More about this unique Distiller's Cut gin - LIMITED EDITION
YORK GIN DISTILLER'S CUT: ForaGIN
TASTING NOTES
A beautifully-balanced gin combining classic dry gin botanicals and bright summer notes. Honeyed lime tree flower leads over the soft, fruity chamomile of pineapple weed, while hogweed seed adds bright notes of orange, cardamom and ginger. Underneath runs a thread of aniseed from cow parsley seed.
This Distiller's Cut is 47.5% ABV (alcohol by volume).
ABOUT THIS SMALL-BATCH GIN
This Distiller's Cut is created at York Distillery, a home of York Gin. To develop this gin, we distilled small quantities of locally-foraged botanicals separately in small copper stills. Distilling each foraged plant on its own allowed us to identify each plant's flavour characteristics. We then blended these distilled spirits into our gold-award-winning London Dry gin by hand, measure by measure, until this new Distiller's Cut came perfectly into balance.
FORAGED IN YORK
ForaGIN's four foraged botanicals from the meadows and riverbanks of York are: lime tree flower, pineapple weed, hogweed seed and cow parsley seed. York expert forager Carl Wain hand-picked each of these plants over the summer - and our distillers set to work at York Distillery to create this Distiller's Cut gin.
PERFECT SERVES
Gin & Tonic: Use large ice cubes so they melt slowly, and a premium light or Mediterranean tonic. Garnish with a strip of orange peel, echoing the hogweed's citrus-and-spice, or a twist of lemon.
The Meadow Spritz: A summery, sparkling serve. Add a measure of gin to a champagne flute, top with chilled sparkling wine. Garnish with lemon. Bright, floral and easy!
Foraged Collins: Half-fill a tall glass with ice. Add a double ForaGIN, a little sugar syrup and fresh lemon juice to taste, then top with soda and stir. Garnish with lemon.
Other drinks to try: Martini, French 75, or try the gin neat over ice - to truly appreciate the botanicals on their own.
MEET THE FORAGER
The wild botanicals in this ForaGIN are gathered by Carl Wain, a York forager who leads the popular Planet South Bank foraging walks along the south bank of the Ouse, around Danesmead Wood, Millennium Fields and Nun Ings, the very stretch of riverbank where he foraged the special botanicals in this gin.
Carl's knowledge of York's edible landscape - and crucially, the optimal time to forage - is key to the character of this gin.
Away from the hedgerows, Carl is Deputy Chief Executive of Age UK York, a local, independent charity supporting older people across the city. In recognition of Carl's contribution to this first York Gin Distiller's Cut gin, a donation of £2 to Age UK York will be made with the sale of every bottle.
"Every plant in this gin grew wild within a walk of the city. Hogweed seed that smells of cardamom and orange, lime blossom loud with bees, cow parsley frothing the lanes in May. York's riverbanks and hedgerows are a larder most people walk straight past. It's a real pleasure to see them distilled into a lovely spirit."
– Carl Wain
MORE DETAILS OF THE FORAGED BOTANICALS
Lime Tree Flower, Tilia cordata. Mallow family (Malvaceae). Foraged near Campleshon Road.
Sweet, honeyed and softly floral, with a faint citrus lift, the scent of a lime avenue in midsummer. (Nothing to do with the citrus lime, the 'lime' here is the old English name for the linden tree.) Bees adore the blossom, and people have brewed it into calming teas for centuries.
Hogweed, Heracleum sphondylium. carrot family (Apiaceae). Foraged on the south bank of the river, Nun Ings.
The forager's treasure. The green seeds carry cardamom, orange peel and a warm hit of ginger: bright, citrus, spicy and unmistakable. The flower-heads look a little like sprays of broccoli. Its genus is named after Hercules, for its sheer size and vigour. Not to be confused with Giant Hogweed, which is dangerous.
Cow Parsley Seed, Anthriscus sylvestris. carrot family (Apiaceae). Foraged at Nun Ings.
The flowers that line many York lanes in May. The seeds bring a green, aniseed-and-chervil note, herbaceous and lightly spicy. Leaves, stalk and seed are all edible; it's a close cousin of the kitchen herb chervil.
Pineapple Weed, Matricaria discoidea, daisy family (Asteraceae). Foraged on the south bank of the river, Nun Ings.
Crush one of the little domed flowers and it smells of pineapple, with apple and soft chamomile, sweet, fruity and gentle. A wild relative of chamomile, it thrives in the toughest of places: path edges, gateways and yards, growing wherever feet and wheels compact the ground.
This is the first of Distiller's Cut gins, made with distillates from York Distillery. Each will be a limited run.
