Millsheds Distillery Highlands Gin
Opening with a crisp, clean aroma of lemonade icy poles, the nose progressively opens up to envelop you with heady lavender and warm cassia. The palate in many ways offers a similarly restrained opening, with a few moments of delay before the full flavour hits your senses. As it builds, the botanicals work in tandem to create a unified and uniform profile. Oftentimes, when gins showcase both floral and spice components as principal flavours, you get notes of florality and then spice at different times – they become competitive and disjointed. Within this gin, which is at its core bold and concentrated, these often opposing characters are working cohesively and in oneness; it's a difficult feat to manage. Juniper is not a huge factor in the overall profile, making it more approachable for drinkers not so versed in the intense pine notes. On the very end of the finish, the cardamom element breaks through and offers a refreshing, dry, minty element, that's a little cooling and very well done.