Monday, June 11, 2018

Gin

I'm a collector, possibly even a hoarder by nature, it's obvious when you look at my books - which are hard to avoid looking at. They're everywhere around my flat, but there are other things which are a little less obvious.

My yarn stash is mostly tucked away in drawers, and as I lack for cellar all my better wine, whisky, and gin is fighting for space in my wardrobe. I started pulling things out of there last night in a failed attempt to find a missing shoe, which in turn made me think I ought to take stock of what gin I actually had.

The answer turned out to be these 41 lovelies. Almost half of them have been presents - so people obviously know I like gin (they're right, I do), but I suspect I like collecting even more. The litre bottles of the Tanqueray editions for example - it's going to be a struggle to open those, and the same with the beautifully decorative Rock Rose Autumn and winter bottles. The Sipsmith V. J. O. P is strong enough to be quite intimidating.

Mostly though, as I sit looking at these whilst drinking a coffee, I'm thinking some of them want drinking before I can let myself buy anything else (presents don't count, any gift gin will be accepted with enthusiasm). Last year I had a mini gin festival with a friend to raise some money for charity - which was an excellent way to clear out a few half finished bottles, and fun, but I don't have enough open bottles to want to do that again just yet.

It's probably lucky that my partner has an even bigger stash of single malts, and perfectly understands both the impulse to collect, and the idea that some are for 'best' and not to be opened lightly. Gin isn't collectable in the same way - non of these are likely to increase in value but they're fun to collect and have gathered quite a bit of sentimental value in the acquisition process (we spent ages tracking down a Rock Rose Autumn, the Tanqueray Bloomsbury came from a beer shop in Shetland where I did not expect to find it, the Christopher Wren gin from the City of London distillery was another adventure to find and so on...).

Meanwhile, if you know where to find me and fancy a G&T/martini or similar, I think I've probably got it covered. There's even plenty of ice in the freezer.


8 comments:

  1. I have a nice stash of wine and beer which I think of as my emergency stockpile, in case of earthquake, etc. I will have beverages. Ha ha, yet true.

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    1. Right there with you. I don't actually drink very much (which is why the number of bottles mounts up so) but when I do, I know it will be something nice.

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  2. Wow Harris Gin is there..most impressed. Regards, Mark.

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    1. The Harris gin is excellent. My bottle was a present, but I really need to go to Harris for myself.

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  3. That is a very impressive collection and surely represents many hours of future pleasure as well as happy memories.

    Terra, that is very sensible. I like to think I have enough reading matter to get through any disaster but after some effort over the last few years our supplies of gin and whisky are dangerously low and I should do something about this.

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    1. It does indeed represent some happy memories, though it's maybe getting a bit out of hand at the moment. Time to get some people together and drink a few things.

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  4. Lovely! I love my Rock Rose bottles, I can’t bear to throw them away. Hence they are building up! I would love a set of the four seasons of them.
    Gin down here locally is normally named after Royal Navy ships, etc.
    I went to a gin festival yesterday and they had a shiitake mushroom and butternut squash gin..........

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    1. I notice you don't comment on how the mushroom and butternut squash gin tasted. The Rock Rose bottles are so pretty, I suppose it would be easy enough to buy them online, but that's not much fun, and they're not always so easy to find in shops.

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