Med denne skønne gin, som bl.a. skiller sig ud med noter fra yuzu, grøn te, ingefær og citron, får du en gin med en rigtig wow-faktor! Similar to the Kyoto Dry, yuzu and juniper notes are overwhelmingly present in the nose. Slight spicy notes from the sansho and ginger are present, but relatively low key. The six Elements are Base, Citrus, Tea, Herbal, Spice and Fruity & Floral. The Base contains juniper, orris and hinoki; Citrus is made using yuzu and lemon; Tea is from gyokuro alone; Herbal comes from sansho and kinome; Spice is made using ginger; while Fruity & Floral uses shiso and bamboo leaves as ingredients. It’s a good mix of common gin botanicals and unique Japanese ones. All gins are usually watered down after distillation before bottling. And for The Kyoto Distillery, they’ve done the right thing – in our books – by using Fushimi’s natural, mineral-laden groundwater to do so. Sake brewers in the region have been using and praising the quality of Fushimi groundwater for ages, and the use of it in their gin shows the astuteness of their distillers.

Again, the peculiar bitterness I think clashes with the bitterness of quinine in a Gin and Tonic. If you really like bitter. Like drinking Amari on its own or a chowing down on a big pile of radicchio, this combination will appeal to you. Whilst some companies have experimented with the base liquor ( warning: gins made from shochu, will inevitably end up tasting like shochu), and others with the botanicals (the most interesting I’ve heard to date utilised goya (bitter melon)!); in a way akin to the way Australian gins often make use of similar locally sourced botanicals (lemon myrtle, wattleseed, finger limes, river mint – you see where I’m going!), the same steady culprits tend to pop up in many Japanese gins as well. Botanicals: Juniper, Gyokuro green tea, Yuzu, Ginger, Red Perilla (shiso), Bamboo Grass, Sansho pepper, Hinoki cypress, Orris, Lemon, Pepper tree buds I knew it was going to be hard to keep a martini cold and that the flavour profile was probably going to change within a few minutes so I didn’t have much time to savour this one. As this is a Navy Strength I decided to mix at a slightly softer ratio than usual, approximately 4:1 gin to vermouth. I used Lillet Blanc (an aromatised French white wine based aperitif with added quinine) and some orange bitters, garnishing the whole thing with another grapefruit peel. Marcin Miller, Chairman of The Kyoto Distillery, added: 'Having been fortunate enough to work with Pernod Ricard in the past, I am extremely enthusiastic about the wealth of expertise and experience that will ensure this strategic partnership will deliver great success for KI NO BI.'There is an old saying in Japan that you can learn a lot about a place by drinking the local sake. Today, this no longer applies just to nihonshu. There are now small-scale operations around Japan that are producing outstanding craft beer and gin with local water and ingredients. However, unlike Suntory who produce anything from whisky and beer to shochu and umeshu, and the many other new distilleries which have sprung up from old shochu/ sake makers, Kinobi’s “The Kyoto Distillery” is Japan’s first distillery dedicated to the production of gin and nothing else. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Again yuzu and juniper were the most predominant flavours in the mix, however the higher proportions brought out the delicate flavours of the other botanicals. The hinoki brought a lovely slightly woody flavour to it, which was just perfect with the juniper; the gyokuro green tea again brought a slight sweetness and a beautiful fragrance when mixed with the tonic water.

Have they succeeded? To a large extent, we think so. To stand out in a world where new gins are coming online every day is an uphill task, to say the least. But they have done a number of things to impress us. A bartender mixes a drink at the House of Ki no Bi, Kyoto Distillery’s brand shop. Most people drink gin mixed with tonic, but plain soda helps bring out the gin’s uniquely clean delicacy. In 2000, they helped start the Japanese language version of Britain’s Whisky Magazine with editor in chief Marcin. The three grew to work ever closer, and in 2014 they joined up to found the Kyoto Distillery. They first considered going into whisky, but since there were already some very high quality small-batch distilleries in that field, they turned instead to craft gin, which was gaining headway overseas. In the newly accessible Japanese craft gin market, Kinobi has established itself as a staple gin representing the delicate Japanese palate and containing simple, yet well thought out Japanese botanicals, so it seemed like the obvious choice for my first Japanese craft gin review.

