Celery Gin ~ The Gin Queen

I first tasted Celery Gin at Tales of the Cocktail last year. The latest gin from Rutte Distillery was on the shortlist for ‘Best New Spirit of 2016’ and Master Distiller Myriam Hendrickx was kind enough to grant me an interview which you can read here.

As with most new gins, it can take a while to hit the Australian market and I did a fair bit of pestering to find out when it would get here! I was fortunate enough to attend a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session last week with the Bacardi/DeKuyper team and enjoyed cocktails made with Celery Gin and Old Simon Genever created by Australian Bartender of the Year 2015, Lee Potter Cavanagh. That genever was a taste revelation and quite unlike other genevers that I’ve tasted and largely disliked.

Celery Gin came after DeKuyper acquired Rutte Distillery. They were looking for interesting flavours for their liqueur portfolio and Myriam pointed straight to the extensive Rutte archives where celery has been used as a botanical in Rutte genevers since the 1800s, and suggested using it to make a gin. The rest is history and the result has been a huge hit and put the smallest distillery in the Netherlands on the map.

Botanicals

In fact, it’s the incredibly fragrant leaves of the celery plant that are used alongside juniper, coriander, angelica root, sweet orange peel and cardamom, rather than celery seeds or the celery stalks we all crunch in our salads.

Tasting Celery Gin

Sometimes when a gin hits the market and it has a dominant botanical, the balanced “gin” flavour is lost. Fortunately, this is far from the case with Celery gin.

On the nose you get the familiar gin aromas; juniper, coriander and angelica.

If you are expecting this gin to taste of celery stalks, you’re in for a surprise as while celery notes are present, it’s not in your face. There is lots of piney juniper and citrus with fresh notes of celery leaves. The flavour then builds with more herbaceous celery, some orange giving a subtle sweetness and ending with bold white pepper notes. The finish is mouth-watering and lengthy.

Drinking Celery Gin

The herbaceous freshness of celery works well with gin, especially in savoury cocktails. Of course, a really excellent gin is super versatile. While Celery gin is a natural choice well in the celery forward cocktails I’ve shown above, it’s also excellent in a martini, It’s also creates an outstanding Red Snapper.