Blind gin tasting, Sydney, April 20, 2019.
On Saturday I took part in a blind tasting of 9 gins and I'm recording the group consensus notes here in order of increasing score.
Gin #5 on the day was Monkey 47 - our scores proved to be contentious and the votes were highly polarized. I suppose that reflects its bold personality and unusual botanical makeup. This spread pulled the average rating down.
The nose was mostly described as "complex", ""woodland", "marshmallow herbal", "softly woody and floral" and other similar phrases, however some said "overpowering" or "funky and odd" . The palate was felt to be equally complex and everyone noted a warm, rich spicy tinge towards the end, but some of the group disliked this and thought it was "hot" and "unbalanced".
My notes read: "Very pretty and complex nose; orange blossom; marshmallow; lemon rind; elderflower; forest floor; sweet earth. Soft but bold palate with juniper in mid-centre and a host of other flavours; complex; Thai sweet chilli sauce in the late palate. Long, slow, gentle finish with flowery notes - it just rolls on and on. Tonic doesn't hurt it but don't add too much. This is a very good gin - tasting it is like tasting a single malt".
The group average rating was 3.5, but I'm scoring it higher. This is a great gin for sipping or mixing.
"Excellent" : 88/100 (4.5 stars)
85.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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I do like the sweeter notes in gin, so that may be creating some bias. (not sloe gin though)
I sampled this at a store, and is hands-down the best gin I've ever had. If I were to reserve a place for a modern gin exclusively for sipping, this would be it. Ridiculously complex and very unlike the "London dry" style that would have its own place on the shelf, so it wouldn't be even be redundant to keep around.