Leopold’s American Small Batch Gin

Leopold’s American Small Batch Gin

We love it when a brand hand labels and hand numbers its bottle. It shows true passion. Todd Leopold really knows how to make a remarkable gin. He is the Master Distiller of Leopold’s American Small Batch Gin. Each batch produces between 180 and 300 bottles (750ML).

This small batch gin is handcrafted, hand bottled, hand labeled, and hand numbered. It should be in everyone’s hand too. While most Gin is distilled from neutral grain spirits flavored with juniper berries and aromatics such as aniseand caraway seeds. Leopold’s does not use anise or caraway seeds at all. Rather Todd Leopold uses other botanicals such as orris root, hand-zested Valencia oranges, cardamom, coriander, and hand-zested Pumellos.

Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal wrote a good article in April 2009 about gin: American Entrants in the Gin Game. The article discusses the taste of gin and reveals blind-taste testing of several American Gins. Leopold’s American Small Batch Gin won the blind-taste test.

“Distiller Todd Leopold has managed to get a true and robust juniper flavor without the hints of pine that many people find so off-putting about gin. There is a trick to Mr. Leopold’s process, one that requires a level of effort few competitors will be willing to make.”

Major Brands vs. Handcrafted Brands

“The most common way to flavor gin is to add all the botanicals to the neutral distilled spirit, let them steep, and then do one final distillation.”

“But Mr. Leopold distills each of the botanicals separately. By distilling the juniper alone, for example, he captures the sweet essence of the berry without the piney aftertaste. When he has distilled each botanical, he adds them all together with the neutral spirit and gives it all one final distillation.”

Leopold Bros. Distillery is family owned by brothers Scott and Todd. They operate a small batch distillery based in Denver, Colorado. It started up in 1999 in Detroit, but relocated to Denver, Colorado several years later.

Source: Eric Felten, American Entrants in the Gin Game, The Wall Street Journal