Faultline Gin Batch #2 750ml

We're back at it again with St. George distiller Dave Smith and his wacky ideas about gin-making! We were caught off guard by the extreme success of the first Faultline Gin. People really went wild for the celery salt-infused flavor that made savory cocktails a thing of beauty. That being said, we couldn't just make another batch of the same gin right after we told people it was a limited edition item. We had to come back with something new and interesting. "Something smoky?" I asked Mr. Smith. "I've been wanting to make a smoky gin ever since learning how to distill," he answered. People love peated whisky, but we didn't want peat smoke or campfire flavors. We wanted smoky citrus. Dave managed to track down a bundle of thin-skinned mandarin oranges along with a giant smoker from some guy named Texas Ray who cooked up huge barbecue feasts for the winery next door to St. George. We threw in the skins, leaves and all, and smoked them until the skins turned from orange and spongy to amber and crackly. We dumped everything into the gin base, macerated it, then Dave pressed the fruit and distilled the juice, added that into mix, dialing up the juniper back up to make sure it still tasted like gin! That's it! What you've got is a citrus-focused gin that has a bit of mesquite on the finish. Whereas Batch 1 wasn't really for gin and tonics, Batch 2 is going to make gin and tonic drinkers wet their pants. Try it in lemon juice cocktails as well. (David Driscoll, K&L Spirits buyer)