Silverback Mountain Strength
Silverback Mountain Strength Gin – Gorilla Spirits: 46%ABV
Botanicals: juniper, angelica, calamus root, sweet orange, coriander, acacia blossom, lemongrass
Gorilla Spirits are a small distillery with big ideas and an almost obsessive attention to detail. They are based at Four Marks in Hampshire where they built the distillery from the ground up and started shipping their gin, produced in batches of 250, in December 2015.
While the gin was being formulated Peter Spanton’s No.9 Cardamon Tonic was used as the primary reference tonic and is seen as the ideal pairing with Silverback Mountain Strength Gin.
Gorilla Spirits are also working with the Gorilla Organisation to help save the last 880 Gorillas’ in the World. £1 from every bottle is donated to the cause.
On the nose, first up is coriander, chased by orange-peel then a touch of lemongrass.
Neat, juniper is subtle and it is left to the more unusual of the botanicals to give things a twist with Calamus Root bringing some warmth and spice, Acacia Blossom adding a sweet note and lemongrass cleaning up with a refreshing citrus finish. Using Calumus Root and Acacia Blossom are nice touches and illustrate the attention to detail lavished on this product. The root was used in gin from the 16th Century until the 1960’s then went out of fashion; it is used to add the required flavour but also as a link to the past. Acacia Blossom is a part of the Gorilla’s diet.
This may be a strong spirit, but the alcohol is kept in check and never gets aggressive. This is such a smooth and distinctive gin that I would happily drink it on the rocks.
As recommended we mixed it with Peter Stanton Drinks No 9 Cardamon Tonic Water, with a twist of orange peel to garnish. The cardamon fragrance and freshness of the tonic water match perfectly with Silverback Gin. Again, the juniper is evident but in the background with citrus and spice mixing smoothly in the foreground.
So have that met the brief? They wanted a modern gin that was “distinctive and different”. Well its certainly modern, but while it may not be as distinctive and different as some (no bad thing in my opinion) it is still recognisably a gin, and a damn fine one at that.
