Ford's Gin2

Of the 85 or so London dry gins available throughout the world, only a handful are actually produced in London. London gin is one of 4 recognized types of gin and actually has nothing to do with London, the city. London gin is dry by definition, so using the word dry is an unnecessary redundancy. By definition, traditional London gin’s flavor is introduced exclusively through the re-distillation, in traditional stills, of ethyl alcohol in the presence of all natural plant materials and may not contain any added sweetening exceeding 0.1 grams of sugar per liter of final product, no coloration nor any other ingredient besides water.

Sounds to me like gin just might be another flavored vodka!! Now don’t bunch up your knickers. I know that vodka is vodka and gin is gin. I wasn’t born yesterday, but honestly, would juniper flavored vodka taste like gin?

Ford’s London dry gin is definitely not flavored vodka and is actually distilled in London from British wheat and flavored with juniper and coriander from Italy and Romania, and bitter orange, lemon and grapefruit peels from Morocco, Spain and Turkey, with floral notes added by jasmine flowers and orris from China and Italy and spiced up with angelica and cassia from Poland and Indonesia and steeped for 15 hours before distillation. Sounds like this Ford’s gin has a lot going for it.

ford gin label

Let’s go for it! The bottle has been uniquely designed to pour easily and yet convey an old world look. The labels are chock full of information and look as though they have been stamped like a passport from numerous countries. The nose is complex yet balanced with juniper up front followed by citrus notes and vanilla and is bright without being overpowering. The palate also has the juniper front and center followed by citrus notes of grapefruit, lemon and orange backed by floral touches and is full bodied and bright yet highlights the essential oils of the ingredients and, less I forget to mention, it is smooth in the mouth feel. The finish is long and smooth highlighting the citrus flavors over the juniper. This is a well balanced dry gin that doesn’t over do the juniper and doesn’t down play the other ingredients. Tonic water smooths out the flavor further and tends to hide some of the distinct differences in the well blended flavors, and although it works well with tonic, I might just forget the tonic and simply add an ice cube so the palate remains more distinct and pleasant. This is a very nice dry gin and worthy of a place in your bar and mine – as it becomes one of my favorite dry gins.

You can get some for around $27.99 in the 750ml bottle size.

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By George Brozowski

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