Just north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, is Door County. Door County is a peninsula, knifing up into Lake Michigan – like the thumb of a mitten – making for one of the nicest vacation spots in the Midwest. At the tip of the peninsula is Washington Island. It is from here that Death’s Door Spirits gets the unique wheat used in the making of its Death’s Door Gin (as well as vodka and whiskey). It is also where Death’s Door gets its name – as the treacherous strait separating Door County from Washington Island is called ‘Death’s Door’ by the locals due to the numerous shipwrecks in the area.
But back to the wheat and the gin. The wheat in Death’s Door products is organic certified hard red winter wheat hailing from Washington Island. The folks at Death’s Door then use locally sourced juniper berries, coriander and fennel seeds. That’s the end of it.
All this makes for a unique and exceptional product. Death’s Door gin retains the hint of juniper when you taste it as well as a fruity finish. It is clear and crisp with a nice long finish.
Gin isn’t the most popular sipping spirit, but our tasters were impressed with Death’s Door. A couple of ice cubes is all you need to enjoy it.
Otherwise, Death’s Door gin is a fine mixing gin. Using it for the classic martini met with mixed results, with some of our testers loving it, others giving it a shrug. The folks at Death’s Door have some recipe ideas on their website.
We appreciate the effort put into the making of Death’s Door products. It supports local producers. In keeping with the local theme, it is distilled in small batches by Yahara Bay Distillery in Middleton, Wisconsin. Also, 1% of the sales goes to the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which strives to protect the lakes. It’s a worthy gin and a worthy enterprise.
A bottle of Death’s Door gin will run you about $30.