Stone Pine Black Truffle Gin 2017

Nose: Earth, licorice, smoke (!) and a sweet, grassy compost-like aroma. After a while as you become accustomed to the unusual facets of the nose the more expected juniper elements come forward, together with a fragrant spicy note. It's not unlike a bowl of potpourri based on fragrant bark and roots. Palate: Rich, meaty, earthy, savory and herbal. There is a strong farmyard quality to it that is very unusual. The texture is full and satisfying. Finish: Long. The earthy spice flavours linger for ages. The nose is remarkable with it's truffle-based, humus-and-manure notes and once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite compelling. There is no citrus at all and no floral notes, which is very unusual for a gin. This is solidly herbal and spice-based with ingredients that include orris root, coriander seed and black pepper beside the black truffle. The palate is similarly rich, oily and spicey in nature with the juniper note plainly visible in the background. The texture is heavy and full - in some ways this is more like genever than gin. The distillery recommends this for use in a martini, or with just a dash of soda water, but personally I think that while it is intriguing as a neat drink it is ruined by any sort of dilution. It's very strength of personality is the thing preventing its use as a mixer. Adding soda made it seem suddenly thin and unsatisfying. As for tonic water - don't even consider it. While the bitter and fragrant nature of tonic is a perfect compliment to the sweet, aromatic juniper and citrus character of almost all gins, it is a terrible combination in this case, producing a distasteful result rather like insecticide. A laudable experiment, but one of very limited appeal. It's the sort of thing you taste at a distillery and buy for the sake of curiosity and to have as an occasional neat dram, but you would never buy it as a staple for the bar. Very hard to rate. I enjoyed it but it's quirky in the extreme and anyone looking for a standard style of gin would find this disgusting. I'm giving it a compromise rating of "Above Average". It is no longer available but when it was the price was quite high, and frankly I would probably never have bought a bottle. It's something of a Frankenstein monster - fascinating, even compelling, but basically a freak. Many thanks to Wei for the 30ml tasting sample. "Above Average" : 80/100 (3 stars)