The Still & The VineSchool of Wine & Spirits
Gin Mare

Gin Mare

Vantguard / Brown-Forman · Destilerías MG, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain

$3585.4 (42.7% ABV) proof
Gin Mare is botanical architecture at its most deliberate. Where most gins start with juniper and build outward, Mare's designers flipped the blueprint: they began with the flavors of a Mediterranean table — olive, thyme, rosemary, basil — and built juniper around them as structural support rather than the main event. Each botanical is distilled individually to capture its purest expression, then blended with the precision of a perfumer. The result is a gin that tastes like the Catalan coast on a warm evening — savory, herbal, bright, utterly unlike anything from London.

Kit Aromas

Tasting Notes

Nose

Olive brine, rosemary, thyme, warm basil, citrus oils, gentle juniper

Palate

Herbal complexity, green olive, juniper warmth, Mediterranean spice, bright lemon, coriander seed

Finish

Long and savory with lingering herbs and gentle juniper warmthGin

Specifications
Botanicals
Arbequina olive, thyme, rosemary, basil, juniper, coriander, cardamom, citrus (orange and lemon)
Base Spirit
Neutral grain spirit
Distillation
Each botanical distilled individually, then blended
Serve & Pair

Cocktail Suggestion

— The Mare Mediterranean G&T: 2 oz Gin Mare · 4 oz premium tonic (Fever-Tree Mediterranean) · Fresh rosemary sprig · Olive on a cocktail pick · Orange peel. Build over ice in a copa glass, garnish with rosemary, olive, and expressed orange peel.

Food Pairing

Grilled octopus with romesco sauce — the herbal, olive-forward gin complements the char and the smoky pepper of the romesco.

Train These Aromas
More from Destilerías MG, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
Redbreast Lustau Edition
Irish Whiskey

Redbreast Lustau Edition

Irish Distillers (Pernod Ricard)

The Lustau Edition is Redbreast's most layered expression — a whiskey that seems to change shape in the glass. That final year in Lustau's first-fill Oloroso butts doesn't overpower the pot still character; it adds a last chapter to an already complex story.

$8092 (46% ABV) proof
Cragganmore 12 Year Old
Scotch Whisky

Cragganmore 12 Year Old

Diageo

Cragganmore 12 is the Speyside malt that rewards the patient nose. Where many single malts deliver their story in one dramatic chapter, Cragganmore reads like a novel with slow-building subplots. Those unique T-shaped lyne arms create a spirit of genuine complexity that unfolds over an hour in the glass.

$5080 (40% ABV) proof
Old Grand-Dad 114
Bourbon

Old Grand-Dad 114

Beam Suntory

Old Grand-Dad 114 is the thinking drinker's value bourbon — a bottle that punches so far above its price point it almost feels like a mistake. That 27% rye mash bill, nearly double the industry average, gives it a backbone of spice that would overwhelm a lesser whiskey, but here it serves as architecture for layers of caramel, chocolate, and charred oak to hang upon. The high proof isn't a gimmick — it's a magnifying glass, amplifying nuances that lower-proof expressions wash away. At under thirty-five dollars, this is a bottle that seasoned bourbon drinkers quietly recommend to one another.

$28114 (57% ABV) proof
Chairman's Reserve The Forgotten Casks
Rum

Chairman's Reserve The Forgotten Casks

St. Lucia Distillers Group of Companies

The Forgotten Casks is the rum world's most eloquent argument for the virtue of accidental patience. Those extra years of unplanned aging produced a rum of remarkable layered depth at a price that would be impossible if it were intentional.

$4580 (40% ABV) proof
More Gin Reviews