Old Islandia Gin

Old Islandia is distilled in a pot stillPot stillA traditional still, often copper, that distils in batches. It keeps more texture and character than a column.Glossary, then rectified several times over, which is a slow route to a finished gin. Each pass removes a little more of what nobody wants in a glass, so the spirit that reaches the bottle is cleaner than one distillation would leave it, at the cost of both yield and time. Rectification is what most producers buy in ready-made; doing it in-house is a decision about control.

Citrus · Dry · Spicy

Seven botanicals go through that process, and the list is deliberately classical: juniper, angelica rootAngelicaThe root of a tall umbellifer, earthy and musky. After juniper and coriander it is the most common botanical: it binds the aromas and holds the finish.Glossary, coriander seed, ginger, liquorice root, orange and lemon. The two citrus fruits carry the top and give the gin its immediate freshness. Ginger and liquorice root warm and sweeten the middle without any sugar being involved, the liquorice in particular giving a roundness that reads as body. Angelica root holds the dry, earthy floor that stops a citrus-forward gin from turning into a cordialCordialA concentrated syrup of fruit (often lime) and sugar, made to be topped up.Glossary, and juniper draws a firm pine line from the first aroma to the finish. Nothing in the seven is exotic, which is the point: the interest lies in proportion rather than in novelty. Seven is the classic count for a 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, and every one of the seven is a plant any distiller can buy.

The recipe belongs to master distiller Ragnar Tryggvason and was first released in 2015. A wheat spirit forms the base, Icelandic spring water brings it to 40%, yielding a dry gin that aims at precision rather than at weight.

An Indian tonicIndian tonicThe classic tonic: sparkling water, bitter quinine and sugar. The name recalls colonial India, where quinine warded off malaria.Glossary and nothing clever. Keep to 4 cl of gin, 10 cl of tonic, a tall glass of ice, and a lemon peel by itself. Cold ingredients, a brief mix. A single garnish is the right call for a seven-botanical recipe: anything more would start covering the parts that took three distillations to make audible.