GIN DE MENORCA
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Made from wine spirit, juniper and selected aromatics,
gin was initially made in Menorca to satisfy the appetites of British soldiers
and sailors stationed in Menorca in the 18th century.
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Gin has since become part of the cultural fabric of
Menorca. Xoriguer is a family owned gin producer that distils gin in copper
stills on the coast in Mahón.
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Traditionally, Menorcan men would start the day with a
thimbleful of gin, called a “ginlet”. For aperitif it is popular to have a “pomada”,
a drink made with local Xoriguer gin and cloudy lemonade.
Gin de Menorca o
Gin de Mahón is
a Spanish variety of gin or Jenever, a juniper
flavoured alcohol, which is made on the island of Menorca. It is a clear liquid
that should smell strongly of alcohol but the aroma of the strong juniper
berries should be the strongest. Other undertones will include the aromas of
grains and seeds. The taste of this Spanish gin is dry and strong, something
which should be expected as a result of its high alcohol content - usually
between 38 and 43%. However the taste should not be over-powering, but rather
balanced and refined, with a clear taste of juniper berries.
History
of Gin de Menorca
The origin of this Spanish gin can be dated back to the 18th century.
During this time, the island of Menorca was being occupied by the British. As a
result, a lot of soldiers and sailors from Great Britain would stop over on the
island. This lead to a strong influence from Britain in Menorca, which among
other things, increased the demand for British products to be shipped to the island
both among the British, who despite undergoing a Spanish immersion, still
craved things from home, as well as among the Menorcans. Among those products
was Gin.
When the British finally
abandoned the island in 1802, the people of Menorca continued to drink gin and continued making their own version
instead. The Menorcan gin was made by artisan distillers in the city of Mahón,
where it was made with a liquor produced from fermenting cereals, which was then
distilled and aromatized with juniper berries, amongst other things. As time
passed, the gin was made using other strong alcohols which had been made using
other agricultural products instead of cereals. This alcohol tended to be made
from grapes which grew well in the climate found on the island. This element of
the Menorcan recipe is what makes this drink unique to this area, and why it
has been allowed its own DO, despite being similar to the Jenever of Belgium and the Netherlands.
By the 20th century, a
number of brands began to emerge such as Xoriguer which was bottled and commercialised,
increasing in popularity across all of the Balearic Islands. In 1997, the
island's gin was given a Regional Designation of Origin 'Gin de Menorca', however this was later changed in 2010
to be 'Gin de Mahón'.
GIN XORIGUER
In the early part of the XX century, on the initiative of a Menorcan
family of craftsmen, a brand name was born: Xoriguer, which began to bottle and
carefully commercialise the product which hitherto had only been marketed
locally.
Xoriguer is the name of the windmill built in 1784, in which many
generations of the Pons family had converted bushels of wheat into white flour.
Miquel Pons Justo, heir to a long tradition of craftsmen, wanted to put
these traditional values of quality and refinement to use in his liquor
company, and for this, he chose as an emblem not only the name but also the
image of the century-old family business: the graceful windmill with its
wind-sails.
Gin Xoriguer ceased to be merely a local curiosity and became a product
with an ever widening reach, opening the way in the market with its quality and
attractive bottling.
Due to its origins, traditions and Mediterranean characteristics, Gin
Xoriguer has gained recognition throughout the EEC, being denominated a
guaranteed traditional specialty or specific name of product E.T.G.
Mahon-Menorca.
Xoriguer is still a family business, looking to the future, faithful to
its origins and to a continuing tradition of craftsmanship, with the desire to
please all their clients and friends with its carefully elaborated Gin
Xoriguer.
Gin Xoriguer is the result of distillation in traditional copper
stills, using high quality wine alcohol (ethyl alcohol) and carefully selected
juniper berries, which come from the neighbouring Mediterranean mountains,
together with aromatic herbs. These herbs are the jealously guarded
"secret" of the liquor's original bouquet. Only the heirs of family
know the identity and proportion of this valuable ingredient, which is added
behind closed doors and without witnesses, at the start of each distilling. The
respect for tradition is such that the fuel still used today in the
distillation is wood.
The distillation begins when the vapours which are produced in the still's boiler circulate through copper pipes until they reach a coil, where they condense, forming a precious liquid that drips into jars.
An expert tastes the liquid at intervals to determine the precise moment when the distillation is complete. Once this is accomplished the gin is stored in large oak barrels, where it retains unchanging its colour, flavour and aroma, until it is l finally bottled.
The distillation begins when the vapours which are produced in the still's boiler circulate through copper pipes until they reach a coil, where they condense, forming a precious liquid that drips into jars.
An expert tastes the liquid at intervals to determine the precise moment when the distillation is complete. Once this is accomplished the gin is stored in large oak barrels, where it retains unchanging its colour, flavour and aroma, until it is l finally bottled.
