Blackwood Dry Gin is gin based on alcohol distilled from barley and maize.
It is a pale green colour, and has a more intense aroma than many other gins.
It is called a vintage gin, not because it’s aged, which it’s not, but because the botanicals used in it change each year so that each year’s batch will taste slightly different.
In the flavourings, the juniper used in gin has been de-emphasized. The flavouring mixture draws on local flavourings of “wild water mint”, angelica, juniper berries, “sea pink”, plus other imported flavourings such as coriander seeds, dried lemon peel, dried orange peel, cassia bark, liquorice root powder, ground nutmeg, cinnamon bark and orrisroot powder.
The distillery is on the main Shetland island, just north of Lerwick, the capital of the islands. The water water comes from a well at nearby Heglibister. The distillery is run by Caroline Whitfield, Her gung-ho attitude belies the fact that she is originally from Canada: “The single biggest thing that stops people doing something is the presumption that there must be a reason not to.”
While distilled on the island, the gin is actually bottled on the mainland. The fear is that sea transportation to the mainland might break too many bottles
The gin is 40% alcohol; Atlantic Strength is 47.5%.
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[1] Caroline Whitfield quoted in “Spirit World” by Will Hide. Delicious, January 2005, Issue 14, London. pp 48 – 50.