Cascade Mountain Gin is 47.5abv / 95proof and made since 1996 at Bend Distillery in Bend, OR, it's received several awards including a silver medal at the 2006 World Beverage Competition. Made from hand picked wild mountain juniper berries from the Central Oregon high desert plateau and a mix of other local botanicals, and distilled in a copper alembic or pot still. Most gins are colorless with very few exceptions like Seagram's and Magellan, Cascade Mountain is not heavily filtered so it has a pleasing, very light gold color. I can see why they called it Cascade Mountain Gin. When I poured a dram into a snifter, swirled it, and inhaled, it made me think back to when I worked as a wilderness and mountain guide. I flashed back to golden sunned, summer days; climbing through coniferous forests high in the Cascade Mountains. That spicy combination of pine, sage, aromatic grasses, wildflowers, and a hint of ozone from a sudden mountain storm that I remember fondly, wrapped up in liquid form. When I sipped it all those smells were repeated in the taste, and for such a full tasting and high proof gin it is remarkably smooth and soft with that slightly sweet and spicy/floral taste making it very refined and classy.
There is nothing I don't like about this gin and would use it primarily as a martini or sipping gin since even tonic might overwhelm the complex flavors, although I can see it lending some much appreciated complexity to a well made cocktail.
