Flavor Profile
Absaroka Double Cask Gin 49 from the Jackson Hole Still Works in Jackson Hole, Wyoming is aged twice. You may have guessed based on the name, but the same liquid undergoes two completely separate aging periods.
First, Absaroka Gin enters used whiskey casks at 114 proof for a total of 13 months. Then it spends another 4 months in new char American oak. It is then bottled at 49% ABV. The name Absaroka Double Cask Gin 49 tells you everything you need to know.
Botanically it sticks to a traditional set of botanicals with the small addition of yarrow. The base spirit is 100% Wyoming grown grain.
Tasting Notes
Absaroka Double Cask Gin 49 hits the nose with slight hints of bright citrus notes. I’m surprised, after seventeen months across two barrels, the orange and lemon top notes are still there, albeit quiet. A hint of toffee and wood lend depth.
Sipped, Absaroka is a botanical bomb. Cinnamon dominates throughout the palate from start-to-finish.
Early, sweet grated cassia cinnamon and cinnamon tea. Mid-palate nutmeg, burnt orange peel, and vanilla kissed oak. Towards the finish, lots of cinnamon, veering a bit towards cinnamon red hot territory.
Absaroka has a mild astringency on the palate. There is some of that younger wood, likely from the second aging, adding some green and woody notes. You can almost taste the biting into a coil of Ceylon cinnamon bark.
Overall, Absaroka Gin
While it has some potential for people looking to upgrade their choice in cinnamon-flavored whiskey, gin fans will find Absaroka a bit light in juniper and (depending on their preference for it) heavy with cinnamon.
The flavor is fun and unique. The dual aging process adds some complexity and character. I definitely recommend trying it before you buy, because it is a bit unexpected and best treated as if its own thing.
“best treated as if its own thing”
Well, that’s about as succinct as it can be put, Aaron. This is a very unique gin and one I have come to appreciate as someone that has a life-long dislike of gins in general. In speaking with the owners of the Still Works, we decided it was easy to call this a whisky drinker’s gin. Later that night at a wonderful private tasting event, they made cocktail after cocktail from this gin to prove it’s versatility as a bartenders Swiss Army multi-tool. Nonetheless, I’ll take mine straight up in a rock glass over a giant ball of ice, au natural. The base spirit for this bottle is their own vodka, one of the cleanest, purest tasting vodkas I have ever tried. Hence no need to mask dreadful mashing/fermentation/distillation errors of using a cheap base and having to hide behind overpowering juniper and other botanicals. In the 6 months I have been carrying this in my store, I have yet to have a regular customer purchase this gin and not come back for another bottle.