My last seminar at Tales of the Cocktail 2010 was on Saturday at 10am.  It was held on the top floor of the Hotel Montelone in The Riverview Room overlooking the French Quarter and the Mississippi River.  The seminar was titled The Prehistory & Evolution of Gin sponsored by Hayman’s Old Tom Gin and G’Vine Gin.  An extremely well spoken Irishman named Philip Duff was the moderator and he started us all of with a cocktail that was one of my favorites while at Tales; the Jasmine.  Created by Paul Harrington, the Jasmine is gin (G’Vine Nouaison), Cointreau, Campari and lemon juice.  It was the perfect cocktail to begin a Saturday morning with.

Mr. Duff began his history of gin by introducing Maria the Jewess or Maria Prophetissa, a woman who at the University of Alexandria in Greece perfected the three-armed distillation chamber or still around 100 AD.  The spread of distillation across Europe happened as Arabs invaded European countries bringing with them their knowledge of many sophisticated ideas in fields such as mathematics, philosophy and medicine.  The Arabs might have been distilling themselves before Maria Prophetissa’s invention was recorded in history, but their progression across borders helped carry the knowledge abroad.  Especially important was the advancement through Southern Italy across the Mediterranean and up through the Iberian Peninsula and eventually into Northern Ireland and Scotland.  Mr. Duff mentioned the probability of distillation being invented in China before European stills were being fired up, but because none of the Chinese knowledge helped our spirit making ancestors create their products, the Chinese history of distillation would be saved for another lecture.

Although hoards of Arab invaders helped distribute the practice and knowledge of distillation, they didn’t help create the alcoholic spirit used for recreational consumption.  Eastern invaders believed in the teachings of Allah and used the Koran as their guiding text.  The Muslim religion forbade the consumption of alcohol for recreation and enjoyment, so most distillates were strictly for use in medicine and also in making perfumes.  Traveling monks of a Christian faith were instrumental in the production of alcohol as enjoyable spirits.  Particularly important were the monks studying in the towns of Toledo, Spain and Salerno, Italy where they concerned themselves with the translation of Arab languages into Latin.  Many of the translations had to do with the process of distillation and led to recipes regarding the production of alcohol.  These recipes, now in a language shared by monks across Europe, traveled as the monks did and spirit production spread.

The earliest recorded mention of juniper as a key ingredient to human health occurred in the writings of Jacob Van Maeriant of Holland.  His work Der Naturen Bioeme or roughly ‘The Bloom of Nature’ includes the following reference to juniper’s importance; “He who wants to be rid of stomach pain should use juniper cooked in rainwater.  He who has cramps cook juniper in wine, it’s good against the pain.”  One of the first uses of the still was to fortify wine for long travel.  The Dutch would create a brandewijn or ‘burnt wine’ out of wines from the Bordeaux region in France in order to preserve them for the long journey home.  It was this combination of distilled wine from grapes and the medicinal power of juniper that lead to the first recipes for gin.

In 1495, a collection of knowledge that included recipes for food called The Sloame Manuscripts also included a guide on how to make burned wine.  The list included using wine fermented on the lees, cut with ‘clean water or Hamburg beer’ and also including botanicals such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, golonga, ginger, grains of paradise, juniper and nutmeg.  Mr. Duff actually had a bottle of this made for us to taste and it was wonderful.  The spirit was very rich and spicy, much like a young, herbal whiskey.  It is important to note the use of grapes as a base fruit for the spirit.  Fermentation was much easier to obtain using grapes because the technology of the time was not advanced enough for the use of grains in spirit.

It wasn’t until 1582 when a Dutch gentleman named Casper Janez Coolhaes wrote the Holland Guide to Distilling and calls for grain to be used in the recipe.  Koren brandewijn was made mostly of corn, a grain easier to grow in Holland rather than grapes.  The resulting spirit was what we know as Genever, and is almost closer to whiskey than the London Dry style of gin popular today.  Genever is all about the grain and contrary to popular belief, does not have to see time in barrel in order to be called a  Genever.  If a producer wants to age their spirit (to mention it on the label) the Genever has to rest at least one year in 700 liter barrels.  Other than that stipulation, there exist no aging requirements for the spirit.  The popular style of drinking it in Holland in the 16th century was to wash down a fresh herring with a shot of Genever.  I can only imagine what a Dutchman’s breath smelled like back then.

