Each year, coinciding with World Gin Day, more than 70 distilleries from all around the world descend on London for the Junipalooza gin festival. It’s Christmas day for gin fans across the country.
Sunday sipping
Just like last year, we went on the Sunday session (an hour longer than the Saturday ones) and started things off with the Estonian Junimperium Gin and their co-founder Tarvo. It was incredible to hear about their three sources of juniper, including their own locally grown, as well as the Estonian lingonberries which go into their summer gin.
Hidden Curiosities were a little closer to home, being distilled at Silent Pool in Surrey. I’d had my eye on their recently released Aranami navy strength but had been yet to try it. It’s not a typical navy strength at all, there’s bags of flavour, in particular loads of delicious Asian citrus going on.
I wasn’t aware of GinT from just north of Porto (I visited the city last year), ahead of the event, but had seen some friends who’d attended on the Saturday recommending them so thought I’d stop by. I absolutely loved their cork stoppers (rare to see in this style, especially in the conical bottle). The gin itself had such an interesting flavour thanks to the local fig tree bark used, which definitely gave a slight almondy note on the nose.
I tried the GinT Rubro gin with pink grapefruit, and with lime and strawberry. It clearly demonstrated the difference that pairing your garnish can make. The grapefruit really highlighted the bold juniper, while with the lime and strawberries it was a much lighter, more refreshing flavour.
Each year the organisers invite a new distillery for a bursary place at the festival. This year’s was Downtown Distillery with their Explorer’s Gin. I’d been fortunate enough to meet founder Hugh at a Gin Foundry event so was really excited to try what he’d created. I really enjoyed the layered combination of botanicals, including pink peppercorns (actually quite sweet when you taste them on their own) and Szechuan pepper (cooling minty aftertaste). The bottle design is really eye catching too which always helps!
Australian gins
There’s been a real boom in the Australian gin market recently and it was really evident at this year’s Junipalooza. Seppeltsfield Road, Manly Spirits, Never Never and Four Pillars were all in attendance, each offering completely different takes on the spirit. Four Pillars are always a favourite, and this year’s vintage of their Bloody Shiraz gin will ensure that continues! Seppeltsfield Road were completely new to me and loved their House Gin, which was lovely and light with chamomile, cornflower and lavender and was created as their ‘session gin’.
Manly Spirits have the most gorgeous textured bottles, and while their Australian Dry gin wasn’t for me, I thought their Coastal Citrus gin was very special. Lastly, Never Never were rightly one of the most talked about makers with their Juniper Freak release. The intense juniper-led flavour is about as ginny as they come.
Catching up with friends
It was great to catch up with another Antipodean gin maker and friend Joerg of Broken Heart Spirits (read my chat with him). We’d previously met him at his home in New Zealand in November last year so it was great to hear about his latest projects and how the New Zealand gin scene continues to develop.
And speaking of friends, it was great to see Siân and Andrew’s smiling faces, the team behind one of my favourite gins from last year’s event: Gower Gin. They had brought along some delicious negronis made with their Pinwydd gin which went down a treat (read my blog about their original Gwyr gin).
Victoria (pictured left) produces one of my favourite local gins, Graveney Gin in Tooting (here’s my blog about it). It was great to finally meet her in person, even more so as she was using the event to test some future releases on Junipalooza attendees before their release later this year.
And it was great to make new friends in the form of Jim Mackintosh! Founder and distiller of Macintosh Gin in the Newcomers Zone this year, a gin I’d heard so much about but had been yet to try. Not only was he an incredibly genuine and friendly guy, the gin was hugely drinkable – it’s smooth, with local elderflower and fresh grapefruit.
Norway’s Bareksten gin brought their own piece of Bergen to East London. Master Distiller Stig talked us through a tasting of one of their G&Ts while surrounded by a dark Norwegian forest.
It wasn’t just about the gins though, I had a great chat with the family team behind Inginius Tonic. I was seriously impressed by their range and attitude, the desire to be the best ‘second fiddle’ to a gin that they can, rather than being overpoweringly sweet or flavoured. We both agreed that the tonic should elevate the gin, not mask or dilute it.
Experiential zone
Before our day was done, we just had time to join one of the experiential sessions run at the event. Normally they would cost around £15-30 each (including gifts and vouchers in return) but the Sunday sessions were free which was great and meant that we made the time to squeeze one into an already busy day.
Leading the session was Warner’s (formerly Warner Edwards) co-founder Tom Warner, passionately talking about the processes behind their farm and gins. I was all the more interested after Warner’s generous support of my charity event last year.
Junipalooza London 2019 was absolutely brilliant and great value for money to get to try so many delicious gins and meet their creators.
While the food was an improvement on last year, there’s limited options for anyone with dietary requirements, and the staff lack the same enthusiasm you see around the rest of the event. Water availability wasn’t as great this year as in previous years, and I was glad to have brought a full reusable water bottle with me.
All that said, big thanks to Olivier, Emile and the team for putting on another incredible Junipalooza. I already can’t wait for next year! I’ll hopefully be back for two sessions to not only take more photos, but spend longer chatting to the distillers. Make sure you get your tickets and I’ll see you there…
Check out my blog from Junipalooza 2018 and if you want to go back even further Junipalooza 2017.