Hans Reisetbauer Blue Gin in Oak

Blue Gin in Oak is what happens when the world's most exacting eau-de-vie distiller decides a five-year-old gin is a reasonable idea. The base is Hans Reisetbauer's Blue Gin — triple distilled in a Christian Carl copper pot still from 100% organic, estate-grown Mulan winter wheat, with 27 botanicals from 14 countries macerated between the second and third distillations: juniper, lemon and orange peel, angelica root, coriander seed, turmeric, cardamom, cinnamon, licorice root, and hops among them, proofed with Upper Austrian spring water. Hans then aged it for five full years in Austrian oak casks — a genuinely long time for barrel-aged gin, where most producers stop at a few months — and bottled it at a bold 52% ABV. The result drinks like a spirit that's forgotten which category it belongs to. Expect green cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg on the nose, opening into a bold, confectionary palate of spicy juniper, white pepper, orange peel, and vanilla, with round sweetness and a complex, weighty mouthfeel — Skurnik's tasters land on spiced eggnog, and it's hard to argue. The oak tempers the higher proof so it never bites. Sip it neat like a whisky, build a startling Negroni or Martinez with it, or swap it into an Old Fashioned. From the distiller Food & Wine has called the best in the world at what he does.

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