There are victories that arrive softly, the way dawn breaks over the Savalan valley, stealing unhurriedly across the Gabala vineyards with neither announcement nor apology. And there are victories one wishes to proclaim with that particular, slightly intoxicated satisfaction familiar only to those who comprehend what lies behind a medal: years of hard and tenacious work, a handful of soil, a pinch of patience and something else entirely – that something which will resist every technical specification ever devised. Let us call it ‘soul’, if only for want of a more precise word.
But to the matter at hand: SAVALAN Gin produced by SAVALAN–ASPI Winery has been awarded the Silver Medal at the London Spirits Competition! That competition is one to which producers travel from every corner of the world, carrying with them the very finest things they are able to make.
The London Spirits Competition is, in its way, a beauty pageant with the unusually high standards of rigour. It is not sufficient to taste well or even exquisitely there because the judges, all of them pro buyers, sommeliers from major restaurant groups and seasoned bartenders who have assessed rather more bottles than most of us have had hot dinners, evaluate each entry across three equally demanding categories: flavour, commercial viability and the perceived impression a bottle makes by simply standing on a shelf. Appearance does matter, does it? The world would have been a bleak place without, after all. The scores run to a hundred points, and gold, silver, bronze medals only go out to those who actually earn them. Many do not. Alas. Such is life.
The SAVALAN Gin earned silver!
The judges described it with that precision which distinguishes those truly capable of listening to a spirit instead of merely consuming it: a delicate balsamic aroma carrying subtle floral notes, a smooth and enveloping palate, a finish that is light and admirably unobtrusive. That one description encapsulates the entire character of SAVALAN: neither brash nor arrogant, yet entirely, unmistakably itself. Mountains have no need to remind anyone of their altitude; their peaks simply exist, suspended in silver clouds. Much the same might be said of the gin that SAVALAN–ASPI Winery produces.
This is not the first honour in the winery’s collection; one rather suspects it will not be the last, either. Founded in the Savalan valley at the heart of the Gabala region, SAVALAN–ASPI has long since become the definitive name in Azerbaijani winemaking; the house produces wines, distillates and now, well, here you have it – a gin that London, the historic home and sovereign of that particular spirit, has seen fit to recognise. None of this is accident or fortune. It is the entirely logical consequence of what happens when the people behind a thing are genuinely in love with both their land and their craft.
The thing which makes the award particularly agreeable is the nature of those who bestow it. They are battle-hardened practitioners who decide, daily, too, what bottles reach the shelves and what names appear on bar menus. Their verdict is no formality. It is testimony, as clear and professional as they come, that the Azerbaijani gin does not merely exist but also does so with gravitas, having earned its place among the best.
The silver from London lands into SAVALAN–ASPI’s growing collection of distinctions as a natural continuation of the journey that began with a vine and now extends well beyond any horizon previously imagined.
Gold? SAVALAN has that too; has won it more than once, as it happens. The silver is a handsome addition to an already well-furnished trophy cabinet. One is left with a single question, which nobody in London thought to ask aloud: what are they up to next?
Treat your friends and yourself to the SAVALAN Gin and may your thoughts turn to the silver of clouds and reveal new and wondrous discoveries and victories!
Authors of the SAVALAN Blog:
Fuad Seyidaliyev and Arif Rahimov
Founders and Co-owners of SAVALAN-ASPI Winery