Rogue Society Goldi Locks $124
Seriously if you’re a gin lover of any significance then you’ll need to beg, steal, borrow or at least sell the soul of your first born to get yourself a bottle of this, the second offering from New Zealand’s own Rogue Society. According to the Rogue team, there are four elements to good gin making. First is the grain spirit. “We use the purest, world-class wheat-base grain spirit imported from the States,” explains Mark. “Secondly it’s the botanical recipe developed to suit our desire for a citrus-led, ultra-smooth gin”. Their master distiller is John Fitzpatrick at Southern Grain Spirits in Kaiapoi, who uses an incredibly rare, 140 year old John Dore Pot Still to create fine spirits from incredibly pure Canterbury plains water. The Rogue lads have a spice merchant in the UK that gathers their 12 ingredients based on the best regions of the world. Their citrus comes from Spain, the juniper from Italy, and the angelica root from Poland. The Goldi Locks contains a ‘lucky’ 13th botanical (dried mandarin) which injects a frisson of citrus into the smooth, warming palate saturation of pepper, juniper and florals. Each individually numbered bottle features a 24-carat gold disc label and just 500 were made. www.cocktailmerchant.co.nz
