Whitley Neill Blackberry Gin

Tartness registers before sweetness does. Blackberry is a sharper fruit than its colour suggests, with a tannic grip behind the juice, and a gin built on it opens fresh and slightly sour rather than rounded. Whitley Neill uses that to its advantage at 43%.

Spicy · Fruity · Earthy

The aroma runs the other way. Ripe blackberry sits above a recognisable juniperJuniperThe one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.Glossary backbone, and the impression is gin-led rather than liqueur-like, with the berry working as a top layer rather than as a replacement for what lies underneath. That distinction matters more than it sounds, because the fruit in most flavoured gins is doing the opposite: covering a base rather than sitting on one.

On the palate the dark berry arrives fresh and tangy, then juniper reasserts itself and brings back the dryness and the lift. The house botanicals support the middle with a gentle spice and herbal tone, giving the whole thing depth and keeping the finish structured rather than letting it fade into fruit. The close is clean and moderately dry, blackberry lingering with a lightly earthy impression beside the juniper.

Tonic and a simple garnish let the fruit show without dressing it up further. It also holds in cocktails that want a berry note built into the spirit rather than added as a liqueur, which is the useful thing about a fruit gin that stayed dry: it can be measured like a gin rather than like a sweetener. Blackberry is the least sugary of the dark berries and the one that carries the most structure, and choosing it over blackcurrant or raspberry is the decision the whole profile rests on. Fruit gins are usually judged on how much fruit they carry. This one is better judged on how little sugar arrived alongside it, and on how much structure survived.