The onslaught of gin consumption to the rest of the world is attributed to the seafaring men of the navy (like many spirits).  The enlisted men of the Dutch navy were given rations of Genever while the officers drank brandy.  When the English discovered Genever, the officers of the Royal navy kept it to themselves and gave the enlisted men rum to drink.  Mr. Duff wanted to dispel a common myth that is constantly perpetuated about the invention of gin.  The invention of gin is commonly attributed to a certain Franciscus Sylvius de la Boe or “Dr. Sylvius’.  Mr. Duff pointed out one major factor that proves that ‘Dr. Sylvius’ had nothing to do with the invention of gin; the first record of gin being taxed was in 1608, the same year ‘Dr. Sylvius’ was born!

The men of the English navy weren’t the only ones to help spread the thirst for gin.  In 1689, England crowned a new king; King William III.  As one of his first acts, King William declared war against France and forbade the consumption or use of anything French.  Because they couldn’t easily get anymore French brandy or wine to drink, the English turned to the Dutch and their Genever.  This led the English into a gin craze that blossomed between 1715 and 1751.  The stills in England soon began producing their own style of gin, based upon recipes that contributed sweeter, more floral and citrus notes to the gin, closer to what we know as London Dry gin.  Many distillers used sugar to create the style known as Old Tom gin.  Bourds Old Tom gin was the first gin with a registered trademark.  Between 1769 and 1876, gin distilling dynasties began as producers like Gordons, Plymouth, Tanqueray and Beefeaters opened their stills.  In the 1820’s, gin palaces began to open all over London and for the first time common English folk were able to enjoy a taste of the good life.

In the 1860’s, European grape vines were attacked by the Phylloxera beetle and wine production came to a shattering halt; this lead to an even wider consumption and appreciation of spirits all over Europe.  In the United States, spirits and cocktails were enjoying a wonderful boom as bartenders were becoming ever more important figures in social life.  In many of the earliest cocktail recipes gin played a major role.  Unfortunately, those governing the United States decided to ban alcohol consumption and prohibition began in 1920, setting the United States back 100 years when all was said and done.  The great bartenders of the time all moved abroad to practice their craft and when prohibition ended, the taste of the nation was much simpler and gin again played a major part.  The martini became less of a crafted cocktail and more of just straight chilled gin consumed in massive amounts.

Gin was what everybody was drinking until a little spirit called vodka became popular in the 1960’s in places like TGI Friday’s where the young adults of the day were drinking heavily, but drinking everything fruity and far from their parents gin martinis.  Gin was further kicked in the chin when a fictional character named James Bond wanted his martini made with the spirit beloved by the villains he constantly fought; Russian vodka.  In 1988 a gentleman named Michel Roux of Carillon Importers introduced the world to Absolut Vodka and the vodka craze was in full swing.  The same Michel Roux helped re-introduce the drinking world to a gin that bridged the gap between the neutrality of vodka and the intensity of strong London Dry;  Bombay Sapphire.  It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s when places like The Atlantic Bar & Grill opened in London where the bartenders embraced their national spirit and began making gin cocktails again.  The Rainbow Room in New York opened and a young Dale DeGroff began doing the right thing behind the bar and the right thing involved cocktails with gin.  As I write this article I am enjoying a French 75 made perfectly by my fianceé with Small’s Gin of Sheridan, Oregon, one of the best gins I have tasted in some time.

Throughout the seminar, we tasted various gins, including Ransom Old Tom gin that is probably the most similar to 17th century Genever on the market today.  The Hayman’s Old Tom Gin was sweet and citrusy and begged to be used in cocktails.  The G’Vine Floraison was delicate and lovely, distilled using grapes and grape vine flowers.  Mr. Duff offered his slideshow presentation to all via the website www.slideshare.net/philipduff.  It was easily my favorite seminar at Tales of the Cocktail 2010.

Jason Crume pours a drink or two Sunday, Monday and Wednesday nights at Toulouse Petit.  His favorite cocktail is a shot of Fernet Branca.

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