Uncle Val's Botanical Gin

Rating: 10/23 N: Floral, lemon heads, cucumber. What is going on here?! This is a really odd nose with lots of bold scents and quite a bit of sugar. Where's the juniper? I do get some alcohol and some prickly spice. Also a little dry leaves. P: Cucumber, lemon heads. Something a bit richer with more umami than the nose suggested. A bit of bitterness, but not more than a hint of juniper. It's sweet, but possibly not as sweet as the nose suggested. I do taste some of the alcohol bite and there is a bit of prickly, dry-earthy spice going on here. F: The finish of lemon heads with a little earthy umami bitterness. The umami is more like some sort of rendered fat than rich, salty meat. A bit of vegetal flavor that is the tail end of cucumber. - Conclusion - This is weird. Too weird. Challenging. I'm not a fan. I will give it credit for being pretty consistent though. There's way too much cucumber here and that citrus profile is too strong. This is weird, not smooth, and not balanced. I don't have a lot of gins on hand, but The Botonist (16/23) is vastly superior. This is very weird. It's challenging. Is it inherently bad? No. But it's not balanced or super complex. And it burns a little bit. A 13 is too generous for this. Is it as low as a 7? No. So an 8 to 12. I'm unfortunately low on spirits of any kind in that range to pit this against. Ford's (15/23) has a bit of a bite to it, but is substantially more complex and balanced than this is, as well as more traditional. My prior impression of this is reinforced. What do I even do with something this weird? And this burns my throat a little bit too. I think I'm bouncing between a 9 and a 10. Wheatley (14/23) has a spicy burn that I think compares with what this has, but it does have a bit moe of a coherent profile, with some full wheat sweetness. It does have more of an alcohol flavor though. This is kind of more fun, but it's weirder. I think that the Wheatley is a substantially better product. But the gap is less than I'd expected, so I'm giving this a 10. This is horrible value and I can't imagine myself ever buying another spirit from this company. What a tremendous disappointment.

This is my go to gin. Hi botanicals. Paired with Fever Tree Elderflower for a power house G&T!

Less interesting less juniper