There are few things in life that put one in as fine a spirit as a good book. Whether it serves to inform, entertain, or inspire, reading a book is transformative. Even the most prosaic can be worthwhile; the best, life altering.
It is our belief that every library should contain at least a couple volumes on spirits. A guide to mixing cocktails, such as the quintessential The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks or classic Bon Vivant's Companion, is requisite, as is a primer on the relationship between spirits and cuisine, such as the magnificent Wines and Spirits edition from Time-Life’s Foods of the World collection. While these alone are adequate in most circumstances, for those true connoisseurs we would also recommend a book that focuses on their favorite spirit, whatever that may be.
Spirits have been with us for a very long time, and thus a great history surrounds them. Books examining their historical context abound, and we find spirits interwoven with such motifs as the Whiskey Rebellion, the Rum Trade, the Roaring Twenties. It is exactly here that author Aaron Knoll’s tome GIN sets off, opening its sweeping study of one of the world’s most popular spirits with the chapter, The History of Gin.
GIN is comprehensive, and we particularly appreciate how Knoll relates the social, political, and economic circumstances that drove the spirit’s rise to popularity. From here he moves into the finer art of appreciating gin, providing the reader with the tools necessary to truly understand the spirit and the stark differences and subtle nuance between the various expressions. A “discerning survey” of the world’s vast array of styles and labels makes up a bulk of the book, an exhaustive collection whose purpose might be better served by visiting Knoll’s companion website, The Gin Is In.
The Drinking of Gin is, appropriately, the final chapter. Here again the author prefaces the obligatory compilation of cocktail recipes with a delightfully informative narrative about that most ubiquitous of drinks, the gin and tonic. It certainly serves as the perfect bookend, for after sitting down with the volume and paging through it, all this talk of gin leaves one more than ready to put all this new found knowledge to use.
All told, GIN - the Art and Craft of the Artisan Revival is a definitive work on the subject of this world-renowned spirit. The only place it falls flat, in our humble modernist opinion, is in its design. Owing to its encyclopedic nature, many pages are crammed with text and images, almost overwhelmingly so. There are moments of brilliance throughout, however, and the breadth and scope of the work make it a more than worthy addition to the shelf of any serious gin aficionado.
