sure whether I liked it or not.” I think the fact that it is using an applewine as the base for the gin is likely to contribute to the slightly different flavour profile.

There was no overall winner, but it is fare to say that everyone could see the variety between them and most people were happy to drink any of them. No doubt there will be a few nice bottles of gin being added to some drinks cabinet in Birmingham shortly.

Towards the end of the session we went it why the gins all smell and taste different, from botanicals, production methods, proportions, and strength. Hopefully this is something I’ll be able to write about in more detail.

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