After the miserable, heart-wrenching year that she’s had, it would be little wonder if The Queen sought solace in alcohol. That the alcohol most likely to bring a smile to the regal chops might be the monarch’s own brand is perhaps more of a surprise.
The royal bean counters charged with refilling the post-Covid coffers must also be beaming for HM the Queen – whose favourite tipple is said to be Dubonnet and gin – has gone into the booze business big time and with huge success, with all proceeds going to the Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity which conserves Her Majesty’s art treasures and makes them accessible to the public.
Apparently, the RCT has lost some £65m during the pandemic and has suffered a savage round of redundancies with even such senior flunkeys as the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures and Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of Art being obliged to collect their P45s. Any dosh from alcohol sales must therefore be welcome.
The inaugural Buckingham Palace Small Batch London Dry Gin was launched last year and was such a thundering triumph (the first run sold out within hours) that The Queen has now added Buckingham Palace Sloe Gin to the royal drinks portfolio. This joins the previously-released Palace of Holyroodhouse Highland 12 Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Shortcross Gin Hillsborough Castle Edition and the hot-off-the-press Sandringham Estate Norfolk Brewed English Bitter and Golden IPA.
The original Buckingham Palace gin retails for £40 per 70cl bottle and although the packaging is a trifle twee in a Past Times, National Trust sort of way and reminiscent of those dainty jars certain folk keep their bath salts and cotton wool balls in, the gin itself is extremely potable. Produced from a dozen botanicals – including lemon verbena, mulberry leaves and hawthorn berries – foraged from the palace gardens, it’s pitched at a very creditable 42%vol and boasts sumptuous juniper notes, hints of liquorice and aniseed and a long, dry, sophisticated finish. It’s a fine gin for sure.
The new Buckingham Palace Sloe gin is made from handpicked sloes steeped in the aforementioned BP gin and comes in at 26%vol. At £30 per 50cl bottle, it ain’t cheap, but it’s certainly tasty with plenty of ripe, juicy hedgerow fruit on nose and palate and a hint of something else on the gratifyingly dry finish – dried orange peel perhaps?
Dawn Davies, head buyer at the Whisky Exchange, reckons HM and her team are bang on trend. ‘Sloe gin is one of those things that we traditionally associate with winter months when the sloes are ready,’ she says. ‘But now such gins have started to become a year round staple and there is nothing nicer than a sloe gin fizz to liven up a summer evening.’
The Whisky Exchange has some thirty or so sloe gins on its list and Dawn explains that the key to a decent one is good quality gin to start with, not too much sugar and plenty of juicy fruit that doesn’t taste oxidized.
In the interests of balance and because I’m a sucker for fine sloe gin, I decide to give a few a bit of a road test: the Hepple Sloe & Hawthorn Gin (30%; £29.25 per 50cl) is full, rich and concentrated; the Elephant Sloe Gin (35%; £29.95 per 50cl) is juicy, jammy and slightly spicy; the Portobello Road Barrel Aged Sloeberry & Blackcurrant Gin (28%; £26.25 per 70cl) is powerful, complex and nicely sharp; the Monkey 47 Sloe Gin (29%; £42.95 per 50cl) is deliciously robust and spicy and the Boatyard Sloe Boat Gin Liqueur (29.8%; £31.95 per 70cl) is rich, damsony and marzipany.
They are all first rate in their different ways and Buckingham Palace Sloe Gin can certainly hold its head up in such company. The plummy, dry, juniper-led Foxdenton Sloe Gin (27%; £25 per 70cl) just edges it as my favourite, though, not least because one can buy it by the gallon (for £175 from www.foxdentonestate.co.uk).
But then I guess penny-pinching Republicans might opt for Haysmith’s Sloe Gin, the own-brand of discount supermarket Aldi. At 29% vol, it’s stronger than Buckingham Palace’s version and, at just £12.99 a 70cl bottle, considerably less than the half price. Just saying.
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