G'Vine Nouaison Gin

If you ask a Frenchman what he knows about making great Gin he will answer, “C’est simple … treat it like Cognac, missure.”  
 
The G’vine distillery has redefined Gin. Instead of using a grain spirit, like most Gin distillers, they use a grape sprit, infused with the rare vine flower’s berry, which blossoms only for a few days in the summery days of June. The delicate grape berries are immediately hand-picked and macerated in the neutral grape spirit over a period of several days to obtain the best floral essence. The infusion is then distilled in a small Florentine pot still. This Gin is produced in the region of Cognac, where they certainly know their grapes.   
G’Vine Nouaison Gin … first, get over the fact that it is made from distilled grape spirits. It’s a good thing.  France is almost synonymous with grapes culture, from wine to champaign to cognac. It should not be surprising that they have a little extra fruit-of-the-vine available for other purposes. And it makes sense.  In fact, back in the 13th century the very first juniper liquors—of which Gin is the most notable one—were steeped in grape alcohols.   
 
If you distill wine once and age it, you get brandy or cognac.  If you distill it several times and add a wonderfully unique set of botanicals, you get G’Vine Nouaison Gin. And you will like the silky texture and smooth character mouth-feel that using grape instead of grain alcohols brings to this Gin.   
 
Far from hiding their love of all things grape, the “bon gens” at G’Vine embrace their grape-i-ness and run with it—adding rare and fugitive grape flower extract to their list of botanical infusions. The roster of ingredients goes on to include much of what you expect—juniper berries, licorice, coriander, green cardamom, and a bit of lime—and some more unique ones too, including cubeb berries and nutmeg.  It is a departure from your traditional Gin … and that’s a good thing.