Gerry Rowland of Coit Spirits written by Aaron Knoll /// photography by Niccole Trzaska
G
erry Rowland knew early on how he wanted to fulfill the unique part of his gin. “If you don’t know how to directly formulate the recipe for a gin to come up with something unique,” explained Coit Spirits co-founder, “you don’t even get to be a distiller.” Rowland’s unique signature botanical is black tea. But that was only half of it. Perfecting the recipe would take him almost five years of trial and error before he got it right.
FINDING THE UNIQUE
Rowland and his wife Linda founded Coit Spirits in 2018, however, gin wasn’t their first foray into the world of drinks. They had been running the successful Napa-based Rowland Cellars since 1991. Under labels inspired by their families’ heritage, they produce over 12,000 cases of wine each year. Rowland grew up in Australia the son of a grape grower. He got his first taste of production as a high schooler when he enrolled in a work experience program at a winery. “[I] got to see from start to finish what was happening,” Rowland said, “cause and effect… vineyard to bottle.” It was about five years ago that the idea to get into spirits began to germinate for the wine industry veteran. “I started thinking it would be fun to do,” he said. “In 2017, I signed up for a class run by four ginsmiths from Europe … that took it to the next level for me.” “The key thing is, ‘What’s your gin statement going to be about?’” he said. “Finding something that stands out differently among the ingredients.” The need to be unique sticking out in his mind, he began exploring a gin made with the deep complex flavors of Earl Grey tea, an ingredient that he found intriguing for a host of reasons. Earl Grey tea is black Ceylon tea aromatized with bergamot oil. This meant the tea had another facet for the gin distiller to capture, or as Rowland put it, “another unique character from the process.” Through several experimental runs during 118
the week-long hands-on class, Rowland got his Earl Grey gin prototype to a place that he and his ginsmith mentors were intrigued by. They encouraged him to continue working on it and take it to market. That he explained, “gave me the confidence that I had something unique and different.” However, a week later he found himself stunned. “By the seventh day it had lost most of its tea character… it had reverted to the regular botanicals in the gin recipe.” Rowland entertained the idea of embracing change in the bottle, like wine, only to realize that spirits consumers had different expectations. With his experiences observing “cause and effect” at the vineyards, Rowland began searching for a cause behind the instability. This search would lead him into the parallel and foreign profession where animal and botanical ingredients have been used for centuries to prolong the scent of complex mixtures. He discovered the world of fixatives and perfumery.
FIXING
In The Gin Dictionary, David T. Smith describes fixatives as compounds that “bind flavours together to prevent a gin’s volatiles from evaporating.” An aroma is created from compounds which evaporate into the air. When you breathe in or sniff something, it’s those molecules that your nose detects to register a scent. The lighter the molecular weight, the more likely it is to evaporate and be part of an aroma. Perfumers call the act of slowing this process “fixing.” Smith describes a host of traditional botanicals with fixative properties a distiller could choose to use, including “coriander seed, angelica root, orris root, and nutmeg.” “Fixatives are kind of like a key in a lock,” Rowland said.“No one fixative works on every botanical, and some botanicals are stable as they are — like cucumber!” He tried some of the traditional gin fixatives like angelica and orris root, but those didn't work for his needs.
Though common in gin and botanical spirits for their reputed properties, not all distillers choose to use fixatives. Master Distiller Stephen Gould of Golden Moon Distillery said, “They’re just another tool in the botanical distiller’s tool box.” While Gould distills a host of botanical spirits, he only uses fixatives in his creme de violette. Smith added, “Mason’s [Yorkshire] Gin is interesting as it has no fixative at all.” Rowland hunted down several perfumery texts that were available publicly online. “Twenty years ago it wouldn’t have been on the internet,” he added, highlighting one major way the internet has contributed to breaking walls between two professions with a long history of private notebooks and family recipes. “You would have had to work with a master perfumer,” he said. Perfumers have a bit more leeway in their choice of fixatives. Musk, ambergris, storax and civet are not the kinds of things that people eat or drink. Firstly, Rowland ruled out all of the ingredients of animal origin. He then looked for purported fixatives that were generally recognized as safe and FDA approved. Perfumer Josh Meyer who designs under the name Imaginary Authors cautions that fixatives aren’t magic, even to perfumers. “It’s just simply finding things and blending them together to get the desired effect… trying those things out is literally the job.” Rowland tried many of them out. “No one botanical stabilized the gin in itself.” He describes a lengthy longitudinal test where he would distill his Earl Grey gin with a fixative botanical. And wait. And wait. The WWW.ART ISANSPI RI TMAG.CO M