Botanicals
A noble product begins with the selection of its ingredients. As an organically certified business, we obtain our herbs and spices solely from organic farming. The full-bodied aromas of untreated juniper berries made this choice very easy.
For a classic gin the juniper berry should remain the undisputed protagonist. However other botanicals such as coriander, lemon peel, angelica root, ginger, lavender flowers and cubeb pepper are of great importance to refine the result. A total of 13 handpicked herbs and spices give this gin its full-bodied character. Hop blossoms and malt round of the gin and provide the genuine Bavarian touch. The result is extraordinary. When our distillers sit together and freshly grind the juniper berries and peel the untreated lemons by hand, a wonderful fresh and spicy smell fills the old distillery and announces the next distillation.
»And so, the greatest work may stand. One mind equal to a thousand hands.« (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Maceration & Distillation
We chose the classic procedure of gin production, beginning with maceration and subsequent distillation. The intensity of the macerated aromas was ultimately the deciding factor for us. The “botanicals” are laid into an alcohol-water mixture and leached overnight. The delicate aromas of the wheat-rye ethanol carry the spices but remain discretely in the background.
Our copper still, handmade in an old coppersmith’s shop, bears the proud name of “Carl”. He has been eagerly serving us since 2008. During the distillation process, our main concern is to preserve the complex aromas of the botanicals by slowly and gently transferring them from the copper still into the cooler. Here too, we opted for the classic double distillation with the raw-distillate/fine-distillate process. Finally, two filtrations ensure the purity and softness of the distillate.
»Cenosillacaphobia—the fear of an empty glass.« (Urban Dictionary)
When distillate and water meet (“wedding”), the newlywed couple should be allowed to rest for a while. After a storage period of 4-6 weeks, the distillate is then bottled, labelled and packed in our production area. The location in the Munich backyard presented us with numerous challenges. Nevertheless, we have continued to develop steadily even during the initial founding years.
We often look back at the times when we filled each bottle by hand with funnels, how we had to laboriously stick the labels onto each bottle using stencils. The many involuntary exercise whilst lugging everything down to the production cellar and up again. We get a pleasant shiver of delight at the thought of the technical progress that we have made in recent years. Piece by piece new machines have been added to make our work a little easier. It has now been about three years since the distillery moved to Aschheim. Definitely one of the biggest steps in the history of the company. But we have not stopped there. New and exciting innovations are continuously being developed.
Tasting
»I can resist everything except temptation.« (Oscar Wilde)
I guess there’s some truth to that, abstinence isn’t exactly our forte either. And to make sure that this exhilaration remains, the pulsating bar landscape is constantly creating new drinks with the allrounder of all gins. That is why it is of great importance that our Gin satisfies different tastes.
No matter if pure at room temperature or mixed THE DUKE Gin always tries to seduce the connoisseur. As a powerful juniper package, it cannot be hidden in blends and always retains its unmistakable character.
Therefore, it also feels very comfortable in the premium league of long drinks, the Gin & Tonic. To freshly round off your classic THE DUKE & Tonic we recommend the addition of an orange zest. This complements the meticulous orange blossoms of the gin perfectly.
Here you can discover more Gin Recipes with THE DUKE Gin.
