Brighton Gin

The base spirit is the part of a gin that almost nobody mentions, and here it heads the label: 100% organic wheat. Brighton Spirits Company distils on the south coast of England, and the botanical recipe stays private, so the wheat and the finished character are what there is to go on.

Citrus · Organic · Dry

Wheat matters because of what it does not do. Distilled properly it is softer and rounder than grain alternatives, with a faint sweetness and none of the sharp edge that a harsher base pushes into the aroma, and that softness is why the citrus here reads as fresh rather than aggressive. Organic wheat also costs considerably more than the commodity alternative, a decision taken well before flavour enters the discussion. Citrus is the leading character, bright at the top of the nose and carrying straight through the palate, and then the whole thing turns firmly dry at the close, which is the contrast the bottle is built on: the opening suggests something rounder than what the finish delivers. Nothing is sweetened, nothing is smoothed over, and the London DryLondon DryA style, not a place of origin: every flavour comes from distilling natural botanicals. After distillation only water and a trace of sugar may be added, with no flavouring or colouring.GlossarySee London Dry gins classification is honoured rather than borrowed. Organic certification runs through the production, the bottling is vegan-certified, and the wax seals are dipped by hand, which tells you the scale involved more clearly than any claim about craft.

Tonic and a slice of orange is what the producer recommends, and it is worth following exactly. Orange is a rounder citrus than lemon and it meets the wheat rather than fighting it, where a sharper garnish would double the top and leave the finish looking severe. Use a plain tonic and a glass that is properly cold. A gin that names its base spirit and hides its botanicals is being unusually honest about where the character actually starts. It ends citric, crisp and dry.