Monkey 47: The Distillery I Will Never Forget
When I finally made it into the heart of the Black Forest, I knew straight away this trip was different. From the small hotel, to the meals we shared, to the winding roads between little towns, every piece felt connected, almost as if the forest had planned it for us. And at the centre of it all: the most improbable founding story in the world of spirits.
A Monkey, a Wing Commander, and a Lost Recipe
Monkey 47 begins not with a distiller but with a British Royal Air Force officer. Montgomery "Monty" Collins was born in Madras, India in 1909 (remember India; it explains the artwork on the bottle). After the Second World War he found himself in a devastated Berlin, helping to rebuild the city, where he sponsored a monkey named Max at the Berlin Zoo.
In 1951, Collins settled in the Black Forest and opened a guesthouse named after his old friend: Zum wilden Affen, The Wild Monkey. There he began distilling his own gin from the herbs and berries he could find in the forest around him. Over time, his gin was forgotten. Then, decades later, during a renovation of the guesthouse, workers found an old bottle and a detailed recipe. The label read: "Max the Monkey."
That discovery became the spark. Alexander Stein, then a senior Nokia executive, heard the story, left his corporate life behind, and teamed up with master distiller Christoph Keller to bring the recipe back to life. They started in 2006, spent four years on flavour trials, and launched Monkey 47 in 2010. As Stein once joked: "We talk so much about Monkey 47's story, but never about how many litres we actually produce." That is the brand in one sentence: story first, always.
The lesson I took home: every great gin needs a great story behind it. This one happens to be true.
What's Inside the Bottle
The name is a promise: 47 botanicals, where most gins use ten or fifteen. From my notes at the distillery:
Botanicals are macerated for two days in spirit at 96% ABV, brought down to about 70% for distillation
After distillation, the gin rests for 100 days in traditional earthenware containers before bottling. Not steel, not oak: clay. Almost nobody else does this
The base spirit is made from molasses, and the water is Black Forest spring water
The signature ingredient: lingonberries, macerated for a tart, fruity kick no other gin has
On the nose: lavender, citrus, a berry-bright fruitiness. When I tasted it, I thought of cinnamon cookies and tea, like walking through Istanbul's Mısır Çarşısı. Then blackberries, raspberries, and that bold, earthy juniper the law demands (why juniper must always lead is explained in Gin & Juniper Relationship). Aromatic enough to sip neat; even better when a mixer makes the layers pop.
The Details You Don't Forget
Everything here carries personality. The cork is natural Portuguese cork stamped ex pluribus unum, "out of many, one": a fitting motto for a gin of 47 ingredients. Some bartenders wear the corks as rings. The bottle artwork tells Max's story in colonial-Indian style, a quiet nod to Collins's birthplace. Playful, but never careless: branding you don't forget.
The Variants
Monkey 47 Sloe Gin. The finished gin infused with wild sloe berries for about eight weeks. Sweet, rich, brilliant in a Negroni twist or simply over ice. (What legally separates sloe gin from gin is in Different Styles of Gin.)
Monkey 47 Barrel Cut. Rested in mulberry wood casks, a wood almost nobody else in the world uses: toasty, low in tannin, utterly distinctive. The result drinks almost like a whisky, with honey and jasmine notes. Sip it slowly, like a fine malt. (Why the wood changes everything is the subject of The World of Casks.)
My Takeaway
Monkey 47 is a gin that feels alive: a wing commander's memory, a recipe asleep for fifty years, four years of trials, clay jars, and a lingonberry no one asked for but everyone remembers. Maybe that is the real secret. It is not just made in the Black Forest; it carries the spirit of the place itself.
More distillery journeys: Beefeater in London, Absolut in Åhus, Sweden, and Midleton in Ireland. Join the Around The Glass Society and travel with me from your inbox.
