A few craft distillers are looking into some interesting new methods of producing gin that are leading to new flavor profiles. Barrel aged gins might be the new crazy soon, even though U.S. regulators don’t technically recognize “aged gin” as a spirit type. Producers have gotten creative with their labeling in order to get around the technicality, resorting to calling their new products “barrel rested”, “barrel finished”, or just plain “barreled”. Others have chosen more descriptive terms like “dark” or “rusty”, but at the end of the day it is all just another way of saying that the spirit has been aged in a barrel similar to bourbon or whiskey production. Aging the gin in barrels adds the smoky wood charred notes that consumers have come to love in their whiskey spirits. Some have even taken to calling the new flavor “ginskey”. Whatever designation up on the label, the new spirit sounds like a great combination of traditional gin flavors mixed with the warming smokiness of a barrel aged spirit, and that’s something that we can’t wait to enjoy!
Source: Wine Enthusiast Magazine Online, July 2017