Last Hope Distillery is one of the only true cocktail bars in Puerto Natales, a horseshoe-shaped town that wraps around a windy inlet in Chilean Patagonia. To enter, visitors buzz, speak simply, then hang up their coats and settle in at the bar. A waiter puts down a glass.
“Hi,” the server says. “Have you ever tried gin?”
The question may surprise international visitors, most of whom, familiar with the juniper-flavored spirit, have come for an excursion to nearby Torres del Paine National Park. But gin is new to some Chileans, then Last hope‘s servers don’t make assumptions.
The approach began out of necessity, said Kiera Shiels, who moved to Chile from Australia with her partner, Matt Oberg, and opened the bar. Guests showed up, unsure of what to expect. “They hadn’t been drinking gin,” Ms. Shiels said. “They had barely had a cocktail.”
Last Hope, which began selling gin in 2017, was one of the first gin distillers in Chile. But in recent years the country’s gin industry has exploded. From the Last Hope (in the south) to Native Gin (in the north), there are now around 100 gin brands across the country. And many are gaining international recognition.
Just last year, a gin made by Elemental Gindistilled on the outskirts of Santiago, she was awarded a gold medal to the Press SIPan international consumer-judged spirits competition, among others. Gin Provinceproduced in the Chilean wine country, it earned the second highest score at the London Spirits Competition, just one of his awards. AND Tepaluma Ginin the highlands and rainforests of Patagonia, won a gold at the International Wine and Spirits Competition, one of several prizes.
“You will see a lot more coming from Chile,” said Andrea Zavala Peña, who founded Tepaluma Gin – one of Chile’s first distilleries – with her husband, Mark Abernethy, in 2017.
“Whether the world knows it or not,” he said, “we are coming.”
‘Wild meat has a particular flavour’
Fifty years after a coup established a brutal 17-year dictatorship, and just four years after mass protests erupted, Chile continues to struggle with deep social divisions. But the country is also working hard to rebuild its international reputation.
Long known for its wine, Chile is now an established destination for adventure travelers after expanding its natural parks and encouraging more visitors to Patagonia. Chilean gin, its makers say, can serve as a bridge between these two marketing propositions, building on Chile’s reputation for producing distinctive alcohol and effectively bottling its wildness.
“We have one of the last wilderness areas in the world,” Ms. Zavala Peña explained. “And wild meat has a particular flavour.”
Covered by the Atacama Desert, capped by Patagonia and sandwiched between the Andes and the Pacific, Chile has no shortage of natural diversity. The country’s gin distillers aren’t just interested in producing the best London Dry, said Teresa Undurraga, director of the Chilean Gin Association. Instead, they are also trying to make gin that tastes like Chile.
“That’s why we use native herbs,” said Ms. Undurraga, the distiller’s founder Distillates quintals. “We want to spread our flavors.”
Gin is an ideal base; Juniper-based neutral alcohol takes on the flavors of the added ingredients. Chilean distillers hope the herbs and berries they infuse can act as a passport, an invitation to visit, taste and see. In fact, many Chilean distillers import alcohol. It’s easier and cheaper. The add-ons, they say, are what matters.
“It’s like a painting,” said Gustavo Carvallo, the co-founder of Gin from the province, looking at the famous Colchagua valley, which surrounds its distillery. Corn alcohol, which he imports from the United States, serves as the canvas. “All botanical elements are colors.”
Beyond the ‘Ginaissance’
Chile’s gin industry boom comes to what could be the tail end of a global renaissancesometimes called the “Ginaissance”, which began in Britain more than a decade ago, partly under the influence of the American craft distilling movement.
The spirit was once seen as fuddy-duddy, a relic of colonial Englishmen trying to dodge malaria. But international experiments have weakened its reputation. There are distillers in Spain, India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and Vietnam, as well as a number of other countries. And gin is now seen as sophisticated, even worldly. The old quinine hunter has been reinvigorated by his new cosmopolitan devotees.
Like many spirits, gin can “capture a sense of place,” said David T. Smith, president of the World Gin Awards and author of numerous books on gin, including “The Gin Dictionary.” But it is often easier – and cheaper – to produce gin than to produce many other spirits, Smith said, which is partly why the industry in Chile has grown so quickly.
