Flavor Profile
Blade Gin begins from a neutral grain base but also adds grape spirits as well. As if a warning, Old World Spirits say this about Blade Gin on their website:
“Blade Gin redefines ultra premium gin category… Blade is NOT a heavy ‘Juniper-bomb-suck-on-the-christmas-tree’ London Dry Gin. Just like the California wines beat the French, Blade is the answer to why once again, we can beat the traditional European mass-produced gins.”
At the time of Blade Gin’s launch— this was an important note to make. Back in 2009* contemporary-style gins were something of a rarity and consumer awareness of the category was poor.
Tasting Notes
Lots of citrus on the nose, and a small touch of juniper. Nice, sweet and somewhat sedate.
The taste of Blade Gin is a swirl of a lot of different flavors and notes. Cardamom and citrus, black pepper and something herbal, a wave of somewhat sharp juniper accompanied by notes of mint. A bit of heat from the alcohol, 47% making itself a bit known. Finish is a bit piercing, sticking in the corners of your mouth, somewhat sour and acidic. Finishing notes of lemon, citrus peel.
It puts a bit of an emphasis on the after taste. That strong bitter citrus peel taste, and herbal notes. Pepper, but flavor wise, not necessarily the spice. Juniper kind of pushed to the background. It starts quite nice and refreshing, but a couple of those finish notes seem cloudy and unbalanced.
Overall, Blade Gin
I think there’s some interesting notes in here, and neat they seem to present themselves better than they did in tonic [in my very limited test]. I’d love to take a closer look at some point in the future, but sadly at this juncture based on my limited test I remain a bit underwhelmed.
Footnotes
*According to this post at Alcademics, Blade Gin had a former incarnation under the brand Sarticious. That product launched in 2003 and was-introduced as Blade in 2009.