From still to sip, every drop of Sing Gin reflects the belief in the life-affirming power of natural beauty. The natural beauty of Yorkshire in particular. The founders live in Kettlesing village deep in the Yorkshire Dales. This ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ inspired their gin’s elegantly uplifting character and their Sing name. The dream was to create a family legacy to celebrate their beloved Yorkshire that could also pass down the generations. Twin sons James and Richard are on-board and so is Ian’s wife Caron, who apparently, enjoys the tasting sessions!
The real challenge was capturing the spirit of the Dales in mood, method, ingredients and flavour. It’s there in their branding too. Their decorative brand design was inspired by Fountains Abbey and its tranquil water garden – the family love this place and visit regularly to walk, relax and clear away the cobwebs. Look closely at the bottle label and you’ll see the fearsome gargoyle from the water garden protecting their secret recipe.
They let the botanicals steep overnight inside Bella, their steel and copper still (named after the first family dog). Then they distil the grape spirit and botanicals in 50-litre batches. Small batches offer higher quality control. Four hours later, they have their beautiful gin.
Sing Gin is crafted from grape-based spirit rather than grain. Grape delivers a silky smoothness that, in their opinion, grain can’t quite match. Grape was actually an ingredient in the world’s very first juniper spirits back in the 13th century, so it’s a nice nod to tradition.
Juniper, mint, orange peel and flax are among the seven top-quality botanicals used. Flax is especially dear to the family for being a historic Yorkshire crop, and they also grow the flax themselves. Rather than using whole botanicals, they crush all theirs by hand with a large mortar and pestle. Extracting the oils in this way helps them achieve their signature strength of flavour and aroma.
On the nose is pronounced juniper followed by slight sweet and citrus notes with a hint of spice, and floral after-tones, followed on the palate by a big flavoured gin with lots
of juniper balanced with slight sweet notes and a long finish, leaving a subtly pleasurable tingle on the edges of the tongue.
Try with smoked salmon, black pudding, pâté seasoned with juniper berries or ice-cream with blueberries
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