We are thrilled to bring a brand new gin to the District. After taking a short break from new gins to focus on our Summer Cup, Rye-Whiskey program and Capitoline Vermouths, we wanted to come back to our gin roots with a whole new twist. Distilled from grain to glass, using local Virginia wheat, we put our spin on a traditional sloe gin by also sourcing locally farmed aronia berries.

The Aronia berries give this fruit- forward gin cordial a vibrant red hue; a nod to the more traditional sloe style color. The mouth-puckering aronia, or chokeberry, is a sour berry that is typically used in wines or jams, but we chose to highlight this fruit’s tart character to balance the slightly sweetened end result. We couldn’t be happier with the finished product, and we are very excited to bring DC it’s first distilled Sloe rendition gin cordial. We love all things local; we shop local, we support local, we are a local business, so naturally we reached out to nearby farms to see what fruit could be used, and the recipe just fell into place once we found our ideal berry.

The gin itself has been ready for a while now, we spent many brainstorming sessions trying to figure out a great name for our Aronia gin. We toyed with punny play on words, like “Aroneous”, but we did not want the label to be confusing, or seen as erroneous. So, we went with simple and to the point.

Sloe style gins are readily available in England, but not so common here in the U.S. John, one New Columbia Distillers owners, gets to enjoy many sloe gins that are brought back from his wife’s London work travels, and wanted to share his enjoyment of this style with DC. Sloe gins nearly disappeared in the States mid-century, so we thought it was time to bring them back. Michael, John, Travers, and Ian spent quite a long time working on the recipe, sampling a dozen bottles of Sloe gins to find exactly what they were trying to achieve, from what was missing from one bottle, to what flavor characteristics really jumped out to them in others.

We are extremely proud of the finished product and are eager to share it with everyone on July 15th. 1-4 pm. 375 ml bottles will be available for purchase at the Distillery beginning that day, until it’s all gone. See you there!