It has gotten to the point, in the American craft distilling scene, where if you’re making gin you really should be trying to give that gin some kind of sense of place. Granted, not every distillery is located in a city with convenient access to the kinds of flavorful and aromatic botanicals necessary to make classic gins, or a gin that truly reflects the area. But there’s no quicker route to harnessing the terroir of a region than by distilling those elements into gin, something pioneered by products like the aptly named Terroir Gin from St. George Spirits in Alameda. And this kind of mission is one that is clearly understood by Portland, Oregon distillers Freeland Spirits, especially via their new Forest Gin.
Freeland is an agriculture-focused urban distillery in Northwest Portland, a woman-owned and operated project based on the inspiration of founder Jill Kuehler, her grandmother “Meemaw” Freeland. Inspired the botanicals found in the garden where she spent some of the happier moments of her childhood, Kuehler has looked to recreate them in the form of gin since opening Freeland Spirits. The video below does a good job of highlighting the distillery’s founding influences and their mission.
The new Forest Gin, meanwhile, has a more local influence than the Texas roots of Kuehler’s grandmother, being a reference to the Portland area’s Forest Park, one of the country’s largest urban forest reserves in terms of total area. The botanicals here are extracted through both hot and cold double distillation, based around ingredients that can be found growing (and presumably foraged) in the park itself. Those botanicals include hanterelle mushrooms, douglas fir tips, salal berries and nettles, in addition to the obvious gin backbone of juniper. The goal is clearly to capture the essence of the Pacific Northwestern woods, with the final product being bottled at a respectable 45% ABV (90 proof), bearing an MSRP of $40.
So with that said, let’s get into tasting it and see how this botanical profile shows up.
On the nose, Freeland Spirits Forest Gin is definitely on the fresh and resinous side, with impressions of those fir trips along with considerable floral characteristics. It’s slightly earthy but also slightly on the “toasty” side, with touches of coriander-like spice and light pepper, but the overall impression definitely trends toward the greener side of the spectrum.
This impression follows through on the palate with resinous and woodsy characteristics of pine needle and green, vegetal, almost “leafy” tones. At the same time, I’m also getting something more like elderflower with a hint of sweetness, along with peppery and herbal flourishes, though it stays pretty dry overall. Faint berries speak to the juniper character, though it isn’t really a huge player. Nor is citrus, which might make Forest Gin a nice change of pace to drinkers who have gotten really used to the over-the-top fruitiness that is much easier to find in many New Western Gins from small U.S. distilleries these days. Forest Gin is likely something that will appeal more to classic dry gin drinkers, bringing the big woodsy qualities you would expect from the theme and moderate heat you would expect for the proof.
All in all, this is a nice bit of gin-based Pacific Northwest terroir, getting across the sense of place in a way that is refreshing and engaging. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it delivers exactly what the concept would promise.
Distillery: Freeland Spirits
City: Portland, OR
Style: Gin
ABV: 45% (90 proof)
Availability: 750 ml bottles, $40 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.