Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin Review

Travel Distilled reviews Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin, named for the city of Jaisalmer where some of the botanicals come from, and distilled in the foothills of the Himalayas in one of India’s oldest distilleries.

We associate gin more with England than with the Empire, though plenty of gin from Britain made it to countries like India during the days of the Raj.

In fact it was in India that the gin and tonic was invented when army officers mixed their gin with quinine-rich tonic as an aid to warding off malaria. India as a nation is a great producer of spirits, though sometimes more known for quantity rather than quality. But the chance to taste an Indian craft gin, Jaisalmer, was too good to resist. I was intrigued.

Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is pronounced Jessalmeer and is a historic city in the state of Rajasthan in North West India. Its most famous site is the Golden Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built in 1156AD. It’s one of the few ‘living forts’ in the world, as about 25% of the city’s population of 65,000 still live within the fort.

Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin

The gin is made in small batches in a copper still by Master Distiller Anup Barik at the Rampur Distillery, one of the oldest in India. The distillery isn’t actually in Jaisalmer but in the foothills of the Himalayas, close to the border with Nepal, although some of the botanicals come from Jaisalmer.

The gin is triple-distilled and uses eleven botanicals in all, seven of them from India. Coriander and vetiver come from the fields around Jaisalmer, vetiver being a complex and peppery spice which also has links with lemongrass. Other Indian botanicals include lemon peel, sweet orange peel, lemongrass and, interestingly, Darjeeling green tea leaves.

The Bottle

The first thing that strikes you is the bottle, and the word handsome doesn’t do it justice. It’s a beautiful chunky and heavy bottle made of black frosted glass. The label has the name of the gin and other things in raised gold, to reflect the Golden Fort, and the stag in the logo comes from the Jaisalmer royal flag. A part of the Golden Fort can be seen in-between the stag’s horns. It’s a real work of art.

The Tasting

The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, though, not in the history and the packaging. Thankfully the gin is everything you’d hope it would be from the build-up. It’s 43% proof, and on the nose the juniper and lemon both come through strongly, but with floral and spicy aromas too. What really strikes you is how fresh it smells, like smelling a mix of fresh lemons and juniper berries. The distillation has really captured the essence of those ingredients.

On the palate it is beautifully smooth and velvety, with a vanilla sweetness and so much citrus it’s almost like a lemon tart. And I love lemon tarts. There are spicy notes too, from that vetiver and another Indian botanical, cubeb pepper berries, which have a potent taste somewhere between pepper and allspice. There’s a dash of liquorice as well, which is one of the non-native botanicals.

Summing up, this is a truly impressive craft gin, showing that India can produce quality as well as quantity in its spirits. Going back to it for a second tasting, a week or so later, it was still the freshness and the citrus that were remarkable.