Knowing the provenance of food has become more important to consumers and craft distillers are benefiting from the interest people are taking an interest in where produce comes from.
Chase Distillery in Hereford, England (near where I grew up) was set up by William Chase as a way of diversifying his potato farming business after becoming disillusioned with the power supermarkets wield in the UK. He started by creating a brand of chips (crisps!) before deciding to distill vodka from potatoes. As all gin starts out as vodka before it is distilled with botanicals, William decided to turn his attention to producing a ‘field to bottle’ gin.
He does this by fermenting apples from the farm’s orchards to create cider which is then redistilled into their ‘Naked Chase Vodka’ before being redistilled with the chosen botanicals; juniper, coriander, angelica, liquorice, orris root, orange, lemon, hops, elderflower and Bramley apple to create Williams Chase Elegant Crisp Gin.
It smells of juniper and pine and Initially it’s very spicy on the palate, (almost too much so), before you taste apple and the floral elderflower.
Williams Chase Elegant Crisp Gin is 48% ABV which is why I think the spicy notes were so strong when tasting neat. However, when tasting with tonic water, more of the apple notes come through and the spiciness was less overwhelming.
Noilly Prat was the best vermouth in a martini, and I found a slightly wetter martini better than dry. Overall I think this is a really interesting gin with great potential for cocktails. I’ll report back!
Country of Origin : England
ABV: 48%
Price: Medium
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