I’m finally getting around to how I scored on Spring Break this year; well, at least to the extent a man of my age and marital status can score on Spring Break!
This year we wanted to get out of town, and took the logical step of spending a few days in Detroit!

Wait a minute! Detroit?!? Really? For Spring Break?

Yes, Detroit. It was fun.

I’m sorry. I just can’t endorse this. Spring Break needs a destination more like this.

In your dreams, Guy!

Actually, it was fun. Detroit has some amazing museums. The best was The Henry Ford, a sort of not-so-mini-Smithsonian. The highlight for us was the Rouge Factory Tour. The Rouge River factory complex was the genuine apex, if such a single location existed, of the Industrial Age, with iron and coal and sand going in one end, and cars going out the other. The tour today gives a fantastic opportunity to watch trucks being assembled, as well as to enjoy some nice multi-media shows. The History of the Rouge film is very well done, though at times the music and narration are a bit over the top. During one particularly bombastic segment on Ford’s role in World War II, I was seized with the inescapable idea that if only the Rouge had been located on Alderan, this whole Death Star business would have been settled immediately….

I thought you said you scored on Spring Break….
Yup, there it is, you wrote it right up there in the title of the post!

Sorry, your eminence. I just needed to set up why I was in Detroit.
The last night we were there, I braved the heavy snow(!) in search of liquor stores to find what Michigan had to offer in the way of bottled adventure that Ohio does not. The second store I visited was where I scored. I have looked up and down for this stuff, and finally found it: Van Gogh Gin.
This Gin has been around for a long time; I can remember having some in Atlanta sometime in 2000 or 2001. Even though the Vodka is the title spirit on the website, I think it is the Johnny-Come-Lately product for the distiller. Of course, I can get the Vodka, and the Espresso Vodka, and the Double Espresso Vodka all over Ohio, but not the Gin. Believe me. I’ve looked. (BevMo won’t ship it to Ohio, the law-abiding bastards!) So the second I saw the Gin bottle, I could not help but utter, Score! out loud. The clerk was confused, but handed me the bottle anyway.
The only thing that stank was that I had to wait a couple of days to get home before I could try the bottle in a Pegu.
I was leery of a let-down as I mixed the cocktail. I had been actively trying to get a bottle of Van Gogh for more than two years, and if it was mediocre, I was going to feel pretty foolish.
I was not foolish. This is great Gin. I’m sorry, I mean Great Gin. To be a Great Gin, you have to make a great Pegu, and the Van Gogh delivers, in spades. I’ve made several Van Gogh Pegus by now, and I keep cycling through the adjectives that bubble up in my mind when I try to analyze it. The ones I keep coming back to are: Rich, Round, Full, and Polished. The comparison that immediately leapt to mind, and which holds up under further consideration, is that the Van Gogh gives the same smooth and subtle base as Hendrick’s, without the unusual rose and cucumber accents. It makes a delicious Pegu.
If you can get the Van Gogh, I highly recommend trying it out. It may not be to your taste, however. It really is pretty subtle for a Gin. Even in Pegus, I doubt it would become my usual choice, even if it were regularly available. It is a bit expensive, for starters. And finally, like the Hendrick’s, the Van Gogh Pegu is almost too soft. One thing I like most about Pegus is that they pack a punch. It is comfortably cushioned for sure, but you can still experience the sock of a powerful cocktail. These softer Gins hide the underlying sensation of that kick. For some, this is a recommendation; you get the complexity of a very well-balanced Gin cocktail, without the challenging pungency. For me, most days I want to know I’ve been slugged, just a little bit.