Review

Foxdenton Sloe Gin

Foxdenton Estate Company Ltd., Winslow, Buckinghamshire (made by Thames Distillers Ltd., Clapham, London), England, UK.

Foxdenton Estate.

Estate of Foxdenton based in Lancashire, which had been in the family since 1367. In 1923 the Foxdenton Estate was leased to the local council who permitted public access to the grounds. In 1960 the house itself was sold to the local council and is now a tourist attraction. The business was taken over by his son Alexander Radclyffe and in 2001 his son the present owner, Nicholas Radclyffe, inherited the family business.

With a love of shooting and drinking, Nick thought the fruit liqueurs too sweet whilst at shooting events and wondered if he could produce his own. Making them at home he turned up at shooting days with his and found people really liked them. This spurred him on and he set up a small-scale production of these fruit liqueurs, using Gin as the base spirit, all made to traditional English recipes. Today they even have their own Gin, Foxdenton 48, sold by it self but also used as the base for their fruit liqueurs.

Their Gins are made by Thames Distillers, run by Charles Maxwell who is the 8th generation of the family (founders of the Finsbury Distillery) who have been producing Gin since 1700 – making them the oldest unbroken lineage in Gin distillation.

Sloeberries, with the stones left in, are steeped for at least 3 months in Foxdenton Gin, with a little sugar, before being filtered and bottled.  Small quantities are produced seasonally and thus it may not always be readily available.

Foxdenton introduced a new look for their spirits in early 2013. The old traditional style whisky bottles were replaced with clear squat cylindrical bottles, the same as used for Hayman’s Family Reserve Gin. The label is a large white one with black and burgundy colored writing and line images, including their logo (a bull and crown) and Foxdenton Hall. The Gin has a medium red color (with a hint of browny orange), lighter than many other commercial Sloe Gins.

Flavored Gin – Sloe.

27% (54 Proof).

$$$ - $$$$. Not available in the USA. Try Master of Malt in the UK and expect to pay an additional 65% for shipping.

7 organic botanicals are used including: angelica root, coriander seeds, juniper berries, lemon peel, lime flower oil, orris root and sloeberries.

Named after the family’s ancestral home, the Foxdenton Estate, and the key botanical flavor.

On the nose is plum (sloe) and juniper with light almond notes. On the palate this dry and slightly sweet spirit has rich plummy fruit (sloe) and clear juniper (Gin) with faint almond and a slight bitterness developing. In the close the tart acidic fruit continues with a long dry Gin and lightly spicy finish.

This is not your usual sweet fruit flavoured Gin, it hardly seems like a liqueur at all: a strong dry Gin flavor combined with the taste of fruit. This is lovely to drink neat and makes for an excellent winter warmer. However, mixed with carbonated drinks (e.g. bitter lemon, tonic water, soda water, sparkling wine etc.) it makes for a long cool refreshing summer time tipple. For a taste of luxury Foxdenton suggest a Sloegasm, their Sloe Gin mixed with Champagne. In some mainland European countries a common drink is to add Orange Juice to their Sloe Gin, and the Foxdenton version works particularly well with this.

Imbibers seeking a sweet Sloe Gin liqueur may be disappointed with this dry “Ginny” offering, plus some may also find it contains less fruit. It is perhaps not a good alternative choice for replacing a dessert wine at the end of a meal. However conversely so, traditional Gin lovers who usually find fruit flavored Gins too sweet may find themselves with a new passion to obsess about. Whilst we enjoy a sweet fruit Gin liqueur, we prefer a dry version and this certainly matches our hankering. So, allowing for our bias we still highly recommend this especially should you be a London Dry Gin fan and this is definitely in our top 10.

Unknown.