[Dogo, Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture] Enjoy the unique flavors of Ehime with "Dogo Gin," made with local ingredients

The Craft Gin Option

Craft gin is a popular spirit in Japan. Craft gin has a stronger personality than regular gin, and the appeal is that you can enjoy a variety of flavors depending on the brand. Many of them are made with care, such as using unique botanicals, so you can enjoy high-quality, flavorful gin.

The Dogo area of ​​Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, is famous for Dogo Onsen. We would like to introduce you to Dogo Gin, a craft gin made here.

"Dogo Gin" is a craft gin made with plenty of ingredients from Ehime Prefecture.

Dogo Gin is made by Minakuchi Shuzo, a sake brewery that was founded over 120 years ago. Using the best of their brewing techniques over the years, they created a craft gin that focuses on using botanical ingredients from Ehime Prefecture.

Dogo Gin is characterized by the delicious flavor of sake made from rice and sake lees, a fruity, refreshing and fresh citrus aroma, a deep flavor with a hint of spices, and a rich aroma with a clean aftertaste.

Let's take a closer look at this commitment.

The main ingredient is the ginjo sake lees from Minakuchi Sake Brewery's signature sake, "Nikitazu Daiginjo Sake." This top-quality sake has won the gold medal seven times at the National New Sake Tasting Competition.

The gin is made with juniper berries, the fruit of a coniferous tree that gives gin its aroma, and authentic shochu (kasutori shochu) that brings out its gorgeous aroma. The botanicals used are from Ehime Prefecture, including:

・"Setoka" and "Madonna": Citrus fruits certified as "Matsuyama Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Brand." Ehime Prefecture is famous for its mandarin oranges, and these mandarin oranges are especially famous for their high quality.

(Setoka)

・"Lemon": Iwagi Island is known as the "Island of Blue Lemons" because of its lemons, which are a specialty of the island. They are free of preservatives and wax, so you can eat them right down to the skin. Blue lemons are characterized by a stronger sourness and fragrance than typical yellow lemons.

・Yuzu peel: This yuzu peel is grown in Kihoku Town, also known as the "home of yuzu." It has a strong fragrance, and they are specially cultivated without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, so you can eat everything from the peel to the juice without worry.

・"Nanaori Small Plum": Nanaori small plum is grown in the Nanaori area of ​​Tobe Town. It is grown with reduced use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers and is carefully harvested by hand. It is characterized by its small seeds, soft flesh, low acidity and good fragrance.

・ "Cypress": We use chips of cypress, a fine wood grown in the Kumakogen Town area, a forestry district of Ehime Prefecture with an average altitude of 800m, which has charm throughout the four seasons.

・"Shingu Tea (Wakino Tea)": Tea grown in Shingu Town, Shikoku Chuo City, which is said to be the birthplace of the tea industry in Shikoku. Grown without pesticides in the climate and clean water and air unique to the highlands, the tea has a fragrant aroma and a rich flavor.

Looking at each ingredient, you can see that Dogo Gin is a craft gin made with carefully selected Ehime ingredients. After talking with the producers of each ingredient, the potential characteristics of each ingredient are captured and Dogo Gin is made.

The sake lees used in the sake lees shochu (honkaku shochu) that forms the base of Dogo Gin are pressed with less pressure than is typically used, resulting in a shochu with a more gorgeous aroma.

The final process is a vacuum distillation where the water boils at around 50℃, which suppresses the unpleasant tastes of the raw materials and allows the aromas and flavors of the various ingredients to be mixed together in the bottle, resulting in a clean, refreshing drink.

The logo expresses a unique worldview that resembles the hiragana character "jin" in Japanese calligraphy.

"Dogo Gin Rokuhime" is also included

A companion to "Dogo Gin" is "Dogo Gin Rokuhime."

This beer is made with six kinds of botanicals from Ehime Prefecture. You can enjoy the fresh, sweet and gorgeous aroma reminiscent of white wine, the fragrant aroma of chestnuts and naked barley, the sharp taste of gin's unique spices, and the subtle sweetness.

The kanji character "Hime" used in the place name of Ehime, like the kanji character "Hime" (princess), refers to a beautiful and graceful woman. "Rokuhime" refers to six products that are like the princesses raised in Ehime. I would love to try comparing it with "Dogo Gin".

Enjoy the flavors of Ehime at "Dogo Gin"

For more information about Mizuguchi Sake Brewery's directly managed stores where you can enjoy Dogo Beer, please see the article below.

・Dogo Beer Hallhttps ://matcha-jp.com/jp/17929

・Dogo Beer Hall Annexhttps ://matcha-jp.com/jp/18373

It comes in a stylish bottle, so you can buy it and take it home to enjoy at home, little by little.

Try Dogo Gin, which is made with carefully selected ingredients from Ehime Prefecture, and experience the taste of Ehime through a drink.

*This article is current as of April 2024.