Aria Portland Dry Gin

Aria is the only thing Martin Ryan Distilling makes, and that's the point. Bartenders Ryan Csanky and Erik Martin spent four years researching and fine-tuning one gin — a London Dry by way of Portland — before launching it in 2012 out of borrowed space at Bull Run Distillery, with Lee Medoff, a co-founder of House Spirits, at the stills. By 2015 they had their own facility in Northwest Portland, and they've never added a vodka or a whiskey since; as Csanky puts it, having a stove doesn't mean you cook Thai food. The recipe is ten botanicals, listed plainly on the bottle: juniper, angelica, coriander, cardamom, grains of paradise, cubeb berry, orris root, cassia bark, lemon peel, and orange peel, all organic and fair trade, over a 100% grain base, pot distilled and bottled at a pleasantly strong 45% ABV. It took Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The Gin Is In called it really well made and nicely balanced — proof American distillers can hold their own with gin's elder statesmen — more traditional than most Northwest gins, but far from a one-note juniper bomb; a garden of juniper with a few other flowers for color. Willamette Week called it exceptional, complex but direct. Designed by bartenders for bartenders: it's the Portland gin for a Martini above all, and it holds its shape in any classic. Superbly balanced, and perfectly good neat.

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