I'd been hearing about Lurgashall Winery for some time, and was very pleased to finally pay the place a visit. Of particular interest was their brand new Blackdown Artisan Spirits range, currently composed of a Sussex Dry Gin, a vodka and most unusually of all a white vermouth, a first for an English producer as far as I'm aware.
A happy hour or so was spent sampling the produce, which included silver birch wine, rose petal wine, an impressive and diverse range of meads, and some extremely good fruit liqueurs. I came away with a bottle each of the gin and vermouth, so while I was impressed all around I'm going to focus on those. Or should I say these:
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| Nice bottles eh? |
The vermouth (vermuth or vermooth? I feel like I'm bowing to peer pressure whichever way I say it) is by far the most intriguing of the bunch, since it's unique in more ways than one. Firstly it's an English vermouth, but secondly and more importantly its base is the silver birch wine for which the winery is known, rather than the typical grape wine.
The flavour is light and transparent, not at all cloying, gently sweet, but not sticky, and yet with a dry finish (future batches may not be labelled 'Bianco' as those who've tried it, including me, tend to think that it could work just as well as a dry vermouth). I'm also led to understand that it has an unrefrigerated shelf life of around six weeks, which gives it one hell of an advantage over regular vermouths that barely last two weeks refrigerated without losing their freshness.
Now on to the gin. The flavour is again both dry and gently sweet (for a gin at least), with cinnamon and liquorice notes balancing out the juniper flavour, which is prominent but not so much as to be harsh. The silver birch sap seems to impart a quality I can only describe as clarity to the flavour, filling in gaps without overwhelming any other aspect.
To sum it up in as few words as possible, where many dry gins have a heavy-handed pine-tree harshness that can be offputting, this is delicate, but still sharp...cut-glass rather than cut-grass, if you will.
The vodka also has this quality of bite without harshness, just in a more straightforward form.
I couldn't think of a better way to put these ingredients to the test than in a martini.
Having initially tried a 4:1 ratio I found that the delicate flavour of the vermouth required a 2:1 mix, with a squeeze of lemon peel to finish the drink off and glue the flavours together.
The resultant drink was light and delicately sweet, with an appropriate amount of juniper but not so much as to overwhelm the other flavours. To be quite honest, I would be quite reluctant to pair this gin with another vermouth as they seem to compliment each other so well. The flavour of the silver birch comes across clearly but gently. It's a unique combination of sweet and dry that I don't think I've encountered anywhere else.
So, in short, these are unusual, characterful products that are surprising without being outright bizarre, and are well worth investigating if that's within your reach. The brand is at the very beginning of its life, so hopefully they'll be available across the UK before long.
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