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SAKURAO Gin Original (NAKED) – 700ML

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Tasting Notes

Botanical Profile:

  • Sakurao Original is a gin which plays on the distillery’s surroundings local strengths; namely their local citrus. Within Japan, Hiroshima is well known for their high quality (not to mention incredibly expensive) green lemons, which Sakurao use in abundance. They also utilize Hiroshima grown navel oranges, sweet summer orange, yuzu, dai dai (local bitter orange), hinoki cypress, green tea, red shiso and ginger. At this point many of you may be thinking, what about the juniper?
  • Alongside the above 9 botanicals, Sakurao Original also uses 5 additional imported botanicals of which juniper berries of course is one and coriander another. The other three are still a mystery at this point in time.

Nose:

  • The first thing that hits the nostrils is the citrus, particularly the yuzu, lemon and orange sweetness, followed up immediately by that unmistakable aroma of juniper berries. I felt I could catch a tiny glimpse of the green tea, but then again, I may have been trying too hard to force a scent that wasn’t there. Juniper and citrus definitely reigned supreme.
Categories: , , ,
Capacity: 700ml
Alcohol content: 47%

Sakurao Distillery, like many of the newly found Japanese gin distilleries, was built on the foundations of a well-established Japanese sake brewery, Chugoku Jozo. The distillery was established in 2018 on the 100 year anniversary of Chugoku Jozo and at present offers three distinct gin offerings, Sakurao Gin Original (covered in this article), Sakurao Gin Limited (using only Hiroshima botanicals down to the juniper berries) and Sakurao Gin Hamagou (a more herbaceous offering).

Sakurao Limited in particular has been heralded as the first and only Japanese gin produced domestically using only Japanese local botanicals. They are also currently in the process of producing a new line of Hiroshima single-malt whisky which is due to hit the international market around 2021.

Sakurao gin’s philosophy is to create a uniquely Japanese gin which demonstrates the bountiful riches that Japan’s nature has to offer – particularly focusing on utilizing botanicals from the surrounding Hiroshima region (western Japan).

They use a German-made, copper hybrid still and simultaneously incorporate steeping and vapour methods to extract as much flavour as possible from each and every botanical. Without any further ado, let’s talk about the botanicals in play in Sakurao’s standard offering – Sakurao Gin Original.