In 1998, entrepreneur extraordinaire Martin Miller sat with a gin and tonic and bemoaned the lack of quality premium gins on the market. For most of us mortals, we would simply find a gin that was ‘good enough’. Or we’d abandon the search altogether and find an alternative spirit. But most people aren’t Martin Miller. The gin connoisseur decided then and there to make his own gin – and thus Martin Miller’s London Dry Gin was born. It is a tale ‘born of love, obsession and some degree of madness.’
15 years later, Martin Miller’s ‘obsession’ has made his London Dry Gin the leader in a new wave of premium gins available on the market.
Miller says that gin is ‘like history in a glass’ – and you could feel that even before our first taste. Martin Miller’s gin has a story – a history. The gin is carefully produced in Langley, England, in small batches, using a century-old copper pot (called Angela). The resulting gin is shipped 3,000 miles to Iceland. It’s then taken to the remote village of Borganes, source of the Selyri Spring. The glacier-fed water is considered among the purest and softest on earth. It is from these waters that the gin is reduced to its bottled strength of 40% alcohol by volume (80 proof). The result is a gin with history and character.
Martin Miller’s London Dry Gin is a crystal clear gin. It has a silky lightweight body and a fresh and crisp aroma. You get slight notes of citrus, spice, jasmine and juniper. It’s by no means a neutral spirit, but it’s silky and subtle – refreshing and invigorating all at once. The finish is warm and satisfying.
We experimented at length with Martin Miller’s gin. It was wonderful in just about any cocktail, but it made for an absolutely killer martini. And the classic gin and tonic was extremely well received. It was refreshing when drunk neat. Even a couple of our testers, who weren’t gin fans, gave it a thumbs up.
Martin Miller’s London Dry Gin is a feast. It is a benchmark for premium gins. The ‘love, obsession and madness’ of Martin Miller is a triumph.