Darnley's View

£26.00 £28.00 Quantity:

As with any good gin, you need to start with a good story; in this case a family one. Darnley’s View is a creation from the Wemyss Whisky Company in Fife, and the legend goes something like this…

“With renowned expertise for the production of fine wines and spirits, our gin is made from a family recipe and captures the moment in 1565 when Mary Queen of Scots spied her future husband, Lord Darnley, through the courtyard window at Wemyss Castle. From this marriage came a prince who later united the thrones of England and Scotland as James VI and Ist. We like to think of Darnley’s son, conceived through a union that began at Wemyss, as a symbol of our desire to combine the best of England and Scottish distilling to create a unique gin.”

Darnley's View Gin -

Romance aside and onto the spirit, Darnley’s View Gin is a careful balance of six botanicals. The ingredients in question are largely a traditional line up, with juniper, lemon peel, coriander seed, angelica root, elderflower and orris root all added into the still, but the gin feels lighter than a classic London Dry. 4 times distilled and bottled at 40% ABV the juniper comes to the fore on the nose but much less so on the palate, with the elderflower emerging in it’s own right. Well rounded, smooth and with a warm finish, Darnley’s View never bites, making it a good choice of gin during the summer months. It also offers up some interesting possibilities for fruit based cocktails. To us, Darnley’s View Gin feels like a perfect example of a modern take on the traditional London Dry style – not digressing too far off the classic juniper lead taste, but lighter (softer even) and more floral to suit more modern palates. Delicious.

Darnley's View Spiced Gin -

Darnley’s View Spiced Gin is distilled with a total of ten botanicals, with juniper, cinnamon and nutmeg coming to the fore. Other botanicals include clove, cumin, ginger, grains of paradise, cassia, angelica and coriander.

Darnley’s View Spiced Gin is bottled at 42.7% ABV, which is stronger than the original (at 40% ABV). Notes from the Wemyss Whisky Company mention that they felt that a higher alcohol content brought out the flavours of the spicy botanicals a little more and provided a better balance. Though the difference in ABV is small, the taste is vastly different - they are radically different gins.

Read Gin Foundry's full review here: Darnley's View