What makes dry gin dry

The Milestone Hotel. The Portobello Hotel. Rose and Crown Stoke Newington. San Domenico House. James Hotel and Club Mayfair.

Batty Langley's. Ham Yard Hotel, Firmdale Hotels. The Henrietta Hotel. The Dorchester - Dorchester Collection. Draycott Hotel by Mantis. The Franklin London - Starhotels Collezione.

Show More. Cookies Policy We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements. Gin actually begins as a malt wine spirit , which is where most of its flavor derives. The distillers will then add various types of botanicals. In this case, the Genever gin does not have a predominant juniper flavor.

Common ingredients include ginger, cloves, caraway, and nutmeg. The end product is richer than Old Tom and is commonly considered by many to be the best version for mixing drinks. This version was once in common rotation by the British Royal Navy. Their pechuga is made by suspending raw meat in the still which is cooked through the distillation process, and whose flavor is imparted by vapor infusion. Meat, being from animals rather than plants, would also be excluded from London Gins.

This clause was present in the guidelines as well; however, it is not clear to what extent this will be enforced, given its rarity. This does not mean that London Gin is vegetarian. The agricultural origin of base spirit is sufficiently expansive to include fermentable animal products like milk and whey.

This means that any flavors, macerations, or botanicals added after final distillation disqualifies a gin from being called a London Dry Gin. The choice to use the vague language of the old European Union spirit definitions caught many off guard.

It is technically possible to evaluate flavor using laboratory apparatus. Some distilleries like Laverstoke Mill home of Bombay Sapphire use Gas Chromotography to identify volatiles in their gin. They can compare the results of a new run against a standard-bearer. The job of tasting and quality control is often still the job of a master distiller; however, technology has afforded distillers another tool for ensuring consistency across batches.

Although the cost of this kind of lab work has declined dramatically in the last twenty years, it may still be too expensive for regulatory agencies to apply and too onerous for distillers without labs to design new products that meet a chromatogram requirement. Until some numerical measures are added to the law, it remains subjective and largely symbolic.

As of , the key takeaway is that nothing has changed in terms of the flavor of London Dry Gin is defined. My guess would be that if distillers continue to confuse consumers, causing consumers to request more regulation: this is likely the future of gin designations. When you catch the note about sugar in the London Gin specifications, it often catches people off guard. Why would that be allowed? London Dry reflects a certain style and method of production.

Even though this gin was created in London , the term is today a quality designation, rather than an origin determinant. London Drys can be made anywhere in the world. If regulations around the production of London Dry are more stringent, does this mean that a Distilled Gin is of poorer quality? Not at all. There are excellent Distilled Gins and truly awful London Drys. Regulations establish the necessary minimum, but producers are free to set the bar higher.