I will have to see how Gary Regan’s ”The Bartenders Gin Compendium” holds up in a similar comparison to my liquor cabinet.
So I finally took a few minutes to flip through the Gin Compendium and count the gins listed. If you count everything, to include the same brand at different proofs, I came up with about 62 gins, 8 genevers (including A. van Wees Roggenaer which I am going to try one day if I have to make a special trip to the Netherlands to do it!), 2 Old Tom's and 3 Plymouth gins if you count the sloe gin. That is a total of 75 gins.
I still think they are close to 100 different brands/proofs at the present time that one could find with a little effort. It is clearly a fast moving industry and I could think of a number of other brands I have seen or read about like Brooklyn, Breucklelen, Monkey 47, the Botanist, Roxor, Corsair, Cold River, Blackwood's, South, Back River, Tru2, Blade and Rusty Blade (which I hope to add to my own liquor cabinet soon). Some of these are definitely too new even for this book and for all I know some of these have come and gone already. And of course the debate continues about whether some of these are truly "gin" or belong in the more nebulous category with Square One.
So of the 15 gins (16 if you count Plymouth Sloe Gin) currently in my liquor cabinet (Aviation, Bluecoat, Bols Genever, Boomsma Oude Genever, Cadenhead’s Old Raj-110 proof, Citadelle, Citadelle Reserve, Hayman’s Old Tom, Hendrick’s, Leopold’s, Magellan, Plymouth, Ransom Old Tom, Tanqueray Rangpur and Tanqueray) there is only one that doesn't make the book, Leopold's. Still too small a player in 2009 I suppose?
So better coverage but also gin focused and a a newer book. But also very different. KS2 provides a presumably independent review for each spirit included while the Gin Compendium is a bit more focused on a general description from the manufacturer with only the occasional independent review by the author or others. What sets this newer book apart, aside from its focus exclusively on gin, is the interesting commentary about gin history, types of gin, occasional personal musings and of course the collection of recipes at the end that helps make this a very different resource.
Both seem to have their uses but time will tell as to which one proves more useful to me. At least I hope they prove useful because I could have bought 3 or 4 more gins with the money spent on them!
And I know more gin would have been useful...
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