A taste from the land of Long-ships –
According to Lonely Planet, my image of the Vikings and their escapades is way off mark – and my two short business trips to Denmark have also failed to furnish me with an accurate assessment of what is a vibrant trading country. However, I have our blog and a half litre bottle of ELG No 3 Navy Strength gin – purchased via Amazon – to thank for my fresh insight.
One thing we can be sure about is that those aboard the Long-ships which started raiding our coasts at the end of the Dark Ages, didn’t have to carry any Navy proof spirit to sustain them on their long voyages: the British Royal Navy having, centuries later, developed something which wouldn’t adulterate the gunpowder it was stored alongside.
At 57.2% ELG is just over the minimum strength to pass the gunpowder test, but masks its muscle slightly with a pleasant smoothness that allows it to be sipped neat if one craves such naked pleasure. And not wanting to dilute the overall impact we used our normal proportions of pouring a double, along with an equal amount of Fever Tree Indian Tonic, in a large goblet. It’s very much juniper to the fore, with citrus filling the stern: apparently No 3 uses the same minimalist set of three botanicals as ELG’s No1 gin.
We should also report that, mixed with tonic, No3 clouds in the same fashion as The Beast – though the Danish distillers describe the outcome as “opalized”. The colour coded range is produced at The Stone Grange distillery in Fredonborg, which also offers a Christmas Gin and a cucumber concoction.
After recent experiences with the salad wand, we probably won’t work our way around to the latter, and if you’re thinking of following in Nelson’s fortified footsteps, we’d still recommend a ration of the Dartmoor Distillery’s 57% flagship gin.
Strangely, the Dane’s IWSC Silver awards from 2017 and 2018 aren’t referenced on the ELG label, though our bottle, bought in May this year, is dated 2017, and is numbered 554 of 1250 from batch 003 – underlining its craft credentials.
Eight months in, our gin blog continues to be a voyage of discovery, and now if anyone asks me to name a product of Denmark – other than bacon and blousy blondes like Brigitte Nielsen – I’ll be able to add ELG No3 to my list.
“Bottoms up!”
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