Cold River Gin
Cold River Gin, launched in August 2010, adds an exciting new dimension to the Maine Distilleries’ portfolio.
Cold River Gin’s potatoes are grown from seed to spud at family-owned Green Thumb Farms in Fryeburg, Maine. Cold River Gin, born of the same potatoes, the same water, the same still, and the same hands as Cold River Vodka, offers to gin lovers the same unequalled quality and attention to detail that Cold River Vodka has to vodka aficionados around the world.
Cold River Gin is entirely handcrafted at the Maine Distilleries’ facility in Freeport, Maine. Every bottle is hand-numbered, a sign of this craftsmanship. Cold River Gin is gluten-free and 100% all natural.
The Secret of the Still
Cold River Gin is produced using alcohol made from Maine potatoes and a secret blend of seven traditional botanicals: juniper berries, coriander, lemon peel, orange peel, orris root, angelica root and cardamom. The recipe dates back to the early days of British gin.
To create Cold River Gin, the secret blend of botanicals is steeped in an alcohol/water solution within the pot still for several hours. This steeping process allows the alcohol to infiltrate the botanicals and begin to take on their essential flavors. The solution is then distilled, resulting in a very high proof gin spirit with the perfect balance of botanical flavor. This gin spirit is then blended with the same pristine spring water that gives the gin its name, water drawn from the Cold River Aquifer at the Green Thumb Farms. Cold River Gin is bottled at 94 proof (47% alcohol by volume).
Cold River Gin has Good Taste
However, as any tried and true gin lover knows, the real thrill of the gin is in the taste. Good taste is about balance and it is the balance of the botanicals that makes Cold River Gin one of the world’s most exquisite gins.
The alcohol itself is the canvas upon which the taste of Cold River Gin is built. It is clean, assertive and vaporous, carrying with it a fully juniper forward aroma. This includes hints of resin, fresh cut cedar, a brilliant sap-like spiciness, and bracing bitterness. Balancing the juniper nose are aromas of lemon peel, crushed coriander, and orange peel, providing an herbal element and citrus brightness. On the back end of the nose is angelica root, woody, floral and earthy. Perfectly paired, the creamy warmth of the alcohol and fresh astringency of juniper berry fill the mouth, each enhanced by aromatic citrus. This taste is off-dry, exquisitely balanced and invigorating. Deep juniper flavors and lemon bitterness follow, balanced by sweet orange and coriander in the mid-palate. The bitterness of the angelica root tempers the orange and compliments the juniper in the mid-palate. The freshness of the lemon peel combines with the herbal and mint-like spiciness of cardamom. The citrus elements finish first, leaving clean juniper flavor, the spice cardamom and the bitterness of the angelica root. The finish is long, well-balanced, warm and dry.
Cheers!
