Cocktails with… Richmond London Dry Gin

I’ve spent a lot of time writing about gins that I really like and one of the questions that I get asked most frequently is “what is your favourite gin?”, but another question is: which is your least favourite? The answer to the first question is Boodles and the second is Richmond Gin*. Interestingly, these are both made at the same distillery (Greenall’s) in Warrington.

Richmond is a London Dry Gin (all botanicals are distilled with no flavour or colour added after distillation) that is bottled at 37.5% ABV.

Own
Nose: A minimal nose, mostly made up of grain alcohol with the faintest hint of juniper. Very underwhelming. After a while, there’s some soapy coriander, followed by a touch of Pritt Stick.
Taste: Relatively smooth, but the Pritt Stick (glue stick) impression is back, alongside the soapy coriander and a bit of juniper. This tastes artificial and far from fresh.
Although I still don’t like it, upon this second tasting, I concluded that it is not as bad as I had previously remembered.

Gin & Tonic
The flavour was easily lost beneath the tonic in a 2:1 ratio G&T, although a little bit of juniper appeared towards the finish. Other than that, I found it to be rather anonymous.

Martini
Quite sweet, rather like a Vodka Martini, apart from the appearance of a very small amount of coriander. It’s quite nice, but, if you like a good Gin Martini, you’ll probably be disappointed.

In Conclusion
Upon further review, I think this gin was slightly better than I had expected (or remembered), but it is still not something that I would recommend; there are better gins available for the same price. For me, Richmond has an overall artificial impression and its flavour is very easily overwhelmed by others. In short, it doesn’t really have the thing that I think makes gin such a great spirit.

*To give Richmond Gin its due, I tried it in a blind taste test with Ginebra San Miguel and it was much better.