Jorge Sepulveda, who created the recipe for Elemental GinWhich he also won gold at this year’s London Spirits Competition, he learned the basics on YouTube in just a few hours, he said. He started in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic after being encouraged by a friend, Ariel Jeria, who works in advertising and noticed the growing interest in Chilean gin.
Mr. Sepulveda was already a talented cook, he suggested. Why not try gin?
But Mr. Sepulveda had barely tried gin before. So, during the lockdown, he started experimenting in a small countertop distiller. “I studied for two days,” said Mr. Sepulveda, standing near the still in his distillery. “I said, ‘OK, I can do this.’”
The first tests, he admits, were not perfect. So Mr. Sepulveda reevaluated the situation, opting for a method that uses the Fibonacci sequence to determine the ratios of his ingredients.
“This is God’s number,” said Sepulveda, a geophysicist, who has since made other gin recipes using a similar philosophy. “Nature is physical. So it has to work.”
Gin versus pisco, whiskey and wine
Chilean gin faces stiff competition from the country’s three most beloved spirits: pisco, whiskey and wine. But gin production has practical advantages.
The first is accessibility. Pisco comes from specific regions of Chile and Peru. (In that sense, it’s a bit like champagne or parmesan.) Gin isn’t. It’s an all-around alcohol, which makes it an all-around alcohol. Anyone can do it.
“The gin recipe is infinitely adaptable, so you can do whatever you want,” said Henry Jeffreys, to the English drinks writer.
The second is time. Whiskey, considered the high-end alcohol by many Chileans, takes years to mature in barrels. But gin can be ready days after being brewed.
Visitors to the Last Hope Distillery, for example, can sip Last Hope gin cocktails while leaning over oak barrels to smell the first batch of Last Hope whiskey, which takes years to hit the market.
The third is the lack of pretensions. Wine, like whiskey, requires refinement. Only a drinker with a certain preparation can grasp the differences in origin from a single sip. This is not the case with gin. The botanicals are hi-hat, neon, easy to recognize and understand. Even the most inexperienced journalist, drinking a gin and tonic after a day-long backpacking trip in Patagonia, can savor the different flavors, many of which come from ingredients grown near the distillers’ homes.
Mr. Carvallo, from the Province, collects the boldo from a shrub a few steps from the distillery. (Chileans use boldo leaf tea as a folk medicine to soothe a variety of ailments, including stomach aches.)
“This is what moves us,” he said, rubbing a leaf between his fingers. “We’re trying to show what Chile has botanically and in its culture.”
Urban flavors
In the heart of Santiago, Eduardo Labra Barriga is trying to create a gin that tastes like the city itself: “A Santiago gin,” he said. “An urban gin.” I called him little bird, named after a little bird that flies everywhere in the city. And it relies heavily on lavender, rosemary, pink pepper and cedar leaves, which grow in bushes across the capital. He and his wife have started a trading program: neighbors trade leaves for a cheaper refill.
Elsewhere in the capital, craft gins are still starting to catch on in trendier bars. Even among the city’s social elite, many prefer to stick with the familiarity of a high-end pisco or imported whiskey.
As a result, some distilleries are hiring representatives to promote their products.
Camila Aguirre Aburto works as a brand ambassador for Gin Provincia. Before designing a custom cocktail for a bar, Ms. Aguirre starts with a lesson; she knows that for Chilean gins to catch on, bartenders need to teach people about gin’s terroir.
First, he shares samples of dried juniper, to explain the basic flavors of gin. Then it showcases the botanicals, like boldo, that give the gin its flavor. Only then does he allow his customers to savor the spirit.
“Close your eyes, smell the gin,” says Ms. Aguirre, who learned English by watching “Scream” movies and talking to friends. “Feel the forest after the rain.”
At first the invitation seems like a joke. But then, perhaps, is that a lush valley on the palate? Or perhaps, in the tickle of a nostril, the winds of Patagonia? Is that chile on the tip of your tongue?
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