We Live in an Unusual World...

Hendrick's Gin, photographed & Edited by Sofia Miranda

Hendrick's Gin is a cheeky little bottling, a New Western Dry style of gin distilled at William Grant's spirit production plant in Scotland.

Hendrick's is a small batch gin, well, small, small batch (the usual still size for small scale being 1,000 litres and the still used to produce Hendrick's being 450 litres). Hendrick's pride themselves on being a rather unusual product, and why not, the gin is bottled in a unique apothecary style bottle, distilled in Scotland and uses random botanicals such as chamomile flowers, meadowsweet as well as the distilled oils of rose petals and cucumber. To me the above aren't what makes Hendrick's unusual, the botanicals and the bottle certainly make it unique, but there are a fair amount of gin's being distilled in Scotland now day's. What truly strikes me as unusual is the use of two different methods of distillation and blending the two together to create the final product.

Blending spirits is a rather common practice in the world alcohol, brandies, whiskies and rums are commonly subject to blending, to achieve consistency, complexity or simply to cut costs by blending well aged products with some with not so much wood contact. As for gin, some gin producers prefer to distill each individual botanical separately and blend them together to give them more control over each flavour. What Hendrick's does different is to distill it's selected botanicals in two types of still, a style of pot still known as a Bennet still, and a carter head still. When using the Bennet still the botanicals are steeped in the neutral spirit before distillation, this method stews the botanicals and the final distillate has a more intense, full on deep flavour. When using the carter head still the botanicals are blaced above the neutral spirit and are infused as the vapour passes through them, this style of distillation produces a rather delicate and subtle flavour. The two distillates are then blended together, two get the best from both styles of distillation, before the distilled essence of cucumber and rose are added to the mix.

The resulting gin is a rather pleasant change from the norm, arguably one of the pioneering gins of the New Western Dry style. Hendrick's has a wonderfully fresh, floral aroma notes of rose petals, violets and a slight hint of lavender all spring to mind, the cucumber is less dominant than one would be led to believe although it does impart an almost melon like freshness, lovely subtle pine notes from the juniper but as one would expect from a New Western Dry these do not take centre stage.

On the palate its much of the same story, very floral with the rose being the more dominant than it was on the nose, juniper makes a welcomed appearance, also more dominant on the palate,  this is followed by a lovely citrus zing and a once again subtle fresh cucumber notes.

Hendrick's is a very unique, approachable gin, between this and its rather odd advertising campaign I believe it has done great things taking consumers out of their comfort zones and introducing them to a new style of gin.

We Hope You Enjoy

Umpleby & Brown