Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin, 50 cl

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I simply think that there’s plenty of other gins as good at this one that don’t command such an exceptional price. Process wise, Monkey 47’s still size is what many small scale craft producers are working on. Sipsmith has been known to use multiple distillation techniques of the same plant material, their botanical number isn’t even that unusual— with several others in the 30+ space. Really the only thing unusual is the ultra-ultra-premium price point. It’s a good gin as I point out, but gin isn’t like whisky in that price is often correlated with process, i.e. time in the barrel. And that’s what I’m really looking for in a gin. This gin is certainly beautiful; it’s really the cognac of gins. But I’m looking more for something like Tanqueray, which gets by on just four botanicals (as far as we know). Or even The Botanist from Islay, with 22 different ingredients. But there’s just not enough juniper in this for me. Monkey 47 is one of my favorite gins, I have been drinking it with grapefruit juice, a little rosemary simple syrup and Crude Bitters Rizzo blend. Since it’s hard to find I typically only have it as a treat but it is superb Talking to Gin Foundry for the 2016 Gin Annual, Monkey 47 Founder Alex Stein explained this moment of enlightenment: “I can remember the moment quite distinctly: I was sitting at my desk on a rainy day in Detroit when an old friend from Germany called me up and told me a story that would change my life in a fundamental way. This was, namely, the life story of the young officer and bon-vivant Montgomery Collins, the great-grandfather of our little Monkey.

Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin - The Whisky Exchange

I think the folks who put together Monkey 47 were trying too hard. Like they set out to break the record for the most botanicals in a gin, even if most of those botanicals added nothing positive to the experience. The Negroni was nice as well, with herbal, spice notes at first, setting the stage for an unctuous, fruity finish. Nice, though not as complex as I might have hoped. The zingy citrus is assertive to taste upfront, but gives way to a rich bouquet of flavours including herbal juniper, juicy lingonberries, sweet liquorice, cardamom and hibiscus-like floral touches. Can you taste all 47 botanicals? No. Are they all doing something in there? Definitely! It’s a hugely complex, rich (and as an aside very smooth) gin and very difficult to pigeonhole into a brief tasting note. On the nose, there are numerous aromas and this fact alone makes Monkey 47 a great gin to keep returning to, as depending on your mood it’s easy to find a new facet that you may have previously overlooked. There are prevalent aromas of lime, fleshy berries and a woody forest floor undertone that give the gin both levity and depth. It’s very evocative.As to how it’s made? The ingredients are steeped in French made molasses alcohol 36 hours prior to distillation. For the first five years the distilling happens in what can only be described as a beautiful old Arnold Holstein still. The team combine traditional maceration and distillation techniques with vapour infusion to gather precise amounts of the more volatile botanicals and accentuate certain flavours. Over the duration of 2015, the duo worked with Arnold Holstein, developing a new one-of-a-kind distillery. Nose: Oh there is a lot going on here... woody, vegetable smells under pin fresh grassy citrus notes and botanical sweetness, like a pine forest after the rain. So I guess what I’m saying is that this is too sophisticated a gin for my primitive palate. 😉 But I like it nevertheless as it represents a rarified standard (and with a rarified price) that most gins don’t approach. Fresh and fruity, with a lot of complicated nuance. There’s two levels on which you can enjoy this spirit: firstly, you can just appreciate the way it blends together to create a single powerful presence. Secondly, you can sit down as if to study it and probe the way this myriad of botanicals unravel on your palate. I think it’s rewarding for both kinds of drinkers, and it gets high marks in my book for the complexity and balance. The task when recreating a gin is trying to find information about the original product. With only rudimental records and no original recipe, just descriptions of eyewitnesses and a few key facts such as the use of spruce fruits, classical gin ingredients and lingonberries, the pair decided to recreate the gin as best they could.

Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin | Expert Gin Review and Tasting Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin | Expert Gin Review and Tasting

Which this is definitely not. As a whisky drinker, I find it quite complex, very floral, and almost perfumy on the nose and palate. It is truly an elegant and certainly a connoisseur’s gin. There’s so much going on that I have trouble pulling out the individual essences, and I’m considered to have a pretty discerning palate. The story of Monkey 47 begins in the 1940s. In July 1945, to be precise! Wing Commander Montgomery “Monty” Collins of the Royal Air Force was posted to the British sector of divided Berlin. Having arrived in Berlin after the end of the war and taken up his post in the administration of the British sector, Commander Collins was profoundly affected by the extent of the destruction of the capital and so resolved to support the reconstruction of Germany in his free time. Henceforth he became devoted to the rebuilding of the Berlin Zoo, through which he came to sponsor an egret monkey by the name of Max. Remembering the innovation behind and early days of Monkey 47 Gin, Stein recalls “We didn’t want to create a “brand,” but rather the best gin possible. We set out to produce aromas, not alcohol. For that reason, we shouldn’t be mistaken for typical “spirits producers” or “liquor entrepreneurs”; we are schnapps distillers to the core and, like a perfumer, constantly on the hunt for aromas and fragrances. Simply put the plan was and is quality!” Special Delivery Requests? Let us know if we need instructions for where to find your house or want us to leave your wine in the shed!It really is a fantastic drink, imbibed alone with no adulterants….chilled in the freezer (the bottle is certainly small enough). I didn’t have any problem finishing the bottle, but neither will I go out and buy another (especially at the price point).

Monkey 47 USA - Schwarzwald Dry Gin Monkey 47 USA - Schwarzwald Dry Gin

Don't wait in! We'll drop you a text the day of your expected delivery by 4pm and let you know a 2 hour delivery window The UK’s only retail and commercial drinks specialist. We’ve been selling wholesale winesfor over 40 years. As a country-wide business, we know your customers and what they drink better than anyone else. Hi, Aaron. I’m glad that you mentioned the price. I’ve looked at this gin, read about this gin ( and your coverage was a necessary addition, and quite entertaining ), but have never been persuaded to pay a price which, frankly, makes my eyes cross. I suspect that at some point I will be convinced to reward myself, maybe on some very special occasion or life threshold. Maybe the additional information on the sheer complexity and abundance of the botanicals, and the generosity of its creator toward a kindred primate will persuade me that this is a worthy indulgence. Each year, the distillery also releases a limited edition Distiller’s Cut bottling. The idea behind the D istillers Cut is to harness the inherent Monkey 47 flavour profile and accentuate a certain aspect of it by adding a signature (more dominant) new botanical to the line up, which they refer to as their “species rara”. In 2015, the duo used Spignel to create one of our favourite releases of the year, having been introduced to it at a wedding of their friend, a certain Mr Hardy Happle.Monkey 47 reminded me of a mixture of Bombay Sapphire and Ransom Old Tom gins: It’s definitely gin, but the flavors are unique, and not perfectly balanced– honestly, the flavors are too complex for my tastes. Than’t not saying I don’t have a sophisticated palate. but when you’re talking about 47 separate flavors in one beverage, it’s a bit overwhelming for just about anyone. It’s almost as if they set the goal of including 47 botanicals up front, and once they hit about 20 they just started throwing stuff into the pot, whether it helped the flavor profile or not. You see, this Commander also helped rebuild the world-famous Berlin zoo, and during the course of this he came to support Max, an egret monkey, who lived in the zoo. So it might seem natural that years after the fact in retirement, he retained an affection for the monkey he sponsored, and when he made his gin, he named it after him. So I’ll just offer a very personal view. For the past four or five years, I’ve been trying the many new gins coming on the market, at various price levels. It’s been a very fun and interesting experience to try to get an education in gin, which I hadn’t studied much before, being mainly a single malt scotch and bourbon fan. But at this point I estimate I’ve tried maybe 70 or so gins, including old standbys as well as contemporary craft gins.

Forest Distillers Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin Black Forest Distillers Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin

The first thing that caught my eye was Scarlet Beebalm. I know it as an ornamental plant from gardens [and it attracts butterflies and hummingbirgs by the way]. The Oswego peoples of upstate New York taught Europeans a couple of uses for the plant. Resin from the plant is a natural soothing agent, often used for bee stings and the like. A tea can also be made from the plants leaves. For those of you curious about what it tastes like, it’s worth nothing that it’s also called bergamont by gardeners because its aroma is similar to that of the orange [and other common gin botanical] of the same name. Roberta F. 27. svibnja 2008. Mixed with Hansen’s Tonic in a Gin and Tonic, sweet pomelo at first with exotic herb garden notes on the after taste. Lemon verbena, lavender, garden mint, lead into a citrus-dominated finish with grapefruit and lemon zest. Quite nice.

I have to agree with those who say it tastes like the creators of Monkey were trying too hard, and in so doing they went to far.