We are taking a small detour to the world of spirits. Distilled ones that is.
Wine has been covered by us through and trough, but we haven’t made much effort to introduce you to some good produce that is a result of wine distillation, or as in the below example grain distillation couple with some flavourings and botanicals.
Fairtrade spirits?
Yet as with the wines we are on our mission to introduce you to some better examples – not just by taste, but how they were produced – either organically, sustainably or fairtrade. The latter means that the growers (read, of various grains) are being paid a fair amount for their produce.
Why is it important anyway? Afterall, most spirits are distilled to a colourless strong liquid that mostly doesn’t taste like the raw material, why bother? The thing is that for a producer to get 1 litre of a strong clear spirit they need to have 10-15 kilograms of raw material or even more if it is a continuous distillation process. Can you imagine how costly it is, how much energy is spent to achieve volumes they sell these spirits? We are talking about huge amounts of raw materials, be it grains, potatoes, barley, rye or corn. If we ensure that everyone in the chain gets their own fair share of profits (growers and producers, not just distributors and retailers), then we are making it a sustainable business. Apart from business motives we are also to look at the environment as we do not want to contaminate the soil, hence organic farming is very important.
We have teamed up with 31 Dover, a fast growing UK retailer, to showcase two absolutely different spirits that you can buy directly from them (or many more others, just browse their site).
The following two bottles are fairtrade, but not organic. Raw materials are coming from Uzbekistan, where those berries and botanicals were carefully grown and then used by the producer in the distillation process.
Let’s explore and taste these two fairtrade spirits from 31 Dover.
Fair Juniper Gin
Aromas are very clean, bursting with citrus fruit (think of lemon, tangerine, grapefruit), orchard fruit (apple, gooseberry), flowers (orange blossom, elderflower) and also strong botanicals (juniper, basil, thyme, rosemary). It is very pungent and inviting, noone can ever mistaken this drink with anything else but a robust style of gin!
Flavours do not disappoint with its smooth alcohol that is there, but you are getting the sensations from all those aromas now on your palate – grapefruits, lemons, apples and gooseberries together with elderflowers and a wide range of botanicals: juniper, basil, orange peel, thyme, rosemary).
We surely call it a very complex finish.
Verdict: very good gin – the finish is not too long, but it is very complex and expressive of gin.
Fair GOJI liqueur
This liqueur is obviously not as strong as gin with its 22% abv as liqueurs are spirits made with loads of sugar (min 100g/l) and flavourings (as in our case, goji berries).
Goji liqueur looks clear and pink. Aromas are quite simple of dried fruit (fruit cake), sweetness (butterscotch) and berries (currants and strawberries).
Flavours are similar to what you’ve already sniffed – with a mixed berry fruit cake generous notes and sweetness. We would never say that it tastes of acai berry. Yet we all know that acai berry is considered a superfood for its great nutritional content, so knowing that acai berries were macerated in strong alcohol before the re-distillation is definitely making is attractive to try.
Verdict: very good liqueur. Its finish is not too long, but shows some complexity of mostly fruitiness. Components are quite balanced and expressive of a liqueur.
Just a small comment on the latter bottle – we cannot not to draw your attention on the high sugar contents of the liqueurs. It is normally more than 10% sugar in this type of spirit, so if you have a sweet tooth you can definitely fall into the trap of a sugary delight here, so just be careful. In terms of spirits you can opt in for sugarless ones like gins, vodkas and good quality whisky (without added caramel) and use them with mixers to create an amazingly tasting cocktail with no sugar added. Watch out for sugar content in your cocktails and spirits. For those who are concerned about sugars in alcohol and wine, but also care about wine and health issues, please check our Wine and Calories article and browse through dozens of useful guides and articles in our Wines and Reviews section. We hope it will be useful for you and your happy and healthy wine lifestyle.
Cheers!
Disclaimer: These spirits were provided by 31 Dover. IBlameTheWine.com accepts an opportunity to try new organic wines and drinks, but reserves the right to publish the review, or to dismiss it as irrelevant. Please contact for more information.
