Smoke and Zest just the ticket for Darnley’s

Darnley’s Gin has launched Smoke and Zest, the second in its limited-edition Cottage Series, which celebrates the stories of the botanicals found around its Fife distillery and beyond. Locally grown barley along with the quest to create a ‘smoky gin’ is the inspiration behind this recipe that is made in the London Dry style.

Darnley’s distiller Scott Gowans experimented with numerous methods and collaborated with his family and the Kingsbarns Distillery team to create this flavour profile. The new recipe celebrates the Fife grown barley that has been selected for Darnley’s sister brand Kingsbarns single malt whisky, which is distilled in the same location at East Newhall Farm, outside the village of Kingsbarns.

Scott enlisted the help of his family who own a commercial smoker, to steep and slowly smoke the malted barley over pine wood chips. The introduction of Lapsang Souchong tea, also traditionally smoked over pine wood, brings an exotic second smoky botanical note to the gin, before cool menthol notes come through.

Using rowanberry and coriander from the distillery grounds, along with orange peel from Turkey, the gin also has a sweet and zesty flavour to it.

Scott says: “Creating a smoky gin has been an exciting development project and for this second Cottage Series release, I was once again inspired by botanicals that can be found around the distillery.

“Orange peel and rowanberry were the starting point for Smoke & Zest, the latter is also known as Mountain Ash so it inspired me to explore matching the zesty citrus with smoke notes. Taking cues from Lapsang Souchong tea production, I experimented by smoking Fife grown barley over pine wood chips. Barley fields surround the distillery and my colleagues prize this local produce to make their Kingsbarns Single Malt whisky.

“The finished gin is unusual, but it is also very approachable and still has juniper at its heart. It’s an amazing marriage of orange and zest flavours up front, with a malty character and a smoke intensity that grows over time.”

Initially developed in a mini still in the Darnley’s Gin Cottage, the recipe was scaled up for full distillation using a combination of traditional distillation and vapour infusion. The signature botanicals, smoked barley and Lapsang Souchong tea, are measured into a muslin bag and placed in the vapour basket above the pot still holding the neutral grain spirit and the other five botanicals: juniper, angelica, coriander, rowanberry and orange peel. The vapour infusion stage of the process allows the delicate smoky flavours to be embedded in the spirit.

Darnley’s family owner, William Wemyss commented: “Scott’s botanical research into rowanberry was serendipitous as creating a smoky gin has been on our wish list for quite some time. Using a smoked version of the key ingredient in creating our single malt whisky as a signature botanical in our Cottage Series release ‘Smoke and Zest’, brings those two worlds together in the most unique way”.

Just 2,400 bottles of Darnley’s Gin ‘Smoke and Zest’ have been produced in a 50cl bottle at 42.5% ABV. Smoke and Zest is available at Darnley’s Gin Distillery and via its online shop www.darnleysgin.com for £29.95.