Nice to meet you, I am Sugikawa, a YASO distiller.
This year, we have started a new YASO Diary, which describes the daily work of the YASO distillers.
We hope to update it about once a month with information on the gin and absinthe production process from the YASO distiller’s point of view.
Now, in this, my first post, I will discuss the January Limited.
The first Limited for 2022 is a “Bergamot” gin.
Bergamot has appeared several times in YASO’s series, but it may not be a familiar plant in our daily lives.
Bergamot is a citrus fruit of the tangerine family.
It is rarely sold as a fruit in Japan, but is characterized by its fragrant epidermis.
Familiarly, it is used to flavor Earl Grey tea and in perfumes.
The bergamot used was organic, pesticide-free bergamot grown at Yamada Olive Garden on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture.
The bergamot is grown in a corner of an olive grove, and its fragrance is spread simply by the rubbing of its leaves.
It is truly wonderful to be in a field where the bergamot smells softly in the breeze of the Seto Inland Sea…
Bergamot, carefully grown in olive groves on Shodoshima Island in the beautiful Seto Inland Sea, was lavishly used in this gin.
First, the most fragrant bergamot peels are individually peeled by hand and used for fragrance.
The thin skin of the peeled bergamot is further peeled and only the pulp is cut.
A generous amount of this is used to add bergamot and citrus flavors to the gin.
To our surprise, we even used bergamot “leaves” this time.
Rubbing bergamot leaves…. I have been looking forward to this ever since I heard the rumor.
When I smelled the leaves that arrived from Yamada Olive Garden, they did not smell so good.
When I rubbed them a little and sniffed them, they smelled like Earl Grey….
So we use bergamot leaves lightly rubbed in a mortar to release the aroma.
The peels, berries, and leaves are not distilled in the same way, but are distilled in different ways to best express their aromas and flavors.
The clarity of the year-round YASOGIN “150” model is perfectly matched with the refreshing aroma of bergamot.
The result is a gin with a gorgeous aroma that spreads like a breeze between lush bergamot-fruited trees.
The release is scheduled for January 15.
Please look forward to it.
