How gin tells the story of a country

Full Circle Distillery’s flagship gin ARC Botanical is handcrafted from 28 botanicals, 22 of which are sourced and foraged from across the Philippines — from  Benguet pine buds to Davao pomelos. Thus, with each sip, you are enjoying an exquisite taste of the archipelago.

It reads like a page-turner of a novel or a documentary narrated by Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham or Malcolm McDowell: how urbanist and author Matthew Westfall came to our country in the ’80s, scoured the length of the archipelago, drank with the locals (quatro cantos, gin bulag), and dreamed of someday “crafting the best Philippine gin possible.”

Westfall arrived in 1983 as a US Peace Corps volunteer; his first posting was San Antonio, Zambales, and then Benguet. “I was working with upland communities on water supply systems, municipal infrastructures and public markets,” he shares. Afterwards, he moved to USAID and worked with Filipino mayors on good governance — Robredo in Naga, Duterte down in Davao.

With the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Westfall took on various projects such as the rehabilitation of the Pasig River and assistance of the Payatas garbage landslide victims. He was subsequently assigned to different posts around the world — Germany, Azerbaijan and Azana in Kazakhstan — but his heart was always with the land of the morning.

Laurie Westfall during the launch of the ARC brand at Manila House.

“Why were all those people (in different parts around the world) creating a craft spirit, while in the Philippines — where there is a bounty of flavors — we had none?” 

The epiphany came when Matthew and his wife Laurie were still residing in Frankfurt and had a sampling of Monkey 47 dry gin from the Black Forest.

“We tasted it and it had an amazing flavor and mouth feel,” Westfall recalls. “It was actually the beginning of the botanical gin renaissance and craze. Then we visited Christoph Keller and looked at the different distilleries in Southern Germany.”

There, the couple was informed that the ingredients came from Indonesia and elsewhere that boast wonderful produce. “We told them, ‘Hey, we’re from the Philippines, you have no idea (what you’re talking about) — our mangoes are 10 times bigger, our pomelos are vastly more tasty, everything grows in the land.’ Laurie and I asked ourselves what could we do.”

What Matthew and Laurie did was to establish Full Circle Distillers Co., the country’s first authentic craft distillery located in the foothills of Mount Makiling in Laguna. Full Circle Distillery’s state-of-the-art, PEZA-registered distillery in Calamba features a fully automated, state-of-the-art 450-liter CARL copper pot still from Germany, considered the Rolls-Royce of distilling. Its flagship brand is ARC Botanical Gin with its medley of botanicals — from citrus to mango to exotic flowers.

Fresh botanicals, including sampaguita and Benguet pine, add to the flavor of ARC Botanical Gin

“The gin actually tells the story of a country,” he explains. The ARC Botanical Gin is handcrafted from 28 botanicals, 22 of which are sourced and foraged from across the Philippines: pomelos from Davao, Benguet pine buds from Sagada, dalandan oranges from Quezon Province. Full Circle Distillery also uses fresh mango in its gin recipe, sourced from the Westfall’s family farm in Dasol, Pangasinan. Thus, with each refreshing sip, you are enjoying an exquisite taste of the archipelago.

It is easy to make cheap gin, but Matthew wanted to go full circle (yes, pun intended). Here’s the narrative: Westfall and co. spent over four years perfecting their gin recipe, working closely with Europe’s leading master distiller, Dr. Klaus Hagmann. (This man is behind some of the world’s best craft gin brands.) Like mad scientists or sorcerers of good taste, they worked together in Hagmann’s distillery outside Stuttgart. Matthew would carry in suitcases of fresh Philippine botanicals, and they would concoct variations of the gin recipe — pulling out the flavor of our citrus (pomelo, calamansi and dalandan), refining the aroma of cinnamon, ensuring that the all-important juniper came through. Pulling out all the stops just to make it a balanced gin in terms of nose, mouth feel and finish. Matthew would then hand-carry bottles of gin home to Manila and hold tastings with trusted friends and family to get feedback. (Which begs the question: when and where was this and why weren’t we invited?)

As early as its genesis was, ARC Botanical Gin has already garnered awards in international spirits competitions held in Hong Kong, the US, Austria and the UK. Westfall talks about the three variants under the ARC line.

“The ARC Botanical Gin is very tropical and light, a summery sort of gin, a beach gin,” he explains. “It has fresh mangoes — and this makes it the only gin the in the world that has mangoes. It is citrus-forward. When you put ice (into a glass of ARC Botanical Gin), it clouds it up a little. That’s actually the essential oils that come out of the Philippine citrus. In addition, it has Benguet pine from Sagada. It is a gin that, when consumed in other climates, would offer a very relaxed, tropical, sunny vibe.”

ARC Botanical Gin — infused with classic gin botanicals and a blend of rare and exotic spices, citrus, berries, and blossoms foraged across the archipelago

The second one is the ARC Barrel Reserve Gin. “We lay that down in oak — 225-liter American Oak barrels from world-class Seguin Moreau out of Napa Valley. We put our gin spirit in there, it ages for three months, and — with the thermal expansion — we get the amber flavor, toasted coconut, almost like a bourbon. We’re working with Tabacalera to package the Barrel Reserve with cigars. It’s a sipping gin. I would drink this by the fireplace in a ski resort, or in Baguio. It’s such a delicious spirit, a connoisseur’s gin. For us, it’s all about trusting the process.”

The third spirit is the ARC Lava Rock Vodka. “We take the same French wheat, we do the same eight-hour distillation in copper, we clean it up and soften it up. It’s a very neutral spirit. But we really wanted it to have a Filipino flavor, so — since the Philippines is part of the Ring of Fire and we have lots of volcanoes — we foraged lava rocks from Taal and Mayon and filtered them right on the still.”

Barrel Reserve Gin — infused with classic botanicals and a blend of rare and exotic spices, citrus, berries, and blossoms, and aged to perfection in a toasted oak barrel

The spirit is filtered a second time and subsequently chill-filtered through a state-of-the-art charcoal filtration system to create a bright, polished spirit.

He adds, “This is a very sophisticated spirit. But with a little bit of minerality that will give you a taste of the Philippines.”

Going forward, Full Circle will create rum with fresh sugarcane, as well as brandy with mangoes in its artisanal distillery. One of the main man’s goals is to create a true-blue Filipino whisky. The Americans started intercropping of barley, wheat and rye with rice in the 1930s in Cagayan Province, but then World War II began and all was forgotten. Westfall pulled out the reports from the US National Archives. If everything goes according to plan, Westfall says he doesn’t see why our whisky can’t be better than Yamazaki.

ARC Lava Rock Vodka — handcrafted artisanal vodka, naturally filtered over ancient lava rocks from Taal Volcano

“It takes time, but it is worth the wait,” he concludes. “For us at Full Circle Distillery, there are no compromises. We are in no rush. This is a sunset entrepreneurial project for Laurie and me. We’ve gotten a little bit older. We’ve had our careers. Now we are doing something that is fun and puts the Philippines forward. It is fantastic to meet with Filipino farmers.”

What drink or cocktail would Matthew Westfall sip if, let’s say, the world was ending? His answer: David Ong’s Mountini.

Great choice. A taste of ARC Botanical Gin, vermouth and the Cordilleras in your mouth and, preferably, Alex DeLarge doing a monologue on Beethoven and the heavens into your ears. 

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For information, email Full Circle Craft Distillers Co. at hello@fullcircledistillers.com. Full Circle’s artisanal spirits are available online @boozy.ph, in select Kultura and Tesoro’s branches, and at Duty Free Philippines. Follow the brand @fullcircledistillers on social media.