Day 11 – Eleven Pipers Piping Gin
If your true love buys you eleven pipers piping for Christmas, before you reach for the earplugs, take a minute to listen. The harmonies of the pipers united in song is the very essence of great gin. Then, having savoured the pipers’ aural thrills, put the earplugs back in and dream of the palatable indulgences these 11 gins will bestow on you and your true love.
Stillhead Distillery – Blackberry Gin (37.5%)
There are no blackberries on earth as sweet and juicy as those that grow wild on Vancouver Island. Each summer, people from nearby Cowichan Indigenous communities pluck bucketloads of the plump ripe berries from their thorny canes and sell them to Stillhead Distillery on the southern outskirts of Duncan BC. There, Distiller Brennan Colebank infuses the berries’ deep purple juices into his Wild Blackberry Gin to make what he calls “a bramble in a bottle.”
Oh wow! Gin, and such a richly fruity gin, with the succulent flavours of real Vancouver Island wild blackberries right at the fore. Colebank has dialled back the juniper to leave peppery heat, restrained honey sweetness, and of course, those luscious, rich, juicy, black blackberries to be the stars. If you’ve ever read “jammy” in a tasting note and wondered what it meant . . .
375ml $22.61
Patent 5 Distillery – Manitoba Berry Gin (42%)
In the salvaged relics of a historic Winnipeg hotel, distiller Brock Coutts and his team infuse their delicious London Dry Gin with local Saskatoon berries. This twist on an Old Tom recipe has a distinctive berry-rich nose with slight hibiscus floral tones, juniper, bright citrus and spices. Coutts lightly sweetens the palate to balance the juniper and zesty citrus peel as waves of citrus drift through a long refreshing finish.
375ml $27.95, 750ml $47.95
Distillerie 3 Lacs – Gin Citron Tournesol (43%)
The local sunflower seeds in this gin grow across the St. Lawrence River from the distillery’s Salberry-de-Valleyfield home. If you’ve ever smelled the viscous honey on a ripe sunflower head, you know its piney, resinous aromas are unique. When sunflower seeds are pressed into sunflower oil, the sunflower cake left behind still bears some of that signature sunflower flavour. The crew at Distillerie 3 Lacs complements this exotic essence with fresh organic lemon peel. And as those lemon notes blossom from nose to finish, the subtle sunfloweresque frame bolsters them, as spicy pine notes and peppery coriander add depth. And in the end, all is cleansed by a second lemon burst and some dry spices best described as holly and jolly.
750ml $45
Black Fox Farms and Distillery – Cucumber Gin (42%)
An explosion of farm-fresh cucumber – peels and all. Black Fox Farms infuses their gin with whole cucumbers to give the spirit a green hue. This soft cocktail gin grows louder on the palate, where the fresh and bitter cucumber tones are joined by a controlled but confident peppery spice. Juniper and a caraway essence slowly build into a cucumber finish that decks the halls.
www.blackfoxfarmanddistillery.com
750ml $49.57
Artiste in Residence Distillerie – Waxwing Gin (41%)
While others are busy proving their skills by using tonic water to turn litmus-blue gin to pink, you can thrill your true love when his or her sassafras-yellow Waxwing Gin instantly becomes a brilliant Fanta-orange gin and tonic. That colour, by the way, comes from rose hips and rowan berries included in the recipe.
It’s the juniper that jumps out first, though, with citrus notes and spicy coriander following close behind. So, we recommend a festive yellow Martini, garnished not with olive, but with a lemon twist. Oh, and don’t shake it full of frothy bubbles. A single stir is quite sufficient.www.airdistillerie.com
750ml $39.50
Steinhart Distillery – Wild Blueberry Gin (47.5%)
The Steinhart Distillery sits right in the heart of Nova Scotia blueberry country. Rather than enjoying a bowl of blueberries with fresh cream, Thomas Steinhart puts the wild blueberries right in his gin. Its deep blue hues tell of a gin that is rich in flavour. Blueberry jam on the nose accents lemon, juniper and a tumbling cavalcade of spice. These notes transition to the palate with just a splash of sweetness that balances the more traditional botanicals with complex citrus notes and a down-to-earth finish. Steinhart is a passionate gin maker, and in his Blueberry Gin, he has distilled an East Coast classic.
500ml $35
The Woods Spirits Co. – Cascadian Gin (47%)
Rather than boiling them in a traditional still, Distiller Fabio Martini macerates each of his botanicals individually before vacuum distilling it at a very low temperature. The process makes all the exceptional green notes in his Cascadian gin pop on the palate with the kind of brightness that once attracted Shepherds and Wisemen. Somehow, Martini manages to condense a North West evergreen forest into the gin’s nose then supplements it with citrus, black pepper and spices on the long, pleasingly bitter finish. This gin will turn anyone’s dreams of a white Christmas to green.
500ml - $45
Distillerie Oshlag – Dandelion Gin (41%)
Oshlag treats what most people consider a garden weed with the utmost respect. They are well rewarded (and so are we) with a Dandelion gin that is delicate on the nose with an earthy floral layer that blossoms on the palate. Juniper and coriander swirl with sweet herbaceous tones that resemble the sweet grassy flavour of red clover. Distinct dandelion notes support a pleasant sweetness that keeps delivering like a fresh-picked bouquet. This beautiful Quebec sipping gin could be one of gin’s best-kept secrets.
750ml $43
Cirka Distilleries – Gin Sauvage (44%)
Paul Cirka has found a way to infuse 33 botanicals into corn spirit to create a gin that strikes an intricate balance. This wild gin blends fruity, herbal and floral notes with evergreen boreal forest tones and citrus. Gin Sauvage swipes the eleven piper’s Jingle Bells sheet music and swops it for Jingle Bells Rock. The buttery and silky texture takes flavours such as sweetness and instantly polishes them with spice. The warming glow and depth in this gin lingers and lingers until it slowly fades on the finish.
750ml $47.25
Dubh Glas Distillery – Noteworthy Gin (43%)
Grant Stevely is a whisky maker, so it’s no surprise that he turned to 100% BC-grown barley to make his gin. After fermenting then double distilling the grain, Stevely reintroduces it to the still for a third distillation, along with an array of botanicals. The herbal nose is balanced with juniper, but on the palate, citrus and spice introduce a pleasant sweetness before the juniper comes back with vanilla shades. Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, grain and fertility whose portrait adorns the bottle, would well approve of this distinctive gin.
750ml $49.96
Distillerie de Quebec – Trait Carré 1665 (48%)
The soft and mellow Trait-Carré embraces the subtlety of its fourteen botanicals. Subdued notes of juniper and spice play off a berry-like fruity and floral sweetness. For Trait Carré 1665, the gin is aged in American rye whiskey barrels for two to six months allowing the oak to add some spicy rye notes and fresh lumber. One hopes that this aged gin is a precursor to more aged spirits from Distillerie de Quebec. Meanwhile, 11 pipers recommend Trait-Carré for your holiday celebrations.
750ml $63
Join us tomorrow for Day 12: Whisky suggestions. Or, if you’d rather figure it out on your own, there are many more spirits to be found in our book The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries – a gift suggestion in itself and one that’s worth its weight in five gold rings.