Page 39 - Beverage MasterOct Nov 2020

Craft Distillery

Every distiller tells their story by showing what ized they did not need to use nearly as much prod-
they find tasteful and elegant through their choice uct. So they moved away from the heavy-handed,
of botanicals. “Like wine, our Circa 17 gin tells the intense flavors Csanky found were present in many
story of terroir,” Caldwell said. “Our use of Oregon independent gins, in favor of flavor combinations
juniper, fresh-cut spruce tips, gardened rosemary that were bold but also delicate. Even-tually, they
and other herbs represents a taste of our environ- settled on a recipe that combines the ten-ingre-
ment in the Pacific Northwest.” dients they list on the bottle: juniper, coriander,
angelica root, grains of paradise, cubeb berry, orris
Distilled in Seattle, Washington, Big Gin is named root, lemon zest, orange zest and cassia bark.
after founder and third-generation distiller, Ben
Capdevielle’s father, Big Jim. The juniper, sourced Presently, Csanky does not plan on distilling other
in Italy, Albania and Macedonia, along-side carda- products. “I don’t want to make a little bit of every-
mom, cassia, and Tasmanian pepperberry, gives thing and do it all kind of decently. I want to make
the gin a complex peppery or spicy flavor, while one thing and be known for doing it well.”
the angelica, coriander and bitter orange peel
add citrus and savory flavor. Now owned by Hood Moving forward, Caldwell of 503 Distilling offers a
River Distillers, Big Gin offers a London Dry gin, reflection on the future of gin. “One of the things I
along with Big Gin Bourbon Barreled, Big Gin Peat love about gin is that within recent years distillers–
Barreled and other Big Gin Single Barrel releases. and consumers–have opened their minds to appre-
ciating gin like they would whiskey. Until recently,
Aria Gin: Dry London Gin Infused With gin has always been given the distinction of a mixer
the Pacific Northwest Spirit spirit, which means that it must be neutral enough
to be blended into an-other substance. However,
In response to this ginned up craze, Aria Portland among craft distillers, there is now the trend to
Dry Gin, established in 2012, set out to pro-duce treat botanicals like a brewer treats hops.”
a top-shelf classic dry London gin. As much as
co-owner Ryan Csanky loved gins like Avi-ation, he
found they did not work when he would make a
classic martini for his older clientele.

“Distillers would use all these innovative and cre-
ative flavors like prickly pear, spruce tips and laven-
der, and build a drink around them. But they don’t
always plug directly into some of the classic gin
cocktails that people like,” Csanky said.

Rather than push the boundaries of flavor even
further than Aviation, Csanky decided to pursue
another route. “We had this aha moment where
we decided to take a big step back and shift our
focus to doing something that is not being done.
For us, that was a high-quality, independent-
ly-made alternative to the mass-produced gins.”

They experimented with traditional English botan-
icals, searching for the right harmony and bal-ance
in crafting a classic dry London gin. “I didn’t want
the gin defined by a single ingredient or a single
component of the flavor profile,” Csanky said. “The
art of this gin is all about how we paint the picture
with the botanicals.”

Two years into product development, they real-

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