High Desert Gin

Distilled in Salt Lake City UT at Spirits of the Wasatch Distillery (affiliated with Hammer Spring Distillery?). They call it "High Mtn Desert Gin" on their website, which is a little confusing given the label. Distilled in small batches using nine spicy botanicals, mainly Utah high-mountain desert juniper and sage. Tasting neat. Clear and viscous coating legs in the glass. Nose is juniper and sage, floral honeysuckle, and white pepper in the far back. In the mouth, juniper, dusty sage, resinous rosemary, anise, and white pepper. Thick and creamy mouthfeel. Not hot, and not overly sweet. Finish takes off from there, becoming dry, slightly resinous and bitter (in an earthy good way), more anise, with citrus in the far far back. Long lingering tingling finish. This really is a juniper-forward London dry gin. It captures the smell and taste of Utah's high desert landscape. I was VERY skeptical of this gin from the beginning -- have had a few really poor local gins, as well as good ones like Beehive Jackalope gin. This Spirits of the Wasatch High Desert gin is not a floral citrus American style gin, and has more in common with St George Terroir and Vikre Spruce gins (and even Plymouth and Sipsmith VJOP gins) than with the floral or citrus-forward gins out there now. And I say that as a GOOD thing. No bed of rose petals, citrus peels, and cucumbers here. This drinks really well neat at room temp. Ice..?. well, we'll see. This is also going to make a killer DeVoto Martini (3.7 to 1), G and T, and a Gin Gin Mule (with ginger beer and mint). Back later with more on mixing. If you're looking for a quality earthy herbal juniper-forward gin, this is it. Finding it outside Utah will be tricky. NOTE: Co-owner Jennica Pounds is an Elon Musk programmer pal and DOGE-er, if that influences whether or not you want to support it. I'm out. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/03/09/utah-software-engineer-is-giving/ https://wasatch.co/products/