The Tasting Panel magazine

mixing the pulp with water. It's the only gin to date made with a combination of Carter head stills and copper pot stills. Backing up its excellence in taste, the brand has become renowned for unique marketing programs, including national croquet tournaments hosted by its ambassadors. SRP: $32.99; supplier: WILLIAM GRANT & SONS Citadelle Gin This smooth, creamy and complex entry from Cognac, France—the only gin distilled in a Charentais still—showcases assertive juniper flavors with eighteen other spices, with complexity and heat on the finish. The name harkens back to an 18th-century genièvre produced on the northern French coast for export to England. This one exudes not only flavor but loads of class. SPR: $25; supplier: COGNAC FERRAND NEW & NOTEWORTHY Stock them while they're hot! NOLET'S Silver Dry Gin Earning Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2011, this spirit contains unique botanicals like Turkish rose, raspberry and peach, giving it an intensely floral and sweet combination when sipped neat. The company also unleashed NOLET'S Reserve Dry Gin this year as well, imbuing saffron and vanilla, positioned ultra-premium and released in limited quantities. SRP: NOLET'S Silver $49.99; NOLET'S Reserve $69.99; supplier: NOLET'S SPIRITS No. 3 London Dry Gin A hearty London dry with intense taste, No. 3 is produced in the Netherlands from three fruits and three spices, distilled in traditional copper pot stills. While unabashedly juniper forward, there are notes of cardamom and grapefruit lingering in the back sip. SRP: $39.99; supplier: ANCHOR BREWERS & DISTILLERS Caorunn Gin Small-batch gin distilled with Celtic botanicals of heather, bog myrtle, dandelion and native Coul Blush apple, alongside traditionals juniper, coriander seed, orange peel, lemon peel, angelica root and cassia bark, this Scottish-bred product promotes its distillation in a copper berry chamber, where the grain spirit is vaporized in a slow process to infuse the more subtle flavors. SRP: $39.99; supplier: INTERNATIONAL BEVERAGE COMPANY Hey! Bulldog! JOSH HAYES, WHO RECENTLY JOINED BULLDOG GIN AS VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, SAT DOWN WITH MARTIN BIHL FOR A BRIEF Q&A. Martin Bihl: Why do we need another gin? JOSH HAYES: I'm not sure everyone does—and that's fine, because honestly, Bulldog isn't for everyone. Our drinkers tend to be, well, different. Bartenders—with whom we have tremendous currency—are telling us that people want a different voice in the category. And we're that voice. MB: What's the state of the category? JH: The whisk(e)y category has really expanded, with different finishes and ages, and the vodka category has pushed the limits with different flavors and infusions. Now, you're seeing some new thinking in the gin category in a way you haven't seen in the past. Bulldog is part of that. I think that's very exciting, and a very good sign. MB: How do you compete with brands with much bigger budgets? JH: By not competing with them—we're small, but we're not stupid. Our focus is to become a part of the conversation with certain trend-setting young people in specific parts of New York, Philadelphia, D.C., Boston—major metro areas. That's why we're literally going neighborhood by neighborhood to make sure we're relevant. And the thing is, we have to do it that way; in every place we've been successful, it's been as a word of mouth brand. It's part of our DNA. MB: Can you describe Bulldog Gin? JH: I should hope so! To start with, we're made from a dozen exotic botanicals—including dragon eye, orris, and angelica. As a result, we've got a more rounded, less perfumey texture than other gins, which is also because of our traditional copper pot stills and painstaking quadruple-distillation process. But it's worth it, of course. MB: Last question: favorite bulldog—Uga or Handsome Dan? JH: And don't forget there's Spike from the old Tom & Jerry cartoons and the Aussie Rules football team the British Bulldogs, and I think the Marines' mascot is a bulldog. But my favorite bulldog? Bulldog Gin, of course! SRP: $30; supplier: BULLDOG GIN CO. january/february 2012 / the tasting panel / 93

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