Hendrick's Gin 1.75L

Hendrick's is distilled at the Hendrick's Gin Palace in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where master distiller Lesley Gracie released the gin in August 1999 as one of the first modern craft gins to break from the traditional London Dry mold. The gin is still made in small five hundred liter batches using two rare antique stills, a copper pot still built by Bennett, Sons & Shears in 1860 and a long-necked Carter-Head still from 1948, both rescued and restored after being bought at auction decades earlier.

Eleven botanicals, including juniper, coriander, angelica root, orris root, caraway, chamomile, and elderflower, are distilled twice in parallel: once in the pot still, which produces a rich, intricate spirit, and once in the Carter-Head, where vapor passes through the botanicals in copper baskets, pulling out only their lighter, sweeter, floral notes. The two resulting spirits are married together, then infused with essences of Bulgarian Damask rose petal and cucumber before bottling at 41.4 percent alcohol.

The nose leads with fresh rose and cool cucumber over piney juniper, moving on the palate into citrus zest and earthy spice before a long, floral finish closes on cucumber again. It is built for a gin and tonic garnished with cucumber, or a glass of gin, soda, and elderflower cordial, and pairs surprisingly well with a spread of cucumber sandwiches and other tea-time fare.