Etsu The Original Gin

I didn’t enjoy this gin. You can only call it as you taste it. But there’s more to the story. Let me explain.

I’ve written about wine for the past 25 years. I have a lot of experience of cork taint. So much experience that I can spot it from a fair distance. Cork taint doesn’t have to involve actual cork, confusingly enough. Often, when I’m walking down the street, I smell something and think: that wood pile is corked. Or those carrots are corked. Or that tap water is corked. You get the idea. Cork taint is abbreviated to the letters TCA. It stands for 2,4,6-trichloroanisole. What I’m smelling in these instances is not tainted cork, but TCA.

This Yuzu The Original Gin is not sealed with a cork; it has a plastic stopper. But as soon as I opened it I smelled something that was either TCA, or a chemical compound close to it. I put it into a G&T and that chemical-like flavour was still obvious.

I’ve now tasted from this same bottle three or four times across three or four weeks, and every time I get the same chemical-like hit.

For the record, I’m fond of Etsu’s Yuzu Gin.