Seriously good gin

A gin for life. Is something that can ever be agreed upon? Unlikely. But we would still urge you to try this exquisite gin; one that comes with a rich history. It is Monkey 47. Created from a recipe developed by RAF Wing Commander Montgomery “Monty” Collins – watch enthusiast, cricket lover, globetrotter and the original creator of the Black Forest Dry Gin. Born in 1909, he spent the first half of the 20th century in a variety of places. From his beginnings as the son of a diplomat on the Indian Subcontinent, he then served out his military career in post-war Berlin before finally settling in the Black Forest. This diverse background could do nothing less than create an eccentric. But why “Monkey 47”? MD and proprietor Alexander Stein answers this question: “‘Monkey’ in honour of Commander Collins and the monkey (Max) he sponsored as part of the effort to rejuvenate post-war Berlin; and ‘47’ simply because that is the number of botanic ingredients used in the recipe.” This makes Monkey 47 a kind of ‘beverage biography’ – and as such, it won’t surprise the gin-connoisseur to recognise certain conventional aromas alongside stranger herbs, redolent of Collins’ childhood in India. The key, however, is in the content itself: the development and enhancing of Montgomery’s rudimentary, ancestral recipe containing Black Forest spring water, local ingredients such as cranberries, spruce shoots, sloes and blackberry leaves. The result is a daring combination of local herbs and exotic Asian botanicals. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Or in this case, in the bottle: the distillers have excelled themselves with the subtle complexities contained in this most genuine of Black Forest dry gins. Just another gin? Absolutely not!