Juniper, coriander and citrus, with a clean finish and a touch of spice… it’s what you might call a “proper” gin.  However, those with a more sensitive palate may notice assorted other flavour profiles.

The Gin Foundry has decided to explore the realms of flavours and aromas to a greater degree, with the creation of the “Gin Wheel”, which explains some of the qualities of gin, aligning them to a variety of different categories, such as sweet, nutty, fruity or floral.  And it’s the latter we’re looking at this month.  Well, it’s summer – so many things are in full bloom.

The wheel suggests that the gin’s qualities such as “stewed”, “aromatic”, “fresh”, “perfumed”, “fragrant” and “calming” are rooted in hints of certain flowers, both on the nose and on the tongue.  Similarly, if you’ve noticed a hint of elderflower, for example, or the briefest sense of lavender, then you can describe your gin as calming or aromatic/fresh respectively.

It’s an interesting notion and one that encourages thought and consideration, while allowing your nose and palate free reign. If asked to describe flavours and aromas in any food or drink, be it wine, whisky, chocolate or whatever, many people freeze, worried that they’ll give the wrong answer.  Relax.  There are no wrong answers.  It’s your palate, your nose, your rules.  That can, of course, be easier said than done.

It can be useful – and confidence-enhancing – then to have some prompts, which is where the Gin Wheel comes into its own. For example, hints  of raspberry / raspberry leaf and / or rosehip – tangy, tart, with a red fruit quality – fall into the “stewed” category,  which then moves into “aromatic”. Lavender, jasmine, geranium sit around this point, although they also edge towards the “fresh” section for obvious reasons. The wheel then moves into “perfumed” should you pick up on honeysuckle, for example, or other such summery scents. As we progress through “fragrant” – marigold, honey bush (think rooibos with a hint of honey sweetness) – we finally make it to “calming” – chamomile, elderflower – which seems an appropriate place to finish. After all, we always find gin suitably relaxing…

World Gin Day is a global celebration of all things gin, held annually on the second Saturday in June.

The idea behind it is simple: get people together all around the world with a legitimate excuse to celebrate gin, whether it’s in cocktail form, neat or in a classic G&T.

It’s the idea of “The Gin Monkey” – real name Emma – who started her alter ego to promote the sort of bars, and drinks, she liked. And, with twelve years of working in the industry in Leeds, Newcastle and London, she felt she had a pretty good insight into what she was looking for. However, as she points out on her site, Emma’s “main expertise/passion has always been drinking them” – which basically means she reviews bars, cocktails and spirits from a consumer’s perspective. Oh, and as Emma explains, the name came about “because of my love of the juniper spirit and the fact I’ve got ridiculously long arms.”

It’s that love, and the recent boom in the British and World gin industries, that prompted the creation of World Gin Day.

How does one participate?

It couldn’t be easier. Just follow World Gin Day / Gin Monkey on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up to date with the latest news and events, and use the #WorldGinDay hashtag in your own posts. The official website will also show all the events taking place.

Jake’s Bar – cocktail maven Jake Burger (job title: libator) knows a thing or two about cocktails and quality drinks. It should come as no surprise that Leeds’ Jake’s Bar carries Fifty Pounds.

Liquor Store – According to this year’s Eat Drink and Sleep Awards, The Liquor Store is Manchester’s best bar. Their back bar collection is impressive and features Fifty Pounds’ very recognisable bottle.

Fifteen – Jamie Oliver’s social enterprise venture is celebrating – remarkably – its 15^th anniversary. As well as the modern British menu, the cocktail bar reflects the JO approach to quality, artisanal produce.

Gin Tub – Hove’s Gin Tub stocks over eighty gins, including yours truly. They also offer a rather splendid afternoon tea should you be so inclined – and a rum cage, if you’re not.

Holborn Dining Room – While chef Calum Franklin’s pies are causing something of a stir (do seek him out on Instagram), this all day dining room at the Rosewood Hotel also features a gin bar with – wait for it – over 500 bottles.

