Maker: Corsair, Bowling Green, Kentucky

ABV: 44% (label shown is a different edition)

Neat: Crystal clear in the glass, on the nose, alcohol as expected, but I get a lot of old-fashioned candy flavors in the nose. I can’t quite pick it out, but I’m getting licorice, anise and especially horehound. Yes, horehound. Look it up. The herbal candy notes really come into their

own on the palate. The finish is short, but this gin is very drinkable neat.

G & T (w/Canada Dry Tonic)

On the nose and on the palate, as one might expect the tonic is leading the way, perhaps because I added a little too much. Where Corsair gin makes its presence known is in the finish. It’s long for a G & T (especially a drowned one) and the bitterness of the quinine in the tonic is seamlessly intergrated into the horehound and licorice flavors of the gin. This is a thinking person’s G & T.

Dry Martini (w/Noilly Pratt Vermouth)

The herbal aroma of the vermouth dominates on the nose, but the aromatics from the gin are discernable and complementary. On the palate, the gin is the star. Big sweetness, followed by the wonderful botanicals: anise, horehound, maybe some clove. The finish is long and sweet with those wonderful botanicals lingering as the drink keeps tingling on my lips

Parting Words

It’s a rare gin that tastes as good (or maybe even better) neat than mixed. But this is an exceptional product, one that epitomizes what successful micro-distilling looks like. Even with unaged spirits like gin, micros cannot hope to go head to head with the big boys. What they can and should do is offer products like Corsair Gin that are different from anything that is being offered from the macro-distillers. For a change of pace, Corsair gin really hits the spot.