## 1 Introduction  
Gin has experienced a renaissance over the past decade. While 384 million liters of gin were consumed worldwide in 2010, the global consumption more than doubled in 2019 to an estimated 812 million liters [1]. Flavor is a driving parameter of consumer acceptance of alcoholic spirits like gin. Specifically for gin, the aroma stems from the use of botanicals during the distillation process, whereby individual aroma notes are imparted by constituent odor-active volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - or aroma compounds - derived from the respective botanicals. Indeed, distilleries exploit a wide range of botanicals to craft artisan versions of this spirit with unique and characteristic aromas to appeal to consumers' tastes. Common botanicals utilized in gin production include juniper berries (_Juniperus communuis_ L.), coriander seeds (_Coriander sativum_ L.), orange peel (_Citrus sinensis_), golden shower (_Cassia fistula_), orris root (_Iris florentina_ L.), cardamom seeds (_Elettaria cardamomum_ L.), angelica root (_Angelica archangelica_ L.), cinnamon bark (_Cinnamomuz eyzlandcium_), calamus (_Acorus calamus_ L.), fennel (_Foenticulum vulgare_), aniseed (_Pimpinella anisum_), lemon peel (_Citrus limon_ L.), cumin (_Cