GINS & VODKAS

London Dry Gin is the most popular style.  It is, as noted above, not necessarily distilled in London.  It is a dry gin and makes for a fine mixer.

Plymouth Gin is thought by some to be not only a brand of gin, but a category as well.  It is made by the Plymouth Coates & Company and is a fuller-bodied gin than most London Dry.  The British navy used Plymouth Gin and a few drops of Angostura Bitters to make "pink gin."  This was said to be effective in combating tropical diseases.

Old Tom Gin is a category of sweetened gin.  This is used for fizzes.  It is relatively unpopular.  The legend of the name "Old Tom" comes from a wooden plaque in the shape of an old tom cat being situated outside a gin palace in England.  The thirsty passers-by would drop a coin into the cat's mouth and wait for the bartender to pour a shot of gin through a tube to the customer.  I'd prefer a glass, thank you.

Genever or Hollands Gins are sweeter and lower in alcohol than London Dry or Plymouth.  These are distilled, typically, from malted grains.  "Oude" (old) is the original style.  These are aged for about 12 to 36 months in wood and tend to have a light yellow color as a result.   "Jonge" (young) tend to resemble more the London Dry style, being a bit crisper.  The traditional "bottle" for these was a stone crock. 

BROKER'S GIN

This superb Martini maker comes to us from Birmingham, England.  The Broker's brand was started in 1998 by the Dawson brothers and they operate out of an old brewery that's been turned into a modest distillery.

They use pot stills for their gin, saying continuous stills are more economically feasible, but the small batch distillation allows them to make a superior product.  And they like to drink their own.

They even are willing to share the secrets of their Gin:
Juniper berries - Bulgaria or Macedonia
Coriander seed - Bulgaria
Orris root - Italy
Nutmeg - India
Cassia bark - China
Cinnamon - Madagascar
Liquorice - Sri Lanka
Orange peel - Spain
Lemon peel - Spain
Angelica root - Belgium or France

We like the front-and-center juniper character in this dry gin and it makes a jolly good Martini, especially if you don't let too much Vermouth get in the way.  One friend says they find having the unopened bottle of dry Vermouth in the same room as the bottle of Broker's is as close as these two ingredients need to get.

We sell this for a very modest price, too.  It's available in 750ml bottles.

CADENHEAD'S "OLD RAJ"  750ml
The Cadenhead firm has been trading in Scotch Whisky since the 1800s.   They started to produce an unusual and complex Gin in the 1970s.  The base is neutral Scottish grain spirit.  To that they add juniper and coriander, angelica root and other botanicals.  This is then distilled to create their "Old Raj."   But they're not finished yet!  To the nearly-finished Gin the add a bit of saffron.  This explains the slightly yellow color you'll notice in this amazing, fasten-your-seat-belt adult beverage.
Bottled at 110-proof, the label suggests serving this after you've observed, at close range, a tiger in the wild.  You drink this once you've returned, safely, back to your manor house.




BOOMSMA GENEVER GIN
Boomsma is an old, long-establish Dutch distiller whose Gins are terrific. 
We carry both the "young" (Jonge) and "old" (Oude) versions.
People are usually shocked to find these gins in the store, as virtually nobody carries these on the west coast.










BERRY BROS.  #3 GIN
The venerable British wine & spirits retailer, Berry Bros. has its own brand of Gin.  London Dry Gin.
Lots of juniper notes to this fine distillation and the recipe also incorporates orange peel, Angelica root and Cardamom pods.

CITADELLE GIN   750ml
This excellent gin comes from France.  Now the French like to take credit for inventing just about everything, from romance to cuisine to art to wine, so why not gin?
The Cognac firm of Gabriel & Andreu is responsible for this (the gin, that is...I don't know if they want credit for romance, cuisine, art and wine, too).
It seems the French used to have a major distilling center in Dunkirk within the citadelle.  It seems the two partners in this distilling project were smart enough to select a site which had a lot of boat traffic, so vessels returning from the Orient always had lots of exotic spices and botanicals.
It's claimed the English used to buy loads of French gin, until they got smart and closed the market to foreign goods.
Gabriel & Andreu use 19 botanicals for this dry gin.  It is wonderfully aromatic and makes a wonderful adult martini (none of this sticky, sweet, green food-coloring apple liqueur in this, please, or we'll have to report you to the authorities).

JUNIPERO GIN   Sale Priced, too

Made by Anchor Distilling in San Francisco (yes, the Anchor Steam Beer people are behind this), "Junipero" is a wonderfully dry gin with a pungent juniper berry fragrance.  I sense a touch of coriander, too, in this wonderfully exotic spirit.  It is not for those who prefer a sweeter gin.  This stuff makes a really dry Martini.

LEOPOLD'S GIN

Leopold's is made in small batches...they distill using Florida oranges and California Pomelos.  Then, each of their "botanicals," the secret spices, are distilled "by the batch."  They then assemble the blend in rather small lots, producing each bottling in rather tiny quantities.
The resulting gin is quite good, dry and nicely aromatic.  

NORTH SHORE DISTILLING

The North Shore distillery is a "Mom & Pop" producer in Illinois, located in Lake Bluff, about 40 miles north of Chicago and close to 60 miles south of Milwaukee.

The couple come from different backgrounds---Dad was a chemical engineer and Mom was some sort of business consultant.  He'd dabbled in making beer and wine at home and somehow they hit on the idea of buying a still and making some spirits.

In producing various batches of Gin, their favorite was "batch number 6".  And so the flagship Gin is called "Number 6."  It features some nice botanicals, but lemon zest and lavender blossoms are the keys or secrets to this bottling.

Number 11 is different and, no, it was not the eleventh batch.  It's a musical reference to "the amp goes to 11," meaning even though "ten" is maximum, they've amped up the volume on the juniper component in this wonderful gin.  There's a spice undertone and almost a resiney element to this gin.  Kudos to Mom & Pop!

BOMBAY & BOMBAY SAPPHIRE
Bombay Gin is marvelous, but the Bombay Sapphire is even more incredible!  You can have a look at their bottle and see the botanicals used for flavoring this amazingly intense, crisp, dry Gin.  The spirit is distilled from grain grown in Scotland.  Bombay points out that many lesser gins are distilled from the cheaper molasses, creating a spirit of less finesse.

HENDRICK'S GIN

This is concocted in Scotland where they make this curious (or as they claim, "peculiar") Gin featuring rose petals and cucumber. 
Their advertising slogan is "Preferred by One out of a Thousand Gin Drinkers ...Which is fine by us since it's not easy making this stuff."

BOODLE'S GIN
There are reference's to the Boodle's Club going back a couple of hundred years.
I suppose that's how this London Dry Gin got its name, the special club brand of a private gentleman's club.

In any case, we carry it.

DAMRAK GIN
This got a rave review in the San Francisco Chronicle in May 2003.
We've had numerous calls for it as a result and it's finally here (the sales rep from the local distributor didn't know they carried the product!).

*   THE NEW "SARTICIOUS":  BLADE

The fellow who was the distiller for Sarticious now has his own distillery and it's located in between San Francisco and San Jose.
You'll notice he's kept to a similar bottle format and the Gin is quite good with the same sort of juniper, citrus and cilantro notes in the recipe.

They made one barrel of gin which was aged in a barrel...this limited production item is called "Rusty Blade" as it has a 'rusty', brown color.

HAYMAN'S OLD TOM GIN

Perhaps you've heard of a somewhat popular gin called Beefeater?

That was made, for the first time, by James Burrough back in the 1800s.  JB was the great grandfather of Christopher Hayman, whose family sold Beefeater to the Whitbread drinks company in 1987.

Well, the Haymans are back in the gin business and their "Old Tom" gin is a dandy.

Old Tom is a reference to the black cat icon posted in or outside British bars back in the day...customers were supposed to insert a coin in the cat's mouth and a bartender would then serve a shot of gin through the cat's paws.  It's a gin based on Juniper, as you might expect.  But they'd sweeten the gin back in those primitive distilling days to improve the flavor and drinkability.

If you're looking for Boord's brand of Old Tom Gin, well, that's no longer in production, apparently.  This, however, is a stellar replacement.

It's the  gin for mixing a Ramos Fizz or a Tom Collins.

MAGELLAN GIN
This comes in a clear glass bottle and the gin is actually a blue color.
It's named after explorer Ferdinand Magellan.  The gin gets its color, we're told, from the inclusion of Iris flowers in the still 
This has a spicy quality coming from cloves.
Unusual.







DOORNKAAT "GIN"
Doornkaat is a nice German product that is a bit reminiscent of Danish Akavit but it's in the direction of gin...

HANS REISETBAUER "BLUE GIN"

Herr Reisetbauer is a marvelous schnapps-meister in Austria and he's recently been making Gin.
And a good one, too.   The spirit is distilled from a particular kind of Austrian wheat...Pot still distillation.

It's got lots of Juniper character, but he uses more than 2 dozen other botanicals to produce this expensive spirit.

Coriander, turmeric, lemon zest are amongst the ingredients.  It shows nice juniper with other spice notes in the background.

JUNIPER GREEN GIN
Here's a lovely Gin that's actually made in London!
London Dry Gin, from London.
The company actually has a 300 year history of making gin and they use organically farmed grain and organically farmed botanicals, for what that's worth.
It's got a nice perfume of juniper with a note of coriander and other spices.
And it's dry.

DISTILLERY 209
Napa Valley entrepreneur Leslie Rudd put this enterprise back on the map, after buying a property in Napa which was once the home of Distillery #209.  He set up a distillery not in Napa Valley, but south in San Francisco at Pier 50.
The gin is quite good and has a nice intensity of juniper, but there's also a note of citrusy/orange from the bergamot.

BENDISTILLER'S DESERT JUNIPER GIN

From Oregon we have this nicely mild gin from the Bendistillery...It's a nice, dry gin with plenty of juniper character.  The alcohol level is a bit less than most gins.
Nice.

BAFFERT'S GIN
They sell this Baffert's brand on the basis of its use of fewer botanicals and that it's a Gin for a Vodka drinker...

Hello!?!?

If someone prefers a Gin without the flavor and aroma of Gin, why don't they buy, uh, Vodka?

So if you like Vodka but prefer the bottle to say "Gin" on the label, Baffert's is your brand.
Bafflingly.

VODKA

HANGAR ONE VODKAS
These are made across the San Francisco Bay and are outstanding.  The basic vodka is a grape spirit and $35.99 per 750ml bottle.
We carry their Buddha's Hand Citrus, Kaffir Lime, Mandarin Blossom and, from time to time, their Fraser River Raspberry.  These are $35.99 per 750ml bottle.

CHARBAY
Charbay is a small distiller on Spring Mountain in the Napa Valley.

The family is of European heritage and the place was started more than 20 years ago by Miles Karakasevic, whose family made distilled spirits in the former Yugoslavia.

Today his family runs the Charbay firm and they turn out some wonderful spirits.

We're especially pleased with their Ruby Red Grapefruit Vodka and the Blood Orange Vodka.  We also have a Key Lime Vodka and Meyer Lemon Vodka.
Very nice!  About $26 a bottle.

TREASURE ISLAND VODKAS
They make three types of vodka...each named after a famous Bay Area beach.

Baker Beach is distilled from corn...it has an interesting spice note.

China Beach is distilled from grapes...

Ocean Beach is distilled from sugar cane.

ZUBROWKA
This is a distillate of rye but it's flavored with some sort of 'grass' that's called Hierochloe odorata.
This is said to be popular with buffalo or bison, hence the term "buffalo grass."
The character is not grassy, though, despite the fact they include a blade of this stuff in each bottle.  The fragrances and flavors have sweet notes reminiscent of coconut and vanilla.

At one point the U.S. government banned its importation, so they've neutralized the offending compound from the 'buffalo grass' and it is, once again, available for sale here in, we understand, safer format than is sold in Poland.

GLACIER POTATO VODKA
This is an American vodka which gives the Polish and Russian vodkas a run for the money...

It's made of Russet potatoes and they use a continuous still which they claim allows them to remove whatever impurities there might be...

It has a slightly more 'lush' texture on the palate than most of the grain spirits...

EFFEN VODKA
From Holland...

It's distilled from wheat in a continuous still, which they claim is equivalent of something like a hundred individual pot still distillations.

It's a big Effen Deal, as they say.

BORU VODKA 
This is a nicely made Irish vodka, named after the first "high" King of Ireland.  I imagine he must have been after polishing off a bottle of this!


Available in 750ml bottles.

LUKSUSOWA POLISH POTATO VODKA
This is a good potato vodka from Poland.  

About $19 a bottle.

PEARL VODKA

Pearl comes to us from Alberta, Canada.
It's distilled from Canadian-grown wheat.

JEAN MARC'S XO VODKA

This is the work of a French fellow who makes this in the Cognac region.  He sources several varieties of wheat and he claims the local water is of a purity that's perfect for distilled spirits.

It takes about 5 weeks to do all the distillations for this vodka...it's distilled, in fact, nine times.

They charcoal filter this, too, using French oak (Limousin) for the filtering material.  And they take a page from the winemaker's handbook, doing a micro-oxygenation process which is said to make the spirit more mellow.  
Whatever he does, it's nice.
A bit costly, though....they're around $60 for a 750ml bottle.

MONOPOLOWA VODKA

BELVEDERE VODKA

CHOPIN VODKA


GREY GOOSE VODKA

VOX VODKA

WYBOROWA VODKA

CIROC

ZYTNIA VODKA
This is a well-regarded Polish vodka made from rye.

SVEDKA
New vodka from Sweden.