Barr Hill Gin

Honestly I don’t really like gin at all, but this has to be one of the best finds ever! It’s not to strong on the juniper taste and has a nice honey flavor to it without being to sweet

Juniper and sweet honey.

A nice gin, very honey forward as barr hill has its own bee hives

So this is me branching out: my first time on this site reviewing a spirit that isn't some form of whisky in its many iterations. And why am I doing this? Like climbing Everest, I'm going to give the simplest possible answer here: because it's there, by which I mean, this gin is present and in my collection, and it's interesting. I should contextualize here that often my ratings are based on where a particular spirit fits in with my experience of others of its kind, so if I'm reviewing a bourbon, I compare it to other bourbons I've had, keeping in my price range vs. quality. The reason this gin is currently in the house is that my wife, having seen them on Stanley Tucci's show/instagram or YouTube, wanted to try negronis. Generally, I always have whisky on hand at home, we usually have a handle of Tequila in the cabinet for when the wife is in the mood for margaritas, and there's often a little bit of spiced rum for buttered rum around the winter holidays. I usually don't keep gin or vodka around 1. because I'm not really a mixed drink guy and 2. on their own, vodka and gin don't hold a lot of interest for me. In fact, at the risk of turning readers against me, I tend to think of people who drink straight vodka as alcoholics or borderline, though maybe that's the pot calling the kettle black. In any case, my wife wanted to try making the negroni, and when looking up what gins made of the best negronis, Barr Hill popped up on the top 10. It wasn't number 1 or 2, but was further down on the list, but I had a history with this Barr Hill already. One long marathon night of conversation with my friend Andrew, he'd brought this over for his drink. He doesn't drink whisky and he wanted something clear so he'd purchased this and a bottle of grapefruit juice and while I sipped on Old Tub bourbon, he'd made these for himself. At the end of the night, there was maybe a third of the bottle left and he didn't take it with him. So, I tried it, and it was likely the most delicious gin I'd ever had. My verdict now is that it still is, but of course, I'm speaking as a guy who's only ever tasted Gordon's, Tanqueray, and Bombay Sapphire. So I'll admit my background with this particular spirit isn't extensive and if I care to indulge further, I might find something even better, however, I'm going to guess that with a community rating of 4.25 and a "expert" rating of 96, I'm not barking up the wrong tree and this one high-quality gin. Though when assessing the quality of a gin, what exactly does one look for? I'm sticking the the basics here, nose, palate, and finish, but are there other criteria? The initial smell is one of juniper and honeysuckle, which makes sense given it's made from juniper and raw honey, says so right on the bottle. It doesn't necessarily grow in complexity beyond that, but that's all right because the aroma is pleasant enough, and I'm not expecting it to develop with time in the glass (does gin do that?; experts on gin, help me out a bit...). On the palate you get citrus added to the juniper and honey and very little of any alcohol burn, and the finish has a lingering touch of spice, which makes it quite enjoyable in a way I've never quite enjoyed another gin. In fact, this is the first time I've ever been able to see why you might enjoy drinking gin straight or on the rocks. And while it makes a good negroni, I can't help think that in a negroni Gordon's serves just as well and this should be saved for special occasions when I'm in the mood to change it up and take something aside from whisky straight. Will it replace my love of whisky? Certainly not, but might it open me up to the world of gin? All I have to say is the door is cracked, and now I'm just waiting for further recommendations.