Hello and welcome to the very last Ginformation post of 2018! Christmas is just mere days away and gin is well and truly ‘the festive spirit’. So, just what do our bar staff recommend you sample this month? Here’s our rundown of some of our favourite festive gins available in the bar.

IQ Gin

Coming all the way from Wallingford, IQ Gin is made at the Black Bottle Distillery and just a straight up lovely gin with lots of aromatic botanicals including orange, lemon, lime, clove, vanilla and lavender. This gin is produced from wash base from fermented barley, it’s a longer and more labour intensive way of manufacturing gin that they say results in a more unique and finer gin.

Pink Pepper Gin

The heart of Cognac is not where you are likely to expect a gin to be produced, but Audemus Spirits have gone and done it. This unconventional, contemporary, gin has (as the name suggests) wonderfully spicy notes of pink pepper with notes of coriander and juniper. Full-bodied it’s a perfect tipple of this year, especially if you sooth its intensity with slices of apple and some 1724 Tonic Water.

McQueen Smokey Chilli

This is the ultimate winter warmer, perhaps not what you were expecting when we said ‘Christmas gin’. But this fiery gin from Scotland is made using chipotle and smoked chilli, along with Bulgarian juniper and lime. The chilli is there but not overpowering and it compliments the other flavours of gin superbly, just right to warm you on those cold, frostbitten days.

See you soon!