There are different types of gin. What are they about?
Don't be fooled, there are legally defined terms & phrases and marketing words...
Without going into too much detail:
First of all, a base alcohol is distilled. You can make alcohol out of various organic stuff, like potatoes, grains, etc.
Quality distillers will produce this base alcohol themselves, so they have full control. Others will buy a base alcohol from a producer.
Next step: making gin out of this base alcohol. There are generally three ways:
London Dry gin doesn't necessarily come from London. Most of London Dry's actually don't. It just describes a production style: the base alcohol is re-distilled adding juniper berries and botanicals. Only natural flavourings are permitted. After this, only water can be added, to dilute the gin to a certain alc.vol. percentage.
Distilled gin is slightly different: as for the London Dry a base alcohol is re-distilled with juniper and botanicals and after this process water and flavours can be added. Quality distilled gins will only use natural flavourings (so no artificial shizzle, like in the London gin). These flavourings can either be distilled themselves or not.
OK, so it's somewhat complicated. As for VOLUME 7 GIN: it is a top notch distilled gin. So first the 100% barley grain base alcohol is distilled in-house, which is then re-distilled with juniper berries and botanicals. Afterwards only water and natural, distilled flavourings are added. It's the real deal and good old craftsmanship.
And then there's compound gin. This means that after the first distillation of the base alcohol, there is no second distillation. Only flavorings (natural or artificial ones) are added. This can be done by maceration, dripping, etc. Hmm, yeah, well... technically these are still "gins", but...
And then, there's the marketing phrases... Premium, small batch, micro-batch,... Well, there are no legal defintions of these. Anyone can put "premium" on the label. "Small" batch; are we talking 500 liters, more, less... So, watch out.
In the end... let your personal flavour decide. But, at least, go for a quality product and if possible, a local one...
And then... ALCOHOL FREE GIN... There is no such thing. But e'll get back on that later on.
