Details Written by Nick Breeze Nick Breeze Published: 30 November 2016 30 November 2016

“Leather.. not fur!”

Life throws up unusual invitations on a regular basis. Last week it was a rap concert in a palace, this week it’s a meeting of the cocktail cognoscenti at the salubrious basement hangout, The Worship Street Whistling Shop in Central London.

This meeting of minds was arranged to sample the merits of South Africa’s newly released premium Cruxland Gin. The opening of the imbibing ceremony revealed that Cruxland is made from 100% grape spirit, infused with the rare Kalahari truffle, that grows up the west coast towards Namibia, as well as eight African botanicals.

Like a meeting of taxidermists at a road kill convention, we allowed our noses to twitch above the rim of the martini glass, curious as to the contents. A member of the cognoscenti then proffers a glass of another sacred ingredient: leather water.

The Cruxland gin martini - "leather, not fur!"

The leather can be (ethically) procured from your favourite deceased beast. On this occasion it was from a cow, I don’t know the age but I wondered inwardly if camel or ostrich would be worth imbibing.

Somebody mused that there was a hint “active jockstrap”, but this was dismissed as unlikely. In fact, the the aroma was very attractive. There was a visual remnant of added dark truffle in the glass and the leather water played a similar role to the subtle use of oak in a layered complex wine. A pleasure to taste tending toward the gastronomic; the goats cheese in particular was big hit combination.

So its gamey, decadent, tasty and elegantly pleasurable. James Bond, ditch the “shaken, not stirred” combo and get with it!

(I’m told Cruxland is available at Morrison’s at £27)

http://www.whistlingshop.com/