Defiance Premium Gin

Two distillation routes run side by side in Defiance Premium Gin. The wild-foragedForagingPlants gathered by hand in the wild (woods, heath, coastline) rather than grown or bought in.Glossary botanicals are steeped for at least twelve hours in 96% alcohol and then boiled; everything else is vapour infusedVapour infusionBotanicals sit in a basket above the liquid, so only the alcohol vapour passes through them, for a lighter, fresher extraction.Glossary, which catches the lighter volatiles that boiling would lose. The result is a 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 at 40% ABV, built from fourteen botanicals and made in the United Kingdom.

Citrus · Spicy · Herbal · Earthy

Four of those come from the wild: Speyside juniperJuniperThe one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.Glossary, sitka tips from Douglas fir, sweet flag, sold here as tangerine root, and sweet cicely, which tastes of anise. The other ten are the furniture of a classic dry ginDry ginGin with no perceptible sweetness: in the European Union, the word "dry" allows at most 0.1 g of sugar per litre.GlossarySee Dry gin gins, juniper again, coriander seed, cinnamon quills, orange and lemon peel, cardamom, nutmeg, myrrh gum, orris root and angelica root. Foraging happens in Scotland, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and the distillery is open about which plant comes from where, which is rarer than it should be.

The makers describe an earthy backbone moving to fresh citrus and notes of anise, and that is a fair summary. The nose is green and resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary, spruce and juniper together, with citrus peel lifting it.

On the palate the earth comes first, myrrh and roots, then the orange and lemon peel widen it, then sweet cicely closes with its liquorice-like sweetness. At 40% the texture is smooth and the finish medium, dry, with the anise note lasting longest.

Take 4cl and let 10cl of tonic run in over a glassful of cubes, then garnish with an orange wheel or a strip of lemon peel depending on whether you want the drink rounder or sharper. This is the everyday bottle of the range, more approachable than the 57% navy version, and it holds its shape in a Negroni or a gin and bitter lemon. A short pour neat is worth trying first, to find the spruce before any mixer covers it.