Doc Porter's Gin

Rating: 15/23 I recently had 2 really good craft gins in a row, so I'm hoping that this will be a third. N: Lemon heads, a faint floral touch, very faint herbal bitterness. Mostly the lemon heads though. A bit excessive in that direction, but the herbal character makes it smell more like sophisticated lemon heads I guess. Actually, it;'s getting a bit more herbal and even a hint vegetal over time. Still mostly lemon heads though. P: Some nice oil with lemon zest and some prickly spices. Some herbal bitterness. Not a whole lot, but definitely some. I get some touches of baking spices, but not a lot. There is a bit of that Uncle Val's Botanical off-balanced, aggressive, floral, fake sweetness. It isn't too strong though, so it comes across as one aspect of a greater profile. still, that Uncle Val's profile is there and it's a bit off-putting. This is much more interesting though. F: That Uncle Val's jarring flavor lingers a bit as the sweetness lingers and the more complex flavors fade. I'm not a big fan of this finish. There is some stuff goin on here, but it isn't particularly enjoyable. - Conclusion - This is fine, but I'm not that impressed by it. It's certainly better than Uncle Val's Botanical (10/23) though. New Riff Kentucky Wild Gin (17/23) is drier with more minerals, but it's just so much cleaner and more enjoyable. It's clearly the winner here. I'd say that this is closer to the New Riff than to the Uncle Val's, so this is at minimum a 14. It doesn't taste like a full 3 point gap though, so I'm thinking a 15. It could be a 16, but I'm not quite confident enough to go there. I can imagine it, but there's just a bit too much brashness. Eh, this might actually be a 16. I like the richness and variety of flavor here, whereas the New Riff is more traditional. Sometimes a profile like this is fun. Reading the back i'm definitely tasting that cucumber. Plus some other funky flavors. I like the direction that this is goin, but it's a bit rougher than The Botanist (16/23). Yeah, this is a 15 or 16. I will say that the reduced sweetness and floral flavor here make this more suited to a martini than The Botanist. In that context, this is the clear winner. This just has a cleaner profile somehow. Overall, the two are close. This is more aggressive and odd, whereas The Botanist is more muddled and vegetal. On its own, this is kind of challenging, but it works really well as a martini. The Botanist might be slightly better in martinis, but that's a slight advantage, if any. They're quite close. Sometimes I think that this is better in a martini, but I never think that this is better neat. So this is a 15 or 16.