King of Soho Review

Quadruple distilled using traditional methods by an eleventh generation, master distiller, this London Dry Gin is crafted with twelve botanicals, delivering an interesting if uninspiring flavour profile. It was created to pay homage to the ‘King of Soho,’ (English publisher, club owner, and property developer) Paul Raymond, who died in 2008, by his son Howard.

Paul Raymond was given his aforementioned title as a result of taking over the area of Soho after aggressively moving into real estate, and was a key instigator in monetising the underbelly of London.

Whilst remaining true to its London Dry heritage the gin has a delicate combination of sweetness, citrus and earthiness and a hint of grapefruit bitterness on the back of the palate. The spirit includes 12 botanicals including juniper, coriander, citrus (predominantly grapefruit peel), angelica root and cassia bark.

As gin’s go, and it’s safe to say we drink a fair few, we thought this was good but perhaps wouldn’t become a regular purchase for the Dapper Chapper bar.

Nose

This gin has a fairly gentle nose, which provides pleasant and expected notes of juniper and pine, with a strong aroma of coriander also.

Taste

The story behind the origin of the spirit is touching, yet you can’t enjoyably sip away at a story; you need a striking flavour and unfortunately King of Soho lacks true royal taste.

It’s dominated once again by juniper and coriander, with elements of citrus, pierced by a peppery finish. It’s not that it’s unpleasant to drink, it’s more that we expected more fireworks and punchiness from the flavour…Alas it is just a little dull.

Design

However, to end on a high, we must add that the bottle itself is rather impressive, with the main protagonist, the fox, depicting many elements of the soho area; Urban nights featuring jazz music, plus the books that represent Paul Raymonds publishing business. Some may say it’s too much, yet I feel the iconography is relevant given the bottle is dedicated to the life of one rather successful chap.

Available for £31.84 at mastersofmalt