Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin, 50 cl

Product Information

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!” 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. 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. 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. 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.

Black Forest Distillers Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin

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.

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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. 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. 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 500Ml - Tesco Groceries Monkey 47 500Ml - Tesco Groceries

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. 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 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. 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. 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.