Gilt Single Malt Scottish Gin: This Ethereal Beauty Will Charm You Straight Into Bed!

This week we’ve dipped our Celtic toes into the Scottish gin category and have pulled out of our inebriated sporran one cool ass gin for you guys, straight from the mountainous, breathtaking amphitheatre of one of natures finest landscapes; Vale of Leven, Loch Lomond. So, get the drum roll underway and say a big hey hey to Gilt Single Malt Scottish Gin. And if you’re after a new gin to add to your collection with more grace and poise than a Greek goddess, then this elegant, Scottish beauty is a damn good contender! So, let’s get started.

The story behind this gin starts like a bloody bad joke: “a Scotsman and a Spaniard walk into a bar….” yeah, we know, await the cringey punch line, but hold on, there isn’t one; magic! Instead, upon this meeting, these two individuals decided to craft a gin from the finest malted barley with botanicals of the highest bloody standard, then BAM, Gilt was born! Made from the same distiller that produces Valt Vodka, Strathleven Distillery, this gin is made from 100% malted barley, water from the River Spey and distilled five times in one copper pot still. The botanical mix consists of juniper, coriander, cardamom, lemon, cassia bark, liquorice, orange, orris root and finally angelica, so it has a lot going on. But there is one strange fact to this gin's make up. Owner, Ricky Christie, doesn’t actually bloody drink! What? Yeah, this guy is drier than a pub after Paddy’s Day! So how the hell has he produced such a smooth talking gin we ask? Well apparently he uses his, what seems to be, outstanding sense of smell to produce this London Dry style of gin. Well, he must have one damn sharp nose then!

And speaking of noses, let’s get ours stuck into this. Man, this is one subtle gin. Although juniper and citrus snake their beautiful way out of the glass on the first inhale, they do it with such finesse and delicacy; you’d think it was trying to charm you into bed! Next up to smooth talk you is a fabulous waft of aniseed mixed with a sweet stroke of vanilla. It’s a little herby, earthy almost but it also has a warm, malty element to it. But it’s a very soft gin, almost dainty. You feel like you should approach it like you were being handed Cinderella’s glass slipper!

But once you get this gin down you, you’ll soon see how light it really is. It almost gracefully sashays itself onto your tongue, like the elegant Scottish Widow’s woman from the TV advert! Once again juniper and our utter favourite, citrus, is heavily in the forefront but the next flavour coming up eagerly behind is that sweet, sweet aniseed, and it’s bloody great! It adds such a candied sweetness and gives you that great aniseed hit but without it being too overpowering. We also detect a slight hint of creamed toffee, but only an inkling. Again you get some earthiness and a dabbling of spice too which balances out the sweetness nicely and the consistency is quite creamy too.

But geese, this is one smooth dram. You don’t even feel it making it’s way down and we can’t work out whether that’s a good thing or not! Sure, you don’t want to feel like your drinking paint stripper but it’s like someone’s poured pure silk down your throat! Orange pops its head up on the back foot and the finish brings some needed warmth and fragrant spice to the proceedings, and this gin leaves as majestically as it entered. Considering the make up of the base spirit, the botanicals marry up with it like a love struck couple.

But if this gin is anything then for sure it’s gentle. However, if we’re honest, initially we thought it needed a more prominent alcoholic punch, a more weighty kick to your gullet. But after spending a bit of time with this gin, getting to know it a bit more we realised that’s not what it’s about. It’s not a loud and leery gin, it’s not boisterous and it’s definitely a lover not a fighter. We love its delicacy, its tenuity and the ethereal way in which the flavours develop in your mouth. From the ingenious flare of citrus and the toothsome aniseed, to the aromatic lick of spice and orangey tang, it really makes this gin such a delectable dram and an easy one to knock back. Add this to the developing warmth and the creamy constancy delivered by its maltiness and you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that you were drinking pure velvet! This is a gin that needs care and attention when drinking, so treat it well and you’ll be a happy individual!

Pick yourselves up a bottle here

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