Springtime is just around the corner, so it felt appropriate to break out a bottle of gin in celebration. I’ve been trying some interesting and tasty gins recently, and this bottle of elderflower and rose flavored gin from Victoria Distillers proved to be certainly interesting… but ‘tasty’ was a bit more debatable.
History
Victoria Distillers, one of Canada’s oldest craft distillers, opened in 2008. Their mission seems simple: “to create both classic and innovative cocktail spirits, using the world’s best-tasting water and the finest ingredients from around the world”.
Located in Sidney, British Columbia (just north of Victoria), the distillery produces several series of vodka, rum, brandy, liquor, and — last but not least — their flagship line of gin.
In 2016, the distillery was purchased by a new owner who decided to open a new facility located on the waterfront in Sidney, designed from the ground up to focus on sustainable methods of distillation and production. The new facility is located next to the Sidney Pier Hotel and shares the hotel’s geothermal heating system which provides heating for their production process, and the water used for cooling the newly created alcohol is pumped through the hotel to provide heating to that facility as well. This process saves approximately 7,000 liters of water for each production run, and transfers about 850,000 BTUs of energy to the hotel which otherwise would have been lost.
Speaking of cool facilities, they also opened a remote distillery location inside the Victoria, BC airport in 2021, which is only one of two operating distilleries within an airport in the world, according to The Points Guy. And considering that the other is “landside” before security, the fact that Victoria Distiller’s “airside” post-security facility is in the departures lounge of the airport technically makes it the only actual distillery “inside” an airport (in my opinion).
In 2022, the company was purchased by Austin-based Milestone Brands LLC, which owns a number of other spirits brands including Dulce Vida Tequila.
Product
- Learn More: What Is Gin?
Gin is one of the simplest spirits to make in terms of the technical processes, but it can be one of the most difficult to perfect in terms of the flavors you get at the end. As with most gins, Victoria Distillers start off with a vat of raw alcohol (“neutral spirit” in distillery parlance) that is distilled elsewhere and shipped in to their facility.
There are a few different ways that botanical flavors can be infused into the neutral spirit during the distillation process. Victoria Distillers doesn’t specify their exact process in their marketing materials, but looking at their copper hybrid still design, it seems likely that they are using the popular “maceration” process. In this method, the botanicals (including juniper, red rose petals, elderflower, lavender, and orange peel) are placed in a big bag and steeped in the alcohol like a big cup of tea to infuse the flavors. That mixture is then distilled to selectively capture only the essence of the added elements and produce a crystal clear and water white liquid which is the finished gin.
This is where the Empress 1908 Elderflower Rose Gin tries to set itself apart from other gins. While most versions will want to retain their watery appearance, Victoria Distillers infuses some black (actually purple, but who’s counting) carrots to give the gin it’s purple-red color.
Packaging
The bottle pops in its simplicity. The glass bottle itself is intentionally boring: an oval shape, standard height, and clear glass. That said, this simple shape allows the unique indigo color of the gin to show through and be the star of the show.
The labels are simple, but invoke movement. The name of the product is on a white label, placed on a bias around the bottle and wrapped like a ribbon. It takes up the minimum space required, giving plenty of surface area for the colorful gin to shine through, while providing a playful accent. A silver label at the bottom contains the required legal information, including the bottle size and alcohol content.
To top it all off, the synthetic cork is covered in a plastic that appears on first glance to be stainless steel. This is a very nice touch as it evokes the copper stills that this gin was distilled in.
Neat
At first sniff, you’ll notice that this is a very floral gin, with the juniper berries, lavender, and elderflower coming through clearly. There’s also a bit of that orange peel zest to add some character, as well as some of the usual coriander spice notes that I’d expect from the traditional gin ingredients.
What I noticed most about the first sip was the weight of it: normally, a gin is very light and delicate — but in this case it sat on my tongue like a chocolate bar. This feels much more viscous than normal, which I’m betting is a result of those infused carrots from the manufacturing process.
Moving on to the flavors, the elderflower is a central figure in this show — it arrives early and remains a considered presence throughout the flavor profile. Almost immediately, the elderflower is combined with lavender and the bitter components from an orange peel to provide a slightly acerbic texture that isn’t entirely enjoyable. I feel like there’s just too much of the orange peel in here and it’s throwing off the vibe.
On the finish, I pick up much more of the juniper, which is interesting since it was a large component in the aroma that didn’t necessarily translate into the flavor. What’s left at the end is the elderflower and some bitter orange peel citrus lingering into the sunset.
On Ice
Ice has a tendency to cancel out the lighter elements in the flavor profile of a spirit, and this is no different. But it is especially unfortunate in this case, since lighter and more floral elements are pretty much all this had going for it.
What’s left in the glass here is juniper, orange peel, and coriander spice. It’s good, but it’s boring. Not the flavors I had been hoping for, and somehow still just a touch too bitter to really make it enjoyable.
Fizz (Gin & Tonic)
If this was already washed out with the ice, then the tonic really isn’t helping the situation.
My hope here was that this was where the orange peel would really come into its own. I like a good citrus forward G&T, preferably with a wedge of lime and a good juniper-forward gin. In this case, I do get a little bit of that orange peel, and the coriander spice helps add some texture to it, but the cocktail overall falls fairly flat. It’s a watery pink glass of slightly floral elements that just doesn’t really gel or work together well.
Cocktail (Negroni)
Things just keep sliding downhill for this spirit, unfortunately. The G&T was a gentle assessment compared to the gauntlet of flavors in a negroni, and this gin just doesn’t have the juice to stand up to its powerful components.
What I’m looking for here is for something (anything!) to make its way through that thicket of Campari and vermouth and present itself in the flavor profile. In this case, I think I might be getting a hint of the coriander spice I was mentioning earlier… but then again, that might just be the lingering memories of it I’m tasting rather than the flavor itself.
This just doesn’t work here.
Overall Rating
This is, in theory, a great idea for a gin. The floral components in here are generally winners in my household — St. Germain is one of the liqueurs we go through on a regular basis around here. But the execution is off, and there’s a bitterness that makes this a bit unpleasant in every form we tried it.
For completeness, I even tried this with a French 75. And it took a whole barspoon of simple syrup to cut the edge off that bitterness — and even then, it still wasn’t very good.
Honestly I wouldn’t recommend this. I like the uniqueness of the concept and the design, but I just can’t find anywhere to actually use this in an enjoyable manner. Maybe there’s something I’m missing — and if so, please let me know in the comments below. But for now, I’m going back to my bottle of Aviation.
| Victoria Distillers Empress 1908 Elderflower Rose Gin Production Location: British Columbia, Canada Classification: Gin Aging: No Age Statement (NAS) Proof: 42% ABV Price: $40 / 750 ml Overall Rating:   |
Overall Rating: 1/5
Points for style, but that’s about it.