Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin

Product of: Germany

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The Monkey 47 begins with the story of an old school British eccentric, Wing Commander Montgomery ('Monty') Collins of the Royal Air Force and the legend of the gin recipe he left to be discovered along with a bottle of his gin and sketches of a monkey, apparently named Max.

Alexander Stein is responsible for bringing this story to life and establishing Black Forest Distillers GmbH to craft Monkey 47 Gin, named after the number of ingredients used and in honour of Max the monkey.

The small medicine/lab-like bottle has a stamp-like label complete with perforation marks top and bottom. It also has a very natty natural cork stopper with a stainless steel band around the middle of the cork preventing the cork from being driven home into the bottle so it sits proud, like a re-corked wine bottle.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 07/03/2022

Appearance:

(sample bottle batch L72/2020, bottle No. 1443, bottled 04/2020) Crystal clear.

Aroma:

Lime zest, lime cordial and lemongrass are made even fresher with eucalyptus and spruce forest. Faint lavender. Water amplifies freshly sawn sappy pine aromas.

Taste:

Clean, invigorating zesty lime, resinous pine and eucalyptus with herbal notes, liquorice and cardamom spice. Even more zesty lime with water.

Aftertaste:

Zesty lime, lemongrass and pine flavours dominate the long finish with lingering cardamom spice.

Overall:

This boutique gin has achieved almost cult status amongst gin lovers with an accompanying premium price – remember it's only a 50cl bottle, although it does pack a 47% alc./vol. punch. Notes of zesty lime, lemongrass and spruce dominate, so Monkey 47 will appeal to gin drinkers after a juniper and citrus-forward flavour profile. Brilliant in a G&T but perhaps a bit punchy for most cocktail recipes so cut back gin proportion a tad.