:: grandten's wire works gin ::

I was recently given a bottle of GrandTen's Wire Works Gin made here in Boston. Unlike the St. George's gins in the last review, these were less of a straight gift and more of a thank you present for helping guide the distillers with their gin development process. In the late fall, I was contacted by Matt and Spence from GrandTen to attend a private tasting at the Boston Shaker store of some of their gin prototypes. Out of the bunch, I gave my suggestions of which paths were worth following and what I liked and disliked about each. A few months later, I was contacted again for a second tasting at the distillery to try out the later stage prototypes.
Once at the distillery, I, of course, was distracted by their beautiful still as well as the historic space which used to be a 19th century iron foundry where they made weaponry and munitions before transitioning over to wire cable. Once we got down to business, I could tell that the gin had been progressing, and I picked out my favorite two directions. It still was not there; however, they seemed to understand my abstract comments and put it into action on the still for their finished product a short time later turned out to be solid and devoid of the flaws that I had pointed out in that second tasting.
Andrea and I sat down to taste the final version of this gin (along with the St. George gins). On the nose, it was citrussy even though from what I recall there is no citrus peel in the botanicals. The bouquet also presented bay leaf and juniper notes. On the tongue, Wire Works was juniper forward but it was well-balanced with the complex spice flavors; finally, at the end was a lingering mint tingle. Wire Works was surprisingly easy and enjoyable to drink straight which is not something one usually thinks about with gin. Unfortunately, we have not tinkered enough with this gin to determine its full range, but it did work rather well in the Margaret Rose, a gin-Calvados Sidecar of sorts.