Inginious Gin - It Doesn't Take A Genius To Know This Is Good
Nginious is a new range of gins from Switzerland from the creative minds of Oliver Ullrich and Ralph Villiger, two WSET (Wine And Spirit Education) graduates who met whilst studying in London. Their first venture together was a wine and gin bar called Tiere 4 in Zurich which supplied the capital for the duo to turn their dreams of creating their own gin into a reality. They brainstormed ideas and realised that, while their are a few Swiss gins being made, none of them were emblematic of the country botanically nor had any of them been popular enough to be considered 'The' Swiss gin. Their plan was to rectify this!
The next stage was decide what botanicals to use, not an easy feat when attempting to capture the aroma and taste of an entire country! The pair sat down with a tad over 100 botanicals and, with typical Swiss efficiency, started systematically eliminating the ones that were not suitable; after only a few hours they were left with just 30 botanicals to select from!
Those that made the first cut were placed into four groups and more were cut from the list. It was then that the decision was made not to distil them all together like in a traditional London Dry but to create four batches and blend them together in a process more often used in creating blended whisky. This would ensure that all the flavours the botanicals imparted to the spirit would remain detectable on the palate as opposed to being dominated by the stronger herbs as is so often the case with other gins. This process takes far more time and effort to complete, not to mention being far more costly, but the end results are good enough to warrant it.
Inginious Swiss Blended Gin is full of character, with herbal note and very fresh and well-balanced. It has great complexity and seems very soft and harmonic even when drunk neat. The 18 botanicals that are present can clearly be smelled and tasted, a sure sign that the decision to spend the time and effort creating a blended gin was worth it. This gin can readily be enjoyed neat but it shows its power, however, when tonic is added. Whereas most gins lose their aromas when tonic is added, tonic water opens up the this gin so that it stays present all the time.
The fruitiness in the gin derives from the juniper, barberry, and laurel berries. Besides the typical lemons, they used sweet orange peel and fresh grapefruit for the citrus notes and rounded them off with whole peeled cardamom.
The herbal and spice notes come from what the guys appropriately refer to as the 'Swiss portion”, as only herbs native to Switzerland are used: hay flowers, clover blossoms, bee balm, verbena, hyssop, camomile, black currant leaves, iris, Carline thistle root and galingale.
The fourth and final component is derived from liquorice which ensures that the blend achieves a perfectly harmonious balance of fruit, citrus and herbs, providing an exceedingly pleasurable experience on the palate.
citrus and sweet orange peel, fresh grapefruit, cardamom
hay flower, clover blossoms, bee balm, verbena, hyssop, camomile, black currant leaves, orris root, carline thistle root, galangal
liquorice
Maceration: Fruits are tossed gently by hand, brief, intensive maceration
Pot Still: Small 100 litre batches are distilled under control in the still
Rest period: at least 6 – 8 weeks after distillation
Awards: Silver Medal at San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2015
Serving suggestion: In a red wine glass with dry tonic water, ice and strips of grapefruit zests
Gin is rather unfit for classical barrel maturation, as the delicate aromas are quickly masked by the wood. Thanks to its high complexity, however, nginious! benefits from a finish in a Cocchi vermouth cask. For this limited variant, the regular Blended gin was filled into a former Barolo cask which had had Cocchi Vermouth di Torino before.
The result is a cask finished interpretation of a classical Martini that perfectly combines the complex citrus and herbal notes with the spicy and bitter aromas of the vermouth. The limited Cocchi Vermouth Cask Finished Gin comes in a bottle covered with genuine leather. For each batch of Cocchi Vermouth Cask Gin made, a different kind of leather is used according to the special character of each cask. Each bottle is a unique specimen.
Maturation: About two months in Cocchi Vermouth di Torino casks
Award: Silver Medal at San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2015
Serving suggestion: Pure on ice or as Gin Tonic with Mediterranean tonic and orange zests
For the summer edition of nginious, an entirely new recipe was created. Apart from juniper and blueberries it consists of peach, jasmine blossoms, fresh sweet limes, white pepper and rhubarb. It is easy to guess that fruity-floral notes dominate. The summer gin is a little lighter than the Swiss Blended Gin, with clearly a more feminine orientation. This gin is distinguished by the crisp freshness.
Botanicals
juniper, blueberries
peach, fresh sweet limes, jasmine blossoms, white pepper
rhubarb roots and rhubarb
Serving suggestion: In a red wine glass with Mediterranean tonic, ice, slice of peach and basil.