New York Distilling Company
Reviewed 24 Jan 2020
“That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment.”
Dorothy Parker was a New York wit, a writer and – unfortunately – a poet. The gin distilled for her name has been put together by the New York Distilling Company and, while I have had the bottle for a while now and enjoyed it, is another of those that has been largely out of rotation precisely because I like it so damn much. On picking a gin to review this evening, it became the first gin to receive a middle class review purely on the basis of colour-matching with my choice of garnish. I’d filled my glass with ice and loaded in a couple of slices of purple plum before I’d even retired to the gin collection, and when I caught glimpse of the heavily stylised stencil art on the back label, the identical colours made my mind up for me.
This gin is held high in my regard. Curiously, the New York Distilling Company also makes easily the worst gin ever to disgrace a juniper berry; the aptly named Chief Gowanus. I appreciate that Gowanus is an indigenous American of some history, however the connotations of Gowanus are very much more peurile, in that the suggestion of where one should go is actually infinitely preferable to the thought of having to drink that gin again.
I digress, however. Dorothy Parker gin is superb. A floral, almost fruity gin, it has taken on a lovely pink hue from the plum and remains, to the last mouthfuls, as delicate and deceptive as the first drops. It makes a remarkably good gin & tonic, and indeed this would be my preferred serve. It lacks the punch needed for a good dry Martini. A gimlet would swallow it whole.
Middle-class meal accompaniment? Crêpes Suzette.