Long's Notes

Ransom Old Tom is a wonderful spin on gin. Crisp clean botanicals dance with the warmth of a sweet oak finish. This classic gin comes from 18th century distillation recipes and is the perfect gin for classic cocktails. "Silky entry and a dry-yet-fruity medium body palate with wintermint, mango custard, dried lavender, herbal juniper and sweet spices on the gentle polished finish.”
93 pts-beverage tasting institute

Producer's Notes

Concept
It is 1865, the Civil War has ended and you need a gin cocktail, so you walk into a bar, let’s say New York, Chicago or New Orleans to order your Old Tom…Ransom’s Old Tom is very likely what you would have been served. The vision of our wily distiller, Tad Seestedt, was to make the best and most historically accurate Old Tom in the world. Ransom is the only American distiller to produce a true and accurate Old Tom gin to date.
History
Old Tom gins find their way into drinking history starting in the 18th century. Similar to the Genever style of gin, Old Tom’s were part malted grain mash, part infused botanicals. Old Tom gins had robust and expressive flavors due in part to the pot still distillation methods as well as the barrel aging these gins underwent as the product was transported from city to city. The name Old Tom comes from bars in London that had wooden placards or a statue of a black cat (an “Old Tom”) on the outside of the building where a thirsty customer could deposit a penny and receive a shot of gin from a small spigot between the cat’s paws. That was the first creative drive thru in the
modern commercial era.
Distillery
Ransom distillery is located in Sheridan, OR. Sheridan is a small, sleepy town that butts up against the coastal mountain range in northwest Willamette Valley. The distillery sits on 40 acres of gentle, rolling farmland and Tad operates a beautiful 150 gallon copper pot still to create his spirits. It is a classic small batch spirits operation.
There are the essentials of the distillery, an extra cocktail book or two, a shotgun and a tractor. When you have a good spirit in hand, a coastal breeze to cool the sweat from your brow and a vista of the valley what more do you really need?
Distillation
Ransom Old Tom gin begins with a whiskey wort or mash which is the first distillation (wort is the liquid that is extracted from the mashing process of whiskey production as the mash slowly turns starches into sugars). A second
distillate of neutral grain spirits is then infused with classic botanicals of juniper, orange peel, lemon peel, coriander seed, angelica root and cardamom pods. These two spirits join together in a single batch and are distilled for a second time, infusing their character to create a magnificent Old Tom gin that is then aged for several months in oak barrel. After a short period of barrel aging the gin is packaged and bottled and shows off its beautiful light onion skin hue in a clear apothecary style glass bottle.