The hand­craft­ed gin by Death’s Door Spir­its won Wine & Spir­its Best Spir­it award in 2009, so yeah, there’s that.

It may have won this award because it’s made from a spe­cial win­ter wheat that only grows on Wash­ing­ton Island, Wis­con­sin. This sus­tain­ably grown red wheat is har­vest­ed in a pris­tine mar­itime environment.

The gin is a three botan­i­cal blend of organ­ic juniper, corian­der and fen­nel. The tast­ing expe­ri­ence begins with a bright juniper bou­quet fol­lowed by a mild mid­dle note of corian­der and then cinched with the crisp, clean fen­nel fin­ish. I swear that there’s laven­der involved, but there’s no men­tion of that any­where on the inter­net. The botan­i­cals that are extract­ed in the dis­till­ing process have a bright aro­ma and no bit­ter taste what so ever. The organ­ic ingre­di­ents jump out and are very live­ly in a cock­tail, which can add a nice lay­er­ing to your creation.

Sells for around $35 a bottle.

Here’s a cock­tail we made using Death’s Door gin. I’m look­ing for­ward to mak­ing more recipes with this gin. If any­one has had suc­cess using Death’s Door gin please share in my comments.

The Death’s Door Cocktail

• 2 oz Death’s Door gin
• 3/4 oz Lil­let Blanc
• 1/2 oz Aver­na
• 1/4 oz Creme de Cas­sis de Dijon
• orange peel

Stir all ingre­di­ents with ice except orange peel and strain into a chilled cock­tail glass.

Gar­nish with a flamed orange peel.

Recipe by Josh Sul­li­van and Paul Palombo