Watershed Four Peel Gin

The citrus nose is beautiful, its smooth and robust and enjoyable even to a person who normally doesnt like gin

Bottle #016645 Considering how much I love citrus notes in my gin, I'm quite excited about this one. The other listed botanicals are quite simple, so I'm hoping the citrus actually gets to shine through. Plus, it's always fun to see if Ohio distilleries actually put out any good products or not. Well, it's hard to mistake that all 4 citrus fruits that were distilled are present on the nose. There's also some juniper and coriander, but these come after the citrus. There's an even smaller amount of black pepper, and somewhat of an industrial cleaner scent. So far, so simple, so I hope the ingredients shine through. The initial flavor is somewhat peppery, and makes you think that this is going to be spicier than it will end up being. The citrus soon takes over, easily imparting peel and pith from all 4 claimed citrus fruits. This turns into citrus oil, and as the finish comes around, also becomes quite sweet, but doesn't lose the citrus focus. At 88 proof, I didn't expect a hot finish, but it's surprisingly less potent that I expected it to be, and instead really finishing on the fruit flavors. This is a fantastic fruited, citrus spirit. However, it loses key characteristics that should make it a quality gin, and don't impart any spice, juniper, or floral flavors very well. This has extremely good potential in cocktails, probably even more so in martinis, but it's hard to consider it a gin when drank neat. If you haven't found a gin that has good citrus flavor yet, then this is it, albeit overcompensating a little bit. Ohio is still on the board for now.

As its name indicates, a citrus forward gin. I learned I was not a fan of citrus forward gin with this bottle and Bluecoat. If you enjoy citrus over herbs/juniper, then this is good for you. Also happy to support my local Midwest breweries.