Gin Mare Mediterranean Gin, 70cl

Product Information

A Spanish winemaker can work full time for one winery or consult with several, usually smaller producers. If the winemaker works on a consultancy basis, there is an additional figure such as the winery manager who looks after everyday tasks and helps implementing the winemaker’s guidelines. In this case, the identity of a wine is normally linked to the winery itself or the land where the grapes originate. Only very exceptional, renowned winemakers’ names occupy a space above a winery and a vineyard which in any case are there too as a wine’s credentials. Just like Rupert’s first single malt, this one is also from Speysidebut just a wee bit richer, meatier and sweeter in flavour. The nose is alive with tantalising fruit aromas of orange and lemon complemented by lovely toffee and vanilla notes. And the palate follows on really well with sweet flavours of citrus, apple, pear and butterscotch. The texture is soft, smooth and creamy, with a nice long finish. The taste was similar; very subtle and very difficult to pin point what botanicals were present in the mix. I do know that it was very fresh and herby, like the smell, and it almost had a green tea like taste with hints of bitter, earthy notes. I studied 'product development' at the academy of Antwerp and Barcelona. After running for several years a rural hotel with restaurant and bar in the cava region next to Barcelona I decided to dedicate myself to the production of cava and wine and manage export for different high quality wine makers in Catalonia. In 2013 I met my actual partner Philippe who proposed me a joined venture to produce and commercialise spirits and in particular, gin. We made our first batch in March 2013. Naked Wines do not hide that winemaker Jorge Caus Pertegaz works for a “huge winery” but they immediately go on to mention that “his passion is getting into a small pet project of his own”, so that the reader is cunningly, swiftly transported to the fantasy world of vignerons. The bitter reality is that Jorge is the technical manager of, Font de la Figuera, Valencia based La Viña, a co-operative owned by 1,500 farmers who nurture a total of 2,400 hectares, that every year processes up to 13 Million kilograms of grapes. That is the equivalent to the volume processed by all 77 Spanish wineries registered with the appellation D.O. Bierzo.

G andTsare hot in Barcelona and fit perfectly the Spanish life style. I saw a great opportunity to respond to this trend and make an outspoken Mediterranean gin for Barcelona. Our Rambla 41 gin is based on the principle of 'terroir', unique in gin-making, which means we only use ingredients from our region: the Priorato. I believe balance is the most important quality in a wine and spirit, and I applied this concept to Rambla 41. Distilling is all about essences and giving a spirit the taste and aromas of a particular terroir looked very appealing to me. Gin is the purest form of alcohol and it has been one of the most beautiful challenges for me to achieve a new style of gin-making. I do like the bottle though! It’s very Spanish looking, with the blue and red splodges on the label that look like sections of some sort of masterpiece. The bottle itself is smooth and sleek and depicts tranquil lake memories. It is worth mentioning that his “Galician White” is not even offered as originating from somewhere specific in Galicia but from Spain and nothing is said as to the grape variety used although part of the list can be red on the label of the image used. Another example almost on the edge of illegality is their Trigales. It is only unenthusiastically linked with Rioja with a note to warn that they are not allowed to call it Rioja because it was made with an excess batch of grapes that the Rioja appellation governing body places outside the requirement of maximum production yields per hectare to guarantee fruit quality as head-on opposed to volume.Spaniards need not be too bothered with The Sunday Times Chris Haslams’ article on how to be Spanish. Not even by Jamie Oliver’s periodically recurring tweets on a more than creative version of paella with heaps of chorizo. The poor image of Spanish wine is not only more misleading for UK wine lovers but has also an enormous economic impact for the part of the Spanish wine industry that offers value added, quality wine with terroir-specific character. Heart touching, charity-style Naked Wines’ financial engineering I love to produce high quality and individual wines and spirits in a sustainable way. This business is about bringing pleasure and joy to the consumer. Enjoying quality, drinking the right spirit or wine at the right moment is an experience that I want to share with everybody.

