Leopold’s Gin production is limited to fifty cases at a time and the botanicals include ‘hand-zested American pummelos’. Launched in 2002, this handcrafted, hand bottled, hand labeled, and hand numbered small batch gin is truly unique. Although masters at their craft and consistently producing excellent gin, each batch will vary ever so slightly as the gin is produced in such small quantities.
Leopold Bros. is family owned and operated in a small batch distillery located in Denver, Colorado. The Master Distiller, Todd Leopold handcrafts every batch in a small 40-gallon copper still, blending uniquely American botanicals like hand-zested Florida Oranges and California Pummelos. These components lend citrus notes to the gin and help distinguish American gins from their English counterparts.
Using fractional distillation techniques, all of the botanicals are distilled separately and then blended together to create the finished spirit. Unlike mass-produced gins where the flavours can occasionally appear to be muddled together and stronger spices such as juniper can overpower the balance of the gin, fractional distillation is a method that allows each individual notes to be highlighted. They apply this method for all the botanicals: Orris Root, Cardamon, Coriander, and hand-zested Valencia Oranges and Pummelos, and of course juniper, carefully extracting the best aromas that these botanicals have to offer.
The end product comes in a squat, clear apothecary bottle, with the simple white labels and handwritten batch numbers contributing to the gin’s lab-sample appearance. They have managed to create a superb gin with a robust juniper flavor (without the hints of pine that many people find so off-putting about gin), culminating in being declared as Wall Street Journal’s Best American Gin in 2009.