Quaffed the Raven

The slang behind the name is apparently from ‘zinc’ meaning copper, and ‘zingueur’ which is a woker who shapes copper. Zing 72 is, quite obviously, inspired by medieval alembic distilling craft, but it must be said there is not a great deal of information about it, and some of it is even a touch conflicting. From what I’ve found, it is made in the south of France, yet the bottle states that it is ‘conceived in Northern France.’ In addition to this, the bottle states it’s ‘macerated with 6 provençal botanicals’, yet I’ve found documentation listing 6 ‘botanicals’ as well as 6 ‘provençal herbs’.

Design

It stands out that’s for sure, and as you can tell from the picture, which I’ve had to take in a totally different place, it’s a bugger to photograph! The shape is pretty unique, and the embossed ‘alembic craft’ is pretty cool. I’m not so sure about the font personally, it reminds me of crate stamps, and the back label is just a plastic stick on that spoils the effect a bit. Overall it just misses the mark for me, with the copper look straying into the sort of cheap shiny chrome territory, rather than a timeless copper look.

Nose

On the nose, it’s bright and sweet with the blackberries rising strongest for me, followed by a mellow juniper. It’s fresh and crisp, with a herbal base beneath the fruity berry aromas. Beyond that there’s not much more to notice. There’s not a lot of burn, but then at 40% that’s to be expected.

Taste

Neat, the juniper comes through a little more, but it’s very much entwined in the taste of the blackberries. It’s a nice clean, clear flavour, not stewed, which I suppose is a risk with a 3 day maceration, and slowly, ever so slowly, other flavours begin to present themselves. The lemon forms a subtle background flavour without manifesting any tartness, and though I can’t determine any other specific flavours, a herbal element does come through, along with a touch of bitterness.

Water brings out the lemon a little more, but again it’s a subtle flavour. The overall profile become greener, with the blackberries taking a definite step back. Angelica comes through more too, adding a pleasant earthiness to the slightly sour green tones. It’s worth mentioning though that this is all at the very limits of my ability to identify flavours. It’s all very very subtle and I’m straining myself to pick up on a lot of these things. The vast majority of the taste is just a sort of dull herb/berry gin.

Finally, I served it in a G&T (2:1 Fever-Tree Mediterranean) with a sprig of rosemary. It’s nice but nothing about it stands out for me. The herbaceous notes and rosemary cut through the tonic nicely and I think the berry flavours compliment well, but I can’t help feel like this drink would be as good with almost any relatively unassuming gin.

Overall

For me, Zing 72 does’t really stand out, despite its bottle. I find that once you get past the blackberries, there just isn’t enough to hold the gin up to scrutiny. There’s no real depth to the flavours, and though what there is is pleasant enough, that’s about all I can say. It’s fine. A little different given how strongly the blackberry comes through, but in my opinion there’s another gin on the market that has that particular profile nailed so that doesn’t really leave a lot of space for this one.

Zing 72 is available online

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All reviews are of the author’s personal collection, bought and paid for by the author, unless otherwise stated.