Akayane Fuyu Craft Gin

Sweet potato shochu, not neutral grain, is the base of Akayane Fuyu Craft Gin. Sata Souji Shoten works in Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, where shochu is the local trade, and the Akayane range applies that distilling background to gin. The name means red roof, after the tiles of the region, and this winter release comes at 46% ABV in a 720ml bottle.

Citrus · Fruity · Herbal

Fuyu is the winter member of a seasonal set. Six botanicals go into it: juniper, orange peel, passion fruit, sweet potato and eggplant among them, a list that would look eccentric anywhere except a distillery used to working with field crops. Sweet potato is the emblem of Kagoshima and appears here for structure rather than sweetness, and the eggplant is the detail that gives the gin its savoury, vegetal undertone.

Orange peel opens the nose, bright and clean, with passion fruit arriving just behind it as a softer, more exotic note. Juniper is present without dominating, which leaves room for the unusual botanicals, and a faint vegetal nuance sits in the background.

The palate starts on juniper and citrus, rounds out in the middle where passion fruit brings gentle acidity, then sweet potato lends an earthy depth and the eggplant a discreet savoury edge. At 46% the texture is firm and warming, and the finish runs long on citrus zest and light fruit.

A neutral tonic with a restrained garnish keeps the balance: 4cl of gin, then 10cl of cold tonic over large iceLarge iceOne large block melts far more slowly than several small cubes, so the drink stays cold without watering down.Glossary, and a strip of orange peel expressed over the surface. Nothing more is needed, since the recipe already carries fruit and vegetal notes that a busy glass would flatten. It is also worth tasting neat at room temperature before mixing, because the shochu base and the sweet potato are far easier to identify that way.