Our first-ever Norwich gin makers debut gin is a coastal-inspired number with lots of lovely flavours and aromas you’d traditionally find on the Norfolk coast. It’s the same recipe that won Silver at the IWSC awards as well as Best English Contemporary Gin at the World Gin Awards in 2021. According to Wikipedia, “Naked Wines’ customers (called Angels) fund independent winemakers from around the world, in return for wines at self-described “wholesale prices”. However, the Financial Times notes that most wines sold by Naked Wines are not available on the retail market, “making direct price comparisons virtually impossible”, and most wines are priced “close to usual retail price”. They currently ship wine throughout the UK, USA and Australia. On 10 April 2015, Naked Wines was acquired by Majestic Wine and [founder] Rowan Gormley was appointed CEO of the enlarged group”. Carlos Rodriguez Valpopi Ribera del Duero 2016 – NOT AVAILABLE (apparently this brand name is registered by Bodegas Viyuela S.L. in Burgos). A single malt whisky is a little like a single vineyard wine, it’s got extra complexity and unique flavours and aromas that come from being made by a particular distillery. This 10-year-aged Single Malt Whisky from the historic Linkwood distillery was made from just three casks, each of which were re-charred hogsheads - a rarely-seen type of cask which imparts additional flavours of nuts, cream and spice.What Angels are getting is a biased perception of the Spanish wine picture with a lost opportunity cost. According to ICEX, the smaller 87 percent segment of all Spanish wineries account for less than 7 percent of total exports value. Small producers tend to concentrate effort and resources on agriculture and winemaking and marketing budgets are meagre. Off-mainstream Spanish wines struggle to gain visibility and a wider audience at international markets like the UK, dominated by large importers and retailers. I like most of all a well-balanced and aromatic wine or spirit. Once a great wine maker in Spain told me that in the best wine you shouldn't be able to distinguish any of the varietals or barrel ageing - it should be a complete unique taste with expression of terroir and as natural as possible. A good spirit has to communicate, provoke and awaken the interest of the consumer.

Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps my senses just aren’t sophisticated enough to appreciate this gin, but on first and second, and third smells, all I was able to detect were the fresh herby scents – scents that did not evolve as your nose adapted to the smells. Having said that, the herby smell from the rosemary and thyme is a beautiful one! Just a shame it was so subtle.

The inventive use of winemaker profiles that impersonate vigneron-style, Spanish producers is perverse: it tells customers a half-truth and sets a very poor precedent for authentic, small Spanish wineries struggling to stand out from the crowd with quality, artisanal wines. After researching the ingredients, it is revealed that Rambla 41 contains some lovely sounding botanicals: almond, juniper, Angelica, orange and lemon peel. On re-tasting the gin with this new knowledge, I was still unable to distinguish any almond or angelica, but the citrus did then sneak through. There were some sweet notes too which may be from the almond after all. Mixed with tonic, Rambla 41 is unobtrusive and, disappointedly, unimpressive, making for a very ordinary gin & tonic. All in all – too subtle for my liking. Naked Wines Castillo Catadau Gran Reserva 2008 by La Font de La Figuera, Valencia based co-operative La Viña

It is even more perverse of Naked Wines to utilise the real financial struggles of grape farmers and small wineries to fabricate a charity-similar setting where customers are asked for upfront monthly contributions and continually told that these funds relieve producers and are indispensable to obtain the wine that they will be offered at (theoretically) wholesale prices. The remaining 45 wines are left in the dark as to what kind of intervention there has been from the alleged winemaker. In some cases, they speak of buying grapes which means having to have them vinified somewhere. Where? It may mean buying grapes from one or more farmers. It may be that the winemaker is in fact buying wine from one winery or from more than one and blending them. Who’s actually made the wines in that case and where? Too many questions and too much confusion. Naked Wines’ Spanish winemakers that are not Whisky-loving Angels have been begging us to do a Single Malt for ages, so we paid a visit to our whisky wizz Rupert to see if he had anything special hiding up his sleeve. And lo and behold… he pulled out this beautifully-aged, smooth Speyside Scotch, poured us a wee dram, and put a great, big smile on our face.Without the financial input of the Naked Angels it would have been simply impossible for us to produce a custom made craft gin of high quality on such a short time schedule. The production of Rambla 41 consolidates my very young company and helps us enormously to move forward. My gratitude is immense.