Jaisalmer Gin just launched the second gin in their range, Jaisalmer Gold Indian Craft Gin, perfect timing for Christmas.

It comes in matte gold bottle with beautiful black writing, and label free – one of the sustainability steps Jaisalmer is taking towards reducing waste.

Distilled at one of India’s oldest distilleries, Jaisalmer Gold Indian Craft Gin encapsulates the rich heritage and history of Jaisalmer, known as the jewel in India’s crown and likened to a golden canvas.

Jaisalmer Gold Indian Craft Gin is produced in the foothills of the Himalayas and is infused with 18 handpicked botanicals.

14 of those spices have been sourced from India including: coriander from Jaisalmer itself, Nagpur orange peel, Darjeeling green tea, Gandharaj lemon peel from Eastern India, nutmeg from Karnataka and cinnamon from Kerala.

Plus locally sourced rose petals from around the distillery, lemongrass, bay leaf, liquorice root, vetiver, black and pink pepper.

The remaining four herbs and spices that come from further afield are juniper berries, angelica root, caraway and cubeb pepper.

The most unique spice that sets Jaisalmer Gold apart from other gins on the market is saffron.

It takes between 150,000 – 250,000 saffron crocus flowers to get 1kg of saffron threads and it takes many hours to handpick the flowers and collect the threads. That’s what makes saffron such a highly priced spice.

The liquid is then enhanced by Gold filtration to produce Jaisalmer Gold Indian Craft Gin. This unique production process occurs wherein the gin slowly passes through a filter made of intertwined golden silk filament, enriching the gin with gold ions.

The process results in a truly unique, smooth and well balanced taste both when tasted neat and in cocktails. We sampled Jaisalmer Gold Gin at the most fitting location – Gold restaurant in Notting Hill.

Set with candle light, golden tones and perfectly paired dishes prepared by skilled chefs of Gold it was a wonderful early Christmas themed evening.

Gin is a bit like wine, if it is the right type or mixed in the correct cocktail it will compliment ingredients of any dish well.

We started off with Jaisalmer Gold Gin, lemon, sugar and tonic topped with a slice of lemon. The cocktail was well balanced with zesty notes and a settle gin finish.

Jaisalmer Gold Gin is like no other, the palette is lavish in spices with the exception of juniper, there was none to taste, which is great for me as I’m not a fan of the berry.

In fact in none of the cocktails with Jaisalmer Gold could I taste the juniper. Instead there was this lingering smooth taste of orange, rose, green tea and caraway.

The drinks paired perfectly with our starters; cured sea trout on crème fraiche with pickled cucumber on sourdough bread was my favourite. The trout was deep red with rich smoked sea flavour balanced well by some velvety crème fraiche.

Although, I cannot fault any of the starters the seatrout and puntarelle were probably my two top picks. The puntarelle came with capers and anchovy red wine vinaigrette. It was delightful.

Whoever came up with adding anchovy to the puntarelle. that’s a variety of chicory by the way. is genius. It transforms the spaghetti like greens, salad like into a proper dish.

I definitely prefer milder notes of puntarelle to the traditional chicory, which seems to be slowly leaving the menus creating space for puntarelle around London restaurants.

Once our zesty cocktail was finished, we started on Jaisalmer Gold Gin Mule with ginger, pineapple and lime.

The cocktail was a success at the table, it paired well with both vegetable and fish starters. Sadly for me there was a bit too much ginger in it.

Our mains were served with a Gold Gin Martini, smooth Italicus, Cocchi Americano garnished with chilli. It was a beautiful cocktail with a slight spice kick to the back of the throat.

The chilli spice was balanced by the mains. I was particularly fond of wood-roasted whole sea bream with wild oregano and capers. It was a perfectly elegant combination of the sweet meaty texture of sea bream enriched with distinct salty capers.

Another popular variety I am starting to see on restaurant menus, and which I urge you to try, is chargrilled hispi cabbage also known as sweetheart. After my visit to Gold I even attempted to make my own chargrilled sweetheart at home.

The cabbage is first chargrilled giving it smoky slightly burnt edges and then steamed, or at least that’s what the recipes online said. The end result is cooked, but with still a good texture and crunchy finish.

If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend ordering it next time you spot it on the menu. It transforms the cabbage flavour we are all so familiar with. Gold served the hispi with bagna cauda, chilli and pinch of breadcrumbs. The dish was perfect without the breadcrumbs, not sure they made much of a difference apart from topping the unnecessary carb intake.

It’ll be wrong to end it at the mains because the desserts were too good to be ignored, baked cheesecake was creamy and sweet without being sickly. I combined it with a spoon of dark chocolate semifreddo with pistachio and honeycomb.

I think the dark chocolate bitterness and creamy cheesecake is the perfect note to end the evening.

The desserts paired perfectly with Jaisalmer gin Negroni with Jaisalmer gin not Gold variety, lemongrass and Cocchi Torino.

Jaisalmer Gold Indian Craft Gin ABV: 43%. RRP: £39.99 for 500ml. 

Available from: Drink Supermarket