Maxim's Gin

F. Paul Pacult calls gin "...the best of white spirits for cocktails and my favorite overall white spirit." That's saying something. Gin has all the finesse and sophistication that vodka never will. Best yet, true world class gins can be purchased in the $20 range. A very few valid wodkas (and Everclear) appear here!
Post Reply
User avatar
Capn Jimbo
Rum Evangelisti and Compleat Idiot
Posts: 3550
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:53 pm
Location: Paradise: Fort Lauderdale of course...
Contact:

Maxim's Gin

Post by Capn Jimbo »

At Total Wine, a closeout worth a try...


Last year just for fun we picked up a bottle of Maxim's Vodka for no other reasons than (a) it was cheap, (b) it was vodka and (c) it came in a lovely Art Nouveau bottle. Frankly I don't even remember a bit about it, other than Maxim's is one of the oldest and most memorable restaurants in Paris...
Per Wiki: Maxim's was founded as a bistro in 1893 by Maxime Gaillard, formerly a waiter. It became one of the most popular and fashionable restaurants in Paris under its next owner, Eugene Cornuché. Cornuché gave the dining room its Art Nouveau decor and made sure that it was always filled with beautiful women. Cornuché was accustomed to say : “An empty room…Never! I always have a beauty sitting by the window, in view from the sidewalk.”

In 1913, Jean Cocteau said of Maxim's: “It was an accumulation of velvet, lace, ribbons, diamonds and what all else I couldn’t describe. To undress one of these women is like an outing that calls for three weeks' advance notice, it’s like moving house."

In 1932, Octave Vaudable, owner of the restaurant Noel Peters, bought Maxim's. He started selecting his clients, favouring the regulars, preferably famous or rich, beginning a new era of prestigious catering under the famous Vaudable family which lasted more than half a century. Famous guests of the 1930s included King Edward VIII, Marcel Proust and Jean Cocteau, a close friend and neighbor of the Vaudables. The playwright Georges Feydeau wrote a popular comedy called La dame de chez Maxim ("The Lady from Maxim's").
It is perhaps no surprise that Maxim's also features its own private labeled vodka, gin, cognac, champagne, whiskies and wines. As for the vodka, per Maxim's...
Maxim: "Made in small batches from wheat grown on the plains of the Beauce region blended with water from a protected source in the Alps, near Evian, this vodka is distilled four times and then chill filtered for smoothness. It is bottled in a distintive cobalt blue bottle."

How is Maxim's gin made?

It is not surprising that the gin is based on the quadruple distilled vodka. The gin is based on ten botanicals that are added to the vodka charge and then distilled using a classic copper alambic still. Maxim's claims that by adding the botanicals to the charged still (and not by cold infusion), that their process "... avoids the bitterness that could comes from extended soaking or the harshness that comes from tha alcohol vapors being passed through the botanicals in the end stages",

An interesting claim worth further research. In the meanwhile however, we plan to make a "French Dry Martini" using the Maxim's and the very French Nioly Pratt very dry vermouth.

Stay tuned...
Post Reply