Review

Burleigh's
Distiller's Cut Gin

45 West Distillers Ltd., Nanpantan, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, UK.

Burleigh’s Gin. 

Founded in October 2013, 45 West Distillers is the work of its four directors: CEO Phil Burley, Graham Veitch, Tim Prime and Master Distiller Jamie Baxter. Having previously worked for William Chase and City of London Distilleries Jamie Baxter has developed a well-deserved reputation as one of the best white spirit distillers in the UK and this has been brought to bear at 45 West. Their first product Burleigh’s Gin was launched at the end of June 2014 taking only 8 months and 2 days, resulting in the fastest conception to delivery of a Gin know to us in modern times!

The quartet also runs a sister business Exigo Brewing and Distilling, a rebranding of a previous company. This company provides full turnkey solutions for a diverse range of brewing and distilling projects from conception through to completion. Given Mr Baxter’s background and their rapid start up of 45 West, this can only bode well for Exigo.

At 45 West, the team look set to produce a whole range of different products in the forthcoming years. They also run a Gin school at their Distillery, running half day sessions where individuals can make their own Gin but also provides the facilities for would be distillers to develop their own recipes in preparedness to launch their own distillery.

The Gin is made on a rural farm in a converted milking shed. Fabricated by Holstein in Germany, the copper still named “Messy Bessy” can produce around 3,000 bottles of spirit per week. We believe the Gin is vapor infused and diluted to bottling strength with twice purified water.

The Gin is presented in a black bottle and gold cap with white monotone calligraphy and white text, not unlike some Port bottles.

London Dry Gin.

47% (94 Proof).

$$$$$$ - $$$$$$$. Not available in the USA. Try online from Master of Malt in the UK but expect to add a further 40% for shipping worldwide.

Uses the same 11 botanicals as the original Burleigh's Gin but in different ratio’s, including: burdock (local), coriander (Bulgaria or Morocco), dandelion (local), elderberry (local), juniper berries (Tuscany, Italy), orange peel (fresh), orris and silver birch sap (local). The remaining botanicals are kept a secret by the distillery.

The distillery is situated in an area of the Midlands known as Charnwood Forest, next to a woodland reserve called Burleigh Wood. Story has it Jamie Baxter was walking through the wood one day and came across various flora including silver birch, dandelion, burdock, elderberry and iris. These became the inspiration for the recipe and the name of the ancient wood for the Gin, and the creative tag line of “Gin from the wood”. This Distiller’s Cut is Jamie Baxter’s personal version for his favorite cocktails.

On the nose is light lemon citrus and earthy juniper with soapy green grass and floral notes plus a hint of spice. On the palate this creamy full-bodied spirit has earthy juniper and lots of lemon citrus with floral and bitter woody spice notes. On the close the juniper and citrus continue with floral notes and a warming dry peppery finish.

Similar to the original Burleigh's Gin but with more juniper and lemon citrus plus increased floral notes. It is more powerful (amount of alcohol) and makes for a very good London Dry style Gin. Regrettably we only had a small amount of this spirit to sample but we hear it makes nice cocktails including the Martinez and Negroni.

Jamie Baxter and 45 West have delivered another good Gin. This is our favorite and is our best recommendation from their first three Gins (launched during 2014).

Unknown.