Stray Dog Wild Gin

Stray Dog Wild Gin from Northern Greece is one of only a handful of Greek gins and the first to be imported to the USA.

I’ve traveled far and wide in Greece, including all over the mainland while researching travel stories and guidebooks like my National Geographic Traveler Guide to Greece, but even I haven’t been to the remote area in the Aridaia Mountains where this Greek gin originates. Head a few miles further north and you reach the border with the newish country now called the Republic of North Macedonia. It’s a 90-minute drive northwest of Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki, while Athens is a good six hours due south.

This rugged area is one of the wilder parts of Greece where bears and wolves still roam, and the water that goes into Stray Dog Wild Gin comes from the pure mountain springs. The forests here also provide Master Distiller Dimitris Melissanidis with most of the botanicals that give the gin its flavor profile, including sage, fennel, and rosemary. The other botanicals are juniper, of course, along with bay leaves, orange and lemon for citrus, coriander and cardamom for spice, and an unusual Greek ingredient: mastiha.

Stray Dog Wild Gin from Greece Gin and Tonic Cocktail — A Greek Gin and Tonic

Mastiha

Mastiha, or mastic, is a resin taken from the mastic tree, which is a small evergreen that is native to the Mediterranean. In Greece it grows on the island of Chios in the North-East Aegean, and is so associated with the island that the resin was called The Tears of Chios. It’s a sap that oozes from the tree when the bark is cut, and is used in many products including chewing gum and soap. It’s also used to make a liqueur, called mastika, and provides a pine/cedar aroma and taste.

Greek Spirits

Greece has a long history of spirit-making, but with a limited range of drinks that are almost exclusively Greek. These include the unique brandy-like drink, Metaxa, the aniseed drink, ouzo, and after-dinner spirits like raki, tsikoudia, and tsipouro. There’s also a drink called rakomelo, which is a combination of raki and honey, but Greece certainly isn’t known for other spirits like whisky, vodka, or gin. Until now, it seems.

Stray Dog Wild Gin

The gin gets its name from both the wild nature of the place where it’s made and the botanicals grow, and the fact that part of the proceeds go to help animal shelters. But what of the gin itself?

Simply taking the top off the bottle was a heady moment, as one sniff of the gin transported me to hiking in Greece on a hot summer day through forests thick with the smell of pine trees, and along tracks where the air is filled with the smell of plants like sage and rosemary, intensified by the searing hot sun.

Taking a longer sniff, after that immediate reaction, the aroma is a pleasing and complex mix. The pine and herbs are definitely dominant, but there is also a very strong citrus element that will be familiar to anyone who has walked through an orange or lemon grove. There’s juniper, naturally, but it’s way back in the mix, and there’s also spiciness from the coriander and cardamom. It’s a delicate and intricate mix indicating a superior gin.

Stray Dog Wild Gin from Greece Negroni Cocktail — A Greek Negroni

Tasting Stray Dog Wild Gin

The subtle complexity is also there when you taste the gin. There’s a swirl of sage and pine, followed by rosemary, then the citrus comes through… and when you taste the juniper it isn’t strong but seems to sit naturally in among the sage and rosemary flavors. Where it does dominate is on the finish, which leaves you in no doubt that this is definitely gin… and an excellent one at that.

As a post-script, after tasting the gin I emailed the US importer who had sent it to me, Johnny Livanos. Johnny’s family is from the beautiful town of Molyvos on the island of Lesbos, and runs the Molyvos Restaurant in New York. Johnny is a great ambassador for Greek spirits in the USA, and was keen to know what I thought of the gin, which he himself is responsible for creating.

Johnny Livanos of Stray Dog Wild Gin from Greece — Johnny Livanos

I told Johnny about my initial sniff which took me right back to hiking on some Greek island in August and smelling the incredibly rich scent of the pines and herbs all around. ‘That’s exactly it!’ he said. I didn’t know this when I tasted the gin, but it was conceived by Johnny after he’d been hiking in the mountains of Crete, and wanted to capture that very special feel and scent and taste in a bottle. With the help of the Master Distiller, he’s succeeded.

Greek Tonic

What better mixer to go with a Greek gin than a Greek tonic? A new range of tonics called Three Cents has been launched by the guys behind the amazing Athens cocktail bar, The Clumsies. The Clumsies has been consistently voted as one of the world’s top cocktail bars, and they do make incredible cocktails, as you can read about here. Their tonics are equally top class – light, refreshing, clean, and combining Stray Dog Wild Gin with a Three Cents Aegean Tonic makes me wish I could jump on a plane and be back in Greece again right now.