FIRST JOURNEYS - EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 28 OF 40

BOAR GIN - Black Forest, Germany



BOAR GIN DISTILLERY

A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY

I'm staying in Germany's Black Forest for one more stop and using the opportunity to get to know another gin that arrived courtesy of a gin swap – Boar Gin. Its signature botanical is the Black Forest Burgundy truffle, a rather luxurious ingredient that immediately piqued my curiosity.


While Burgundy truffles grow naturally across much of Europe, they are also found in the Black Forest. Wild truffles in Baden-Württemberg are protected by law, however, so those used in Boar Gin come from cultivated sources to help preserve the natural populations.


Despite the name, wild boar aren't actually responsible for finding the truffles. Traditionally, pigs were used because they have an incredible instinct for sniffing them out, but they also had an unfortunate habit of eating the expensive prize before their owners could retrieve it! Today, specially trained dogs do the honours instead, carefully locating the truffles without being quite so tempted to tuck into them.


The Renchtal Valley has been associated with distilling for centuries. In 1726, the Bishop of Strasbourg granted local farmers the right to distil surplus fruit, creating a tradition that still defines the region today. BOAR Gin is produced in Bad Peterstal-Griesbach by the BOAR Distillery, whose roots stretch back to 1844 when Andreas Kessler established the family business.


Six generations later, the Kessler family continue to craft spirits in the heart of the Black Forest, combining that long heritage with modern techniques. Along the way, BOAR Gin has collected an impressive list of international awards, earning a reputation as one of the Black Forest's most highly decorated premium gins.

The truffle isn't there to make the gin taste of mushrooms. Instead, it contributes an earthy depth and wonderfully rounded mouthfeel, complementing the other botanicals rather than dominating them. The full recipe remains a closely guarded secret, but the distillery does reveal juniper alongside citrus, lavender, thyme and rose, with many of the remaining botanicals foraged in the surrounding Black Forest. I found the floral notes delicate, the lavender pleasantly restrained and the overall profile fresh, herbaceous and beautifully balanced.


The Black Forest has long been a place where fact and folklore intertwine. Between 1812 and 1857, the Brothers Grimm travelled throughout the German-speaking regions collecting traditional folk tales that had been passed down orally for generations. They weren't writing children's bedtime stories; they were preserving cultural history. The earliest editions are surprisingly dark and violent, with later versions gradually softened to become the fairy tales most of us know today.


One of the most famous, Hansel and Gretel, is thought by many folklorists to echo memories of medieval famine, when food shortages were so severe that stories emerged of children being abandoned in forests to improve a family's chance of survival. Whether rooted in real events or not, the tale reflects the very real hardships faced by people centuries ago, giving the familiar fairy tale a far darker edge.



Perhaps that's rather fitting for the Black Forest itself—a place of towering trees, hidden treasures beneath the soil, and stories where history and myth are never quite easy to separate.


Earthy, mysterious and unmistakably Black Forest.



The serve:

It certainly deserved a Dry Martini. Had I possessed a bottle of truffle oil, I may even have risked a tiny drop to amplify those earthy aromas. (That martini glass really is tiny, by the way... I did save half the miniature to experiment with another serve later!) I'd also love to compare it side by side with Cruxland from South Africa, another gin that makes use of truffles, albeit from the Kalahari.




"Show me a bottle and I’ll tell you a story."