Douglas Fir Gin
Gratifyingly resinous, smooth & mysteriously complex. Our contemporary take on the London Dry style, cold distilled with hand foraged Douglas-Fir for Extra intrigue. Nature’s exquisite forest bouquet, bottled. The needles used in our Douglas Fir Gin are personally hand foraged by the distillers in and around the South Oxfordshire area from a secret selection of specifically selected trees located on organic farmland.
Seen other Pine infused gin or Douglas Fir Gin elsewhere? Beware! Soaking pine needles in finished gin results in a very bitter taste and unappealing colour. Distilling Douglas-Fir alongside juniper at high temperatures destroys the amazing fine, fragrant and fruity notes that make Douglas Fir so special and individual. Only our unique process extracts and balances the wonders of Juniper and Douglas Fir in harmony together.
“A clear gin with pleasing viscosity and an immediately appealing nose, intensely aromatic of herbs: lavender, rosemary perhaps and yes, fir needles. Coriander follows on with a lower noted presence. Wonderfully oily on the palate, great mouthfilling presence,releasing a zesty citrus presence. The flavour journey is delighting us.” – Great Taste Awards 2019 judges comments.
- Taste: Grapefruit, Lemon, Peach, Light Pine and Citrus
- Garnish: Anything Citrus works well with the Douglas-Fir profile, however we recommend a slice of pink grapefruit. Just be careful not to over do it as you’ll miss the intricacies of the Douglas-Fir.
- Tonic: Serve with a premium unflavoured tonic with a slice of pink grapefruit as garnish. Or choose a grapefruit flavoured tonic such as Franklin & Sons Pink Grapefruit and Bergamot to really highlight the notes of this complex gin.
- Botanicals: 11 as listed on the bottle label
- ABV: 41.5%
- Awards: Great Taste 3 Stars 2019, Taste of the West Gold 2020
Serve with a natural tonic with a slice of red grapefruit as garnish. Or choose a grapefruit flavoured tonic such as Franklin & Sons Pink Grapefruit and Bergamot to really highlight the notes of this complex gin. Alternatively enjoy as a Martini to fully savour those delicious complex flavours.
Why not try a Twisting Paloma? This fantastic cocktail is based on the Mexican favourite the Paloma, but with Douglas Fir Gin instead of Tequila. Check out the recipe in our blog here .
There’s more to discover about our Douglas-Fir Gin. Why not read on below to find out more from the distiller?
We became curious about the use Douglas-Fir as a botanical after seeing various food programs promoting its use and unique taste. The concept seemed a bit strange at first, using a tree to make gin, but actually it does make sense. Afterall Juniper is from a ‘berry’ from a tree and that forms the basis of all gins.
So the next challenge we faced was where to actually source Douglas-Fir and in what form? This is not a native tree to the UK, instead it was introduced in 1827 by botanist David Douglas (hence the name). That being the case, these trees are rare and have to have been planted rather than wild seeded. After a lot or searching we were lucky enough to find a selection of trees, plus obtain permission to forage from the landowner.
To produce our Douglas-Fir Distilled Gin we hand forage these Douglas-Fir needles from a selection of trees. Then we portion up a quantity from each tree to form a recipe within a recipe. These needles are then cold distilled at a very precise temperate and vacuum to extract their fresh flavours. This is the best way to add those amazing forest notes into gin because both hot distilling an infusing produce a bitter tanic taste, with the latter also adding a cloudy green hue which could be considered off putting. Our Douglas-Fir Distilled gin is completely clear with a wonderful fresh nose reminiscent of walking through a forest in autumn.
