Essentially any fan of gin would be able to tell you that at the end of the day, gin is all about its botanicals. The choice of which fruits, spices and herbs to use in infusing a neutral spirit–beyond the ubiquitous juniper–ultimately determines the vast majority of a gin’s flavor profile. What’s less clear is the nuances conveyed by, especially when some of the same botanicals are involved.
With that said, the majority of botanicals here are actually quite classical: Lemon, orange, rosemary, sage, coriander and cardamom are all the sort of thing you’d expect to find in many classic London dry gins. Where Wild Dog really embraces its home is in the use of mastiha or mastic, a substance that is effectively a type of tree sap, excreted by the resin glands of the mastic tree on the Greek isle of Chios.
On the nose, Stray Dog Wild Gin is very fresh and bright indeed, featuring lemon-lime zestiness melding with sweet pine sap, modest juniper and the distinctly musty/earthy/citrus character of freshly cracked coriander. It’s also notably floral, with a profile that really trends toward the “verdant” side of the spectrum. You can easily imagine yourself strolling in a pine-cypress forest, nosing this.