The recently moved Reece was back in Vancouver to host the first Flavour Camp of 2025. This is her 4th year of teaching layman’s and industry how to taste spirits in an unpretentious way. Each session she changes the bottles, and each year she changes the format, in order to keep things fresh for repeat students.
After the overview of the session and product category, we learned what to look for in gin and what the tasting notes of each brand are, before being left to work through what is what ourselves with 45 minutes to taste. This is a blind tasting, taste challenge. You don’t know which gin is which, but know about each gin that you are tasting. Doing this helps to hone and develop our sensory skills.
The newest element introduced in these latest classes is evaluating each spirit blind, speaking to Reece’s time and experience as a judge. We were asked to scale distinctiveness, value for price, and bottle appearance. Taking an overall sensory assessment, noting that quality is not necessarily how it tastes or if you like it, but how it is interpreted as a sales product. And that personal enjoyment is just as important.
Gin is vodka steeped or macerated with juniper, followed by a mix of berries and botanicals used to create something unique. Basically anything edible can be added to gin to give it its own taste. For example, classic gin like London Dry style uses botanicals that gives the spirit a potpourri and forest essence.
Classic style gins categories include London Dry, Old Tom, Genever, Plymouth, Sloe Gin, and Dry Style. Done using either Maceration steeping or Vaporous infusion to distill.
Today we were trying modern, non-traditional style gins. Basically any and all gin that doesn’t fit into the categories above. Many made by compounding, which is a quicker process using tinctures or synthetics and extracts to flavour. Four of which were dry style gins that were juniper heavy, the other four with juniper in the back-burners.
Gin has 10 different Flavour Camps. A collection of descriptors curated to better define the spirit between classic dry, floral, citrus, fruity, herbal, wild, toasty, savoury, spiced, and treat. The latter most especially peaked my interest, but none of the gins we had today would feature it. Therefore reason to return for a future Flavour Camp that does.
As a brief overview of each bottle we learned that Ceder’s Crisp is non-alcoholic, but it carries the flavour of gin, as a faux-spirit meant to be mixed.
The Isle of Harris Gin is distinctly made with a sweet sugar kelp.
Roku Gin has the faint essence of yuzu and matcha.
Hendrick’s is the introductory gin for most, a familiar package and one that is synonymous with gin as a category.
Dillion’s Dry Gin 7 has cardamon and it reminded me of a peppery chai.
Heights of Arrows was new, made with mostly juniper, plus sea salt and beeswax for a fuller body beverage. I surprisingly got grapefruit from this.
Empress 1908 Oaken Gin Barrel is new and won’t be released at local BC Liquor Stores until June 2025, but we were one of the firsts to get a taste thanks to Flavour Camp. One of the main reasons I like attending these sessions is for the ability to try the new and the exclusive. We got to do so a month earlier than its intended release. Its barrel aging makes for a good transition from gin to whisky. Although it didn’t taste like gin, more like a watered down cocktail, and not a spirit you would mix with tonic as is.
The room liked the Glendalough wild rose gin in a faint pink hue. This one we all agreed that we would enjoy straight.
In short, this was a lovely and informative class, plus a great way to learn more about gin.
