Kyro Napue Gin
Kyro Napue Gin pours crystal clear with a slightly viscous, oily weight that clings to the glass, the first hint that this is no ordinary dry gin. The nose is unusual and immediately captivating: soft floral meadowsweet leads, sweet and honeyed like a Finnish meadow at midsummer, followed by a red-berry note from wild cranberry and a bright, tangy lift of sea buckthorn. Juniper and delicate citrus peel sit beneath, keeping the aroma fresh and recognisably gin, while a faint herbal, almost thyme-like edge hints at the forest flavours still to come.
On the palate, Kyro Napue Gin is full-bodied and creamy, a texture that comes directly from its rye base. Where most gins are built on a light, neutral wheat or grain spirit, Napue’s rye gives it a rounder, richer mouthfeel and a gentle bready warmth, so the botanicals feel cushioned rather than sharp. Peppery juniper arrives first, piney and assertive, followed by a soft wave of citrus and a quiet sweetness from the berries that keeps the gin balanced and inviting.
As the sip develops, the Nordic botanicals come into their own. Birch leaf adds a green, fresh, slightly woody note, meadowsweet returns with its floral, almond-like perfume, and caraway and spice give a savoury, peppery edge that lingers on the tongue. It’s a gin that genuinely tastes of its landscape: herbal, sweet and almost forest-like, with each layer clear and distinct. At 46.3% ABV, Kyrö Napue Gin has real presence, but the rye’s softness means the warmth feels rounded rather than hot.
The finish is long and persistent, with tangy pine juniper, black pepper and a last trace of meadowsweet and citrus fading slowly. Kyrö Napue Gin was crowned the world’s best gin for a gin and tonic, and that’s still the perfect serve: plenty of ice, a classic Indian tonic, a sprig of rosemary and a few cranberries to echo the botanicals in the glass. It’s equally excellent in a Tom Collins, a Martinez or a crisp dry Martini, where its full texture and herbal depth really shine.
Like many good Finnish stories, the story of Kyrö Napue Gin begins in a sauna. In 2012, a group of five friends were relaxing in a sauna with a bottle of rye whiskey when they started to wonder why nobody in Finland was making rye whiskey of their own. It seemed a fair question: rye has been grown in Finland for around two thousand years, and rye bread is the country’s national dish. Remarkably, the idea still seemed a good one the next morning, and in August 2012 the friends founded Kyrö Distillery Company, despite having no previous experience in the drinks industry.
The distillery found its home in an empty old dairy in Isokyrö, a small village of around five thousand people beside the river Kyrö in Finland’s western Ostrobothnia region. Built in 1908, the dairy had been the birthplace of Oltermanni, one of Finland’s best-known cheeses. Rye whiskey takes years to mature, so, like many young distilleries, Kyrö made a gin to keep the business going while the whiskey rested in cask. The first distillation took place in 2014, and the gin took its name from local history: the Battle of Napue, fought on the fields around Isokyrö in 1714 during the Great Northern War, in which a large part of the local male population was killed. A memorial stone to the battle still stands beside the distillery, and the typeface on every bottle, Napue Sans, is drawn from its engravings.
In 2015, Napue was entered into the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s first search for the world’s best gin for a gin and tonic, judged blind against entries from around 150 distilleries. To everyone’s surprise, including the competition’s own organisers, who had never heard of the distillery, the little Finnish rye gin won. Napue sold out within days, and it took the team months to catch up with demand. A gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition followed in 2016, the gin was renamed Kyrö Gin, now known as Kyrö Napue Gin, around 2019 and 2020, and Kyrö’s long-awaited rye whiskies have since joined it. Today Kyrö Napue Gin is one of the most celebrated Nordic gins in the world.
There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.
