Are you a gin lover? Then I found the perfect bottle for you to enjoy over the holiday season.
In the exciting new world of gin, there is no limit to the use of botanicals and flavour combinations. Most of these new craft gins are based on local botanicals to evoke a particular sense of place – so much so that you could easily travel the whole world from your living room simply with a glass of gin in hand.
But wait, you could even go a step further and make this trip around the world in different seasons. Just pick those gins that evokes the authentic taste of a place based on the local botanicals and spices associated with spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Are you getting excited now?
What if I told you there’s a gin that has the typical flavours of the festive season? A gin made particularly with Christmas in mind? One that highlights flavours such as cinnamon, ginger spice, clementine, cranberry, and baked apple among others?
To be honest, there is now a range of Christmas gins available. Just google ‘Christmas Gin’ and you will be surprised about the offer there is.
Recently, I had the opportunity to taste a new release that really got me excited.
Launched only a few weeks ago by a renown German distillery, the Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin combines traditional botanicals with flavours closely associated with the holiday season such as cinnamon, vanilla, orange, and baked apple.
Does it fulfil what its name suggests?
It does. It definitely does. It absolutely does.
This gin puts Christmas in your glass!
About Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin
The Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin is produced by Destille Kaltenthaler, a family-owned and led distillery in the third generation located in the Rheinhessen wine region in Germany. The distillery produces a wide range of spirits under it’s won label but has likewise gained recognition distilling spirits for other brands as well.
In fact, Kaltenthaler is the distillery behind the perhaps more widely known Momotaro Gin brand – a range of Japanese inspired craft gins (including a non-alcohol version too).
Owner and head distiller Felix Kaltenthaler started to craft his very own spirits even before turning 18 – the age of legally being allowed to consume alcohol in Germany. Since taking over the distillery from his uncle, he has passionately created a still growing range of innovative spirits under his own brand.
For this year’s festive season, he has come up with his own new craft gin based on the aromas without which Christmas would not be complete.
And much like the rest of the small-batch Kaltenthaler range, the carefully selected botanicals used for the Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin are entirely based on natural ingredients which are macerated and distilled by hand.
The combination of botanicals particularly evoking the sense of the holiday season makes it a gin that’s great to be enjoyed for a festive get-together or all by yourself!
Tasting Notes: The Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin is balanced and not too sweet with seductive aromas of sweet cinnamon, vanilla, fruity oranges, and baked apples both in the nose and on the palate.
How to best enjoy the Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin
The Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin is the perfect base for a simple gin tonic, using a good quality neutral tonic (to avoid overlaying the gins own flavour profile).
There’s no stopping to get more creative, of course, further enhancing the Christmas flavours by mixing with more of the same or complementing aromas.
The best Winter Wonderland Christmas Gin Cocktails
Christmas Gin Tonic
Serves 1:
60 ml Christmas gin
20 ml apple juice
150 ml tonic water
Pour Christmas gin and apple juice in a cocktail glass over ice. Top up with tonic water.
Garnish with a cinnamon stick and orange wheel.
Recipe curtesy of Destille Kaltenthaler
Christmas Glüh-Gin
Mulled wine is perhaps the most recognized hot winter cocktail. Yet there is a wide range of hot cocktails involving many of the world’s favourite spirits.
It must have been four or five years ago that I first stumbled over the mentioning of Glüh-Gin (mulled gin). Sceptical at first, it’s taken me all but a sip to be convinced.
Serves 1:
150 ml orange juice
150 ml apple juice
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves
1 star anise
40 ml gin
In a small saucepan, add orange and apple juice with the spices and bring to a light simmer (never let it go to the point of boiling) and continue for 15-20 minutes.
Pour through a fine sieve into a glass, then add the gin.
Garnish with a cinnamon stick, star anise and an orange wheel.
Do you love gin? Have you ever tried a Christmas gin? Let me know which one.
Carrots and Tigers 