Inverroche Gin
Michael Klauber, co-proprietor of Michael’s on East and Michael’s Wine Cellar, admits he was never much of a gin guy. That changed during one of the international food-and-wine quests that Klauber and his wife, Terri, host for the Gulf Coast Connoisseur Club.
At the end of a drive through the Londolozi game reserve in South Africa, their party stopped for a “sundowner” with all the appointments of the safari sunset ritual: a picnic blanket spread over the hood of a truck, snacks arrayed on top to accompany gin and tonics.
For this particular sundowner, the guide produced a bottle of Inverroche gin.
“It was like nothing we’d ever tasted before,” Klauber says of this most memorable sundowner. Instead of the expected piney punch, Klauber first noticed Inverroche’s floral bouquet, followed by its exquisite smoothness. As someone who’s made a career of exploring the world for flavors to share with Sarasota, Klauber knew he’d found something he had to bring home. Michael’s on East and Michael’s Wine Cellar are the first restaurant and spirits purveyor in Florida to offer Inverroche’s small-batch distillations.
The key to Klauber’s eye-opening experience with the gin lies in its aromatics. Gin is most commonly infused with juniper, but Inverroche sources its botanicals locally from the fynbos. That’s the South African heathland home to 8,500 plants within the Cape Floral Kingdom—about 80% of the kingdom’s plant species!
Nearly 6,000 fynbos flora are endemic, meaning the fynbos is the only place on earth where they grow. Their glorious blooms attract other endemic pollinators; the Cape sugarbird, for instance, likes to perch inside the bowl-sized blossoms of South Africa’s national flower, the king protea, to feed on its sweet nectar. You might be familiar with two famous fynbos exports, rooibos and honeybush, especially in delicious, healthful teas.
The three types of Inverroche gin pen love letters to this wonder of the natural world with each pour. Inverroche Classic is infused with aromatics from the fynbos’ limestone-rich hills and cliff s, its evergreen notes blending with soft petals. Inverroche Verdant’s botanicals are hand-selected from mountainous, rocky terrain, its fragrance of summer blooms spiced with flavors of lemon zest and licorice. Finally, the tawny-hued Inverroche Amber showcases botanicals of the region’s coastal dunes, its florals balanced by toffee-like sweetness and bright citrus. Michael’s Wine Cellar carries all three Inverroche varieties, and the Inverroche Amber debuted at the restaurant in a cocktail dubbed the Cape Town Fig Bramble. With Poire Williams eau de vie, bitters, allspice-soaked figs, and an orange twist, this cocktail is handcrafted for a Sarasota winter.
