Review: Brockmans Agave Cut Spirit Drink

London-based Brockmans makes a workable gin which it’s dubbed “Intensely Smooth,” and for its next trick it’s turning to our old friend tequila for inspiration. Brockmans Agave Cut is built on a backbone of “agave spirit” made in Jalisco, Mexico — which presumably is not tequila because of some aspect of its distillation and/or the fact that it was shipped off to Britain to be turned into something entirely different.

Flavorings include pink grapefruit, lime, lemon peel, juniper berries, orange peel, coriander, liquorice, almond, cassia bark, angelica, and orris.

The big twist is of course the agave base, but nosing the spirit reveals not a slug of agave but rather another of the above ingredients completely dominating. This the grapefruit show, folks, and it comes across on the nose closer to a glass of Squirt than any gin (or tequila) I’ve ever encountered. There must be a ton of the stuff here, because it’s so powerful it puts everything else out of mind. On the palate, things are a bit more complex, but you can’t come remotely close to shaking the impact of the grapefruit. However, the classic fruit flavor is countered by a not insignificant bitterness, the angelica and orris providing a gently earthy underbelly as backdrop. Lime leaf is particularly notable on the finish, as is some orange — heavy on peel. What’s nearly absent throughout is juniper, which becomes evident primarily as an afterthought alongside the earth-heavy elements as the finish fades out.

At which point you remind yourself that, hey, I think this is actually tequila.

82.4 proof.

B / $45 / brockmansgin.com 

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