The Launderette – Manchester’s burgeoning reputation for food and drink has spread far from the city centre. This Chorlton bar offers cocktails, pizzas, an outside terrace and, of course, the true source of a stonkingly good gin and tonic.

Duck and Waffle – located on the 40^th floor of the Heron Tower, Duck and Waffle offers a 24/7 service, great views over London and, clearly, a bar manager with great taste…

Hoi Polloi – the Ace Hotel chain oozes cool in key cities around the globe including London, where their wood-panelled bar and brasserie Hoi Polloi offers an all-day menu and a fine selection of gins.

Smokestack – is it a cocktail bar with music or a music bar with cocktails? Either way, Smokestack in Leeds has a fine reputation for its drinks and its atmosphere.

House Of Tippler – Tim Oakley trained at Babington House in Somerset, and opened House of Tippler in 2012. The aim: classic and seasonally inspired cocktails, beverages and locally sourced food. Our classic London gin would seem to fit then…

The Wash House in Manchester – Lurking behind the façade of a fake laundrette lie excellent drinks, table service and very stylish surroundings. And, of course, at least one first rate gin. The laundrette thing is fun in reality, less so via their deeply uninformative website but one cocktail is all it will take to forgive them…

Ape & Bird, London – Part of Russell Norman’s Polpo group, Ape & Bird was their attempt at a pub. The interior is still very gastropub but the menu has gone full Venetian – and is all the better for it – there’s a very good value wine list and a fine selection of gins.

The Star At Night / London Gin Club – A great Soho secret since its launch in the early 2000s, a few years ago, The Star At Night rebranded as – fanfare please – The London Gin Club offering table service, a relaxed vibe and, as well as a decent cocktail menu and wine list, a choice of some 200 gins.

Tate Modern – We could borrow from the V&A’s old marketing campaign and describe the Tate as a very good bar with a gallery attached…  While it’s not strictly fair – the gallery is clearly the bigger draw – the spacious, elegant bar feels like a genuine “find”.

The Colonel Fawcett – Billing themselves as  ”Camden’s best kept secret” it’s hard to see them staying “unknown” for long. Gastropub classics, an excellent BBQ menu – weather permitting – and a gin list well into double figures seems to be a very fine recipe for success  – and fame.

More importantly, he’s also a fan of gin and, perhaps at his happiest, when discussing the subject. “I can always talk about the distillation process,” he admits which, in the case of Fifty Pounds Gin, is a classic, and quite simple, approach.

“It’s a fairly straightforward process,” explains Charles. “We put the botanicals into the still along with premium neutral grain spirit and water, and we give the spirit, and the water, and the botanicals time to macerate for a little bit, and then we turn on the stills.

“We heat the stills gently with hot water jackets. You don’t want direct flame or anything too violent because you don’t want to scald your botanicals.

“This process takes about five hours. At the start, you get the “heads”, and we draw them off as they have very little botanical oil in them. The heads are mostly spirit, because spirit boils at 76 degrees, so that means it comes off very quickly.

“As the distillation process progresses, you get more of the oils coming across, and then towards the end, the strength – which we monitor throughout the process – will drop. When that happens, when the strength drops below a critical point, we collect that too, those are the “tails”: the oils also become very heavy in the tails. We use only the liquid between those stages, the “heart” of the distillation. That comes off at approx. 80% ABV.

“It’s then left to settle for no less than three weeks, which allows the botanicals’ essentials oils to blend perfectly with the grain spirit. The final step towards achieving our precious gin is to balance the distillate obtained with the same type of neutral alcohol, together with demineralised water, to achieve the perfect balance and alcohol content.

“The whole point of Fifty Pounds Gin is to capture that freshness in a bottle. As I like to tell whisky distillers, when they finally get it right, they won’t have to store it in barrels for three years…”