When Jerry Thomas wrote the first cocktail book of all time in 1860, the London Dry style did not exist. Thomas mixed all of his gin cocktails with Old Tom Gin. These 19th century Gins were lightly sweetened and were often stored in old wine barrels. An Old Tom had more body and volume than today’s gins.

Especially in cocktails with vermouth and bitter liqueurs, these gins perform great. They are great sipping gins, neat or on the rocks.

We have never tried a real Old Tom from this time, but our approach is the fruit of our imagination.

Many current Old Toms are not barrelled. Wood and fruit are not friends, often the oak stands out against the fine fruit aromas and dominates too much.

The barrels in which we store our Old Tom had already been filled with three vintages of Mallorcan red wines. So the wine had already absorbed many wooden tannins and toasting flavors, leaving a bit of its fruitiness and colour in the barrels. After six months of barreling we bottled. The Gin has a nice amber colour, wood and fruit are a perfect symbiosis, carried by 20g / l of resi- dual sugar.

You should buy an edition of Jerry Thomas “The Bon-Vivant’s Companion” and try one of his cocktails, for example a Martinez (an ancestor of the Dry Martini), or a Tom Collins with our Old Tom. Negronis or even better, Porronis, taste outstanding.