Santamania London Dry Gin Reserva

It’s more than a little ironic that Madrid, a city heaving with gin bars, a city where the humble ‘gintonic’, as it is known in Spain, has been elevated to the status of national icon, did not, until fairly recently, have a single distillery on its books, let alone a craft distiller of any note. All this changed in the summer of 2014, when Javier Domínguez and Co fired up Vera, the 280-litre Carl copper still at Santamanía in Las Rozas, Madrid. With this, Madrid’s (and from what we know, Spain’s) first urban distillery was launched. These are some of the most detailed and classy, character-rich white spirits on the market, and they are uniquely Spanish thanks to the ingredients used and the uncompromised, authentic, obsessive approach of the folks behind the scenes. These folks behind Santanmanía include Javier Domínguez, Ramón Morillo and distiller Víctor Fraile. This is one of only five licensed craft distilleries in Spain and it is an absolute trail blazer that had to work through Spain’s bureaucracy for years to get their distillation licence in place. This gave the Santamania team plenty of time to work on the crafting of their spirits. Today the three core spirits offered here are made in one-shot, single batches - distilled using the two on site, custom CARL copper stills called Vera and Lola. First up is the emblematic Madrid Dry Gin, combining predominantly Spanish botanicals with a Spanish Tempranillo grape spirit base; a one of a kind, uniquely Spanish, yet juniper led Gin. Then, there’s the soulful, sepia-tinged Madrid Reserva (matured in a French oak casks for several months) and finally, a premium, unfiltered grape Vodka.