FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 03 OF 80
NINTH WAVE GIN, Northern Ireland
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
My next stop takes me to Ireland with a gin that feels like the perfect metaphor for this journey.
Ninth Wave Gin takes its name from Celtic mythology, where the Ninth Wave formed the boundary between our world and the Otherworld, the realm of the sea god Manannán mac Lir. The bottle design is inspired by both the wave itself and the triskelion – the ancient Celtic symbol of journey, discovery and personal growth.
That seems rather fitting, because this virtual tour is all about exploring the stories hidden within my own gin collection. Every bottle has a tale to tell and every destination reveals something new.
The number nine also runs through the gin itself.
Hinch Distillery uses nine botanicals: juniper, lemon verbena, cardamom, orange peel, coriander seed, angelica root, orris root, cassia bark and grains of paradise. Distilled on the Killaney Estate, south of Belfast, the gin is made using water from the nearby Silent Valley Reservoir.
I've kept today's serve simple with a classic G&T, garnished with a few blueberries. It's beautifully juniper forward, with a gentle sweetness developing through the middle before finishing long, clean and fresh. I suspect the lemon verbena has a lot to do with that, and true to its name, the flavours seem to arrive in waves.
So, with the Ninth Wave crossed, my virtual journey is well and truly underway. I wonder where the current will carry me next...
Riding the Ninth Wave
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."