The Midsummer is here: Gin Gin!

While this blog is usually about whiskies, and in focus about whiskies including smoke, there is also always room for exceptions. If you know about Kyrö Distillery, then you know that they make 100% Rye Whisky in Finland – their first whisky should be out 2017.

I’ve had a few Midsummer whiskies in this blog earlier. This time it is about the drink and feel it produces. Kyrö’s Gin has the Finnish world included in their essence.
So, the Kyrö Distillery Company also produces Gin. Not just to their own brand, but they produce Gin to some other companies as well. We’ll leave those bits on a side track and focus on the real deal here. KDC Napue and Koskue Rye Gins. I’ve had a few gins during my years of wander in this land of drinks but I never thought about blogging about any of those. Until now. Without the connection to the rye whisky this even would not have happened. But since those great fellows are producing this stuff I of course will tell about them. And btw, Kyrö did won a award for the best corporate identity in Finland. For a good reason, they have got a unique and self-ironic, yet knowing their value, style in all their material.

Napue

was their first gin. Transparent, clear, like most of other gins I’ve encountered. It noses like a gin, it has a palate like a gin.. it is a gin! And actually a real tasty one. This one will take you to a nice hot walk in Finland’s summer.. especially Midsummer! Meadows, buckthorns, birch and herbals mix that only a witch of the wilds can come up with.  It resembles of the midsummer night, while keeping the day’s fiery warm deep buried in the bedrock. It is the cool quick swim in a clear Saimaa lake: refreshing, chilly and yet extremely pleasant experience.
 


All kinds of herbs are mixed into KDC gins.

 

Koskue

is the one who got to spend some time in a barrel. It shares the color with some whiskies (a bit more yellow though), albeit it is not a strong coloring. The scent has more elegancy, fruits and perhaps a bit of rye too. It is gin, but more complex and less direct.  Palate has more taste like gin in it, but the complexity continues. This is a riddle told by an old man. You just can’t get in and while the tale is at the end you’ll figure out the beginning. Fast and yet it will linger in your tongue for a while. This one has more spice in it, and the herbals have been mixed a lot with fruits. The pepper will be a very dominant taste at the end. Koskue is delightfully different than Napue. Both are by the way village names near the distillery.

HAVE A GREAT MIDSUMMER!