Demand growing for barrel-aged gin

The gin renaissance has resurrected a practice for barrel-ageing, but as Becky Paskin finds, there’s a fine line between creating a cask-rested gin and a botanical-flavoured whisky

Botanical whisky or barrel-aged gin?

In 2012, when Watershed Distillery opened for just one hour at midnight to release the first few bottles of its Bourbon Barrel Gin, its owners did not expect to see a queue of 750 eager fans lining up around the block.

The Columbus, Ohio, distillery admittedly has a pretty good local following, despite its modest size, and while innovation is at the heart of its existence, owners Dave Rigo and Greg Lehman hadn’t foreseen barrel-aged gin becoming a big part of their offer.

“We’re currently the only distiller in Ohio doing aged gin,” says Rigo. “It’s definitely an advantage and for a while it felt like we were one of the very few that did it – until the last six months. Recently, 10 to 15 other brands have come out with a barrel-aged gin, so it’s definitely a popular category right now.”

Despite its recent success, resting gin in a barrel is not a new concept. Prior to the 1861 Single Bottle Act, most gin was transported from distillery to market in wood, a much safer option than crock pots and cheaper than glass. The process, which lasted from days to weeks, gave the liquid a yellow tinge and slight oak character that more often than not served only to mellow what would have been an otherwise harsh spirit.

One of the earliest brands was Booth’s (founded in 1790), which eventually existed under Diageo’s wing before the sad demise of its aged expression, while Seagram’s, launched by the eponymous Canadian distillery in 1857, continues to lead the gin category Stateside, although most are unaware it underwent a maturation process up until 2010. But it’s only really since the release of Citadelle Reserve in 2008 that “yellow gin” has slowly but surely become trendy again. Only this time it’s not out of necessity; rather a combination of reverence for the past, an endeavour to innovate in a somewhat static category, and the boom in craft distilling.

Business sense

“Aged gins have really only taken off with the craft spirits movement over the past couple of years,” explains Michael Vachon, founder of Maverick Drinks, which imports a handful of American barrel-aged gin brands to the UK. “The reason for that is a lot of these distilleries can do a barrel-aged gin in three to six months, but a whisky takes five to six years. This is an aged product you can drink like whisky in the fraction of the time it takes to make whisky. It’s something for them to sell while waiting for their whisky to mature and just happens to be delicious.”

From just one or two brands available six years ago, the niche category has rapidly expanded to include around 50 varieties of barrel-aged gin, some rested for up to 18 months while others simply kiss the wood on their route from still to bottle. Ex-Bourbon casks are the vessel of choice for most, although, this being the craft spirits sector after all, others opt for less obvious barrels that have once contained vermouth, rye whiskey, red wine or Sherry. One distiller – Jon Hillgren of Hernö in Sweden – even forgoes the oak and ages his in a cask made from the juniper tree. “Juniper wood carries more flavours than oak,” he says. “Everyone smelling inside our juniper casks understands why. The wood gives the gin a very complex juniper profile as well among other very special notes.”

Watershed Distillery in Ohio sold out of its Bourbon Barrel gin in just hours

Easy on the oak

But the process is not as simple as throwing a load of gin into a barrel and waiting to see what happens. “The big mistake distillers make is using too much wood,” adds Vachon. “You’ve got to understand that the barrel will change the effect the botanicals have on that gin. If you haven’t thought about the process of making a barrel-aged gin, it probably won’t work out for you.”

The maturation process effectively softens gin’s more floral notes so botanicals like juniper are less pronounced the longer the spirit stays in cask. Rigo, who ages his Bourbon Barrel Gin for 12 months, says the process “takes out some of that juniper pepperiness and provides a sweeter characteristic”, although he still terms the product a “gin with some whisky notes”, rather than the other way around. The practice of putting an existing gin (Four Peel in Watershed’s case) into a barrel is common, although some have experimented with creating an original recipe with a greater amount of juniper distillate to counteract the loss of flavour during maturation.

Paul Hletko, founder of FEW Spirits in Chicago, Illinois, makes a gin heavy on juniper and coriander before ageing it for around 18 months in new American oak, ex-Bourbon and ex-rye barrels. “The barrel-aged gin is designed specifically for the barrel, whereas our regular gin is not,” he explains. “The un-aged gin is very intense. It deliberately has very big, bold flavours because once it goes into the barrel, a lot of that gets relaxed. Our botanicals are in there aggressively so at the end it becomes a lot more balanced.”

He adds that FEW Spirits considers wood to be “just another botanical” that needs to be balanced alongside every other ingredient in the gin.

Hayman’s Distillers takes a similar approach with its 1850 Reserve, creating a new recipe unique from the other products in its portfolio. “1850 is a slightly different recipe from Hayman’s original,” says chairman Christopher Hayman. “You have to take the wood into account. The wood does impact on the gin, so we had to change the recipe to make sure it is a product of excellence.”

Lack of education

Even the type of barrel needs to be considered. Citadelle founder Alexandre Gabriel claims “juniper berries don’t work with too much wood. You want less of the wood’s sweetness and more of the tannins. That’s why French oak works much better than American oak.”

Whatever the approach, as the category is still an emerging one for modern distillers the “correct” practice of producing a barrel-aged gin has not been defined, and perhaps never should be. The only production aspect seemingly agreed on is that the juniper must remain prominent, which after all is the most important factor.

Production methods aside, the other pressing issue facing the niche category is that of education. Even if you have a great product, the concept of barrel-aged gin is so new to modern bartenders and consumers that neither have a clue what to do with it.

“When traditional gin drinkers walk into a store and see a bottle with an amber colour next to all these regular gins, of course they are confused by it,” points out Watershed’s Rigo. “There is definitely an education process from our end to tell them how to drink it.” The matter is not helped by the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s rejection of the use of terms relating to an ageing process on gin labels. It claims that calling a barrel-aged spirit “gin” is “misleading”.

Desmond Payne, master distiller of Beefeater created Burrough’s Reserve as a sipping gin

Straight up or mixed?

Nik Koster, brand manager of Langley’s No.8 Gin, which despite not producing a barrel-aged gin, is viewing the trend with curiosity and adds: “As always it will need one of the big boys, with lots of money, to drive true awareness, trial and recruitment into these trends. If they get behind it there is a real chance the trade, and therefore the consumer, will embrace it.”

The reception of the barrel-aged movement of course differs from city to city. While Ohio’s Watershed may be finding it tricky educating the local community about its product, New York Distilling Co.’s Chief Gowanus Gin, released in October last year, has already piqued interest from the city’s progressive bartending community. “Now people have had a chance to work with the product a bit we’re seeing some really interesting cocktails,” says co-founder Allen Katz.

Beyond the classic gin cocktails, bartenders are swapping out whisky in Old Fashioneds and Manhattans in favour of barrel-aged gin, and have begun experimenting with original recipes like kids with a new toy on Christmas Day.

But it is barrel-aged gin in its simplest form that could reap the biggest benefits for the gin category as a whole. Served chilled straight up or on ice, the spirit bridges the gap between the world of whisky and gin, serving as a means to entice brown spirits drinkers into the gin category, and vice versa. Desmond Payne, master distiller of Beefeater’s, presents his cask-rested gin Burrough’s Reserve as a sipping gin “because it works nicely on its own and all those flavours come out extraordinarily one after the other with length and complexity when you chill it down”.

No one-size-fits-all approach

However, Alex Nicol, founder of Edinburgh Gin, claims all gins lend themselves to sipping, despite the practice not being widely popular. “If the gin has been distilled correctly then you’ll easily be able to drink it by itself,” he says. “I prefer drinking gin chilled right down and sprayed with a little orange rind.”

Ibolya Bakos-Tonner, global brand manager for Scottish gin Caorunn, agrees. “Provided it’s consumed responsibly, a cold neat gin can be preferable to inferior mixers and cocktails that often compromise the premium quality of the liquid,” she says, adding that Caorunn’s “clean, crisp flavour profile with a fruity, floral, slightly sweet touch” lends itself well to sipping.

Regardless, there must be something enticing about barrel-aged gin to lure the likes of Pernod Ricard and Bacardi into the category – the latter released its own vermouth cask-rested expression, Bombay Amber, into global travel retail earlier this year. Their presence – and huge marketing budgets – will undoubtedly reap benefits for the wave of craft distillers investing in barrel-aged gin, helping to raise the profile of the burgeoning category among trade and consumers and subsequently encouraging even more players to get involved.

If so many gin fans turned out for the launch of Watershed’s oaked gin in 2012, when the concept was still in its infancy, the potential of barrel-aged gin is enormous, although Beefeater’s Payne warns that a sudden and mass influx of new brands could be “dangerous”, and “more than the trade can cope with.

“Let’s see how many are still around in 10 years’ time,” he muses. “Just like flavoured vodkas, these things take a natural course, but we can see that what’s important is compliance and education.”

There are a growing number of barrel-aged gins flooding the market in the US, UK and elsewhere there’s a strong market for gin. Click here to see our pick of the top 10 barrel-aged gins.