Another of the distillery’s offerings is a dry gin matured in wine barrels from the Amanohashidate winery, located on the Tango peninsula on the north coast of Kyoto Prefecture. It was launched in October of 2022 as a Kyoto-Prefecture only product, providing gin lovers another reason to stop by the House of Ki no Bi or one of Kyoto’s many authentic bars. I’m not entirely sure which botanical was responsible, however there was a slight umami flavour which lingered well after the first sip (possibly the bamboo leaves?). The Ki No Tea does wonders in a Martini and a Negroni (with modifications). Both are different beasts, with the Martini allowing the Ki No Tea plenty of room to shine on its own, while in a Negroni, gives the cult classic gratifying green tea potency for added layers of complexity. The full recipes can be found below. Though fans of both classic and contemporary gins will find Ki No Bi unusual, it’s worth a closer look if you’re willing to put in the effort. A great gin and tonic for summer, super fresh and invigorating, whilst also having overall good performance thanks to the higher alcohol percentage – 4 / 5 stars

As the preamble for this Martini rating I should first say that the day I chose to rate this gin was an absolutely killer of a summer day here in Japan, with around 80% humidity and temperatures reaching around 32℃ ( anyone who has experienced Japanese summer can tell you it’s like sitting in a sauna). Kinobi’s distillery is located in the old capital of Kyoto – a fact they pride themselves on. The name itself roughly translates to “the beauty of the seasons”, a testament to the botanicals harvested for use in its distillation.

KI NO BI GIN - GIN & TONIC

KI NO BI is a small-batch, artisanal gin with a Japanese heart. Distilled at Japan's first dedicated gin distillery, built in Kyoto in 2014, it is made with obsessive attention to detail, care and precision, from a high-quality rice spirit and Japanese botanicals such as yuzu, lemon, sansho pepper, ginger and gyokuro tea. KI NO BI has been carefully crafted to ensure perfect harmony between its various botanicals and its Kyoto origins. KI NO BI has a recognisable dry gin flavour with a Japanese accent: pure, perfectly balanced with distinctive aromas and a lingering finish of light ginger. The biggest difference was the burn as it passed down the throat and into the stomach. Not at all unpleasant but coming in expecting a more defined difference between the two I admit I was just a little disappointed – 3.5 /5 stars. Kyoto: green tea leaves (gyokuro), yuzu, sansho pepper, hinoki cypress, ginger, bamboo leaves, red perilla Another impressive feature is their unique blending process. Gins are usually made by running the base spirit through a pot or column still with all the botanical ingredients macerated/infusing inside. The Kyoto Distillery does this too, except they do this separately for six different botanical bases they refer to as Elements. I found myself liking this gin most in the humble G&T. I paired it with some premium tonic water and a huge grapefruit peel which really helped to bring the citrus flavours to shine.

Overall it was smooth and incredibly delicate experience. As expected it was more citrus forward, with the yuzu and lemon flavours being used to good effect but still with enough juniper to maintain dominance in a Martini. As Japan’s first gin distillery, The Kyoto Distillery has a lot to live up to. Purposefully located within Japan’s old capital of Kyoto, a historic city known for their centuries of tradition and craftsmanship, the distillery seeks to honour the spirit of the place with their own craft creations. To produce their gins, they then blend the Elements differently, based on the profile they’re after. It’s an interesting practice perhaps inspired by the whisky making process, where the art of blending is more commonplace. Kinobi Kyoto Dry Gin is a distinctive expression of the Kyoto, and of the total 11 botanicals used in its distillation, 7 of its botanicals are sourced from within Kyoto, 1 from neighbouring Seto, whilst the remaining 3 are imported. The Kyoto Distillery was founded by David Croll—native of gin’s heartland of Britain—his wife Kakuda Noriko, and Marcin Miller. Croll and Kakuda began running an import-export business out of Tokyo focusing on single malt whisky in 1990. They brought several brands to Japan for the first time, among them craft beers and craft gin from Britain.The juniper berries (top left) come from Macedonia and the yuzu (top right) from Kyoto, to which the distillers add Japanese-grown lemons (bottom left), and Kyoto-grown sanshō. They add kinome (bottom right) for spice since using sanshō alone would be overpowering. The gyokuro tea comes from a historic tea shop. Disclaimer: this review is an unbiased and unsolicited review of a sample from the writer’s personal collection. All opinions expressed regarding the product are my own. While most Japanese gins are made from rice-, barley- or corn-based neutral grain spirit derived from shochu or whisky production, a new wave of distillers is utilizing everything from sweet potato ( imo, used to make shochu) to sugarcane. “Most Japanese alcohol, other than shochu and sake, isn’t governed by very many laws, including what the base spirit must be,” says Christopher Gomez, beverage director at Shibumi, a Michelin-starred kappo ryori (fine dining) Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles, of the sheer variety within the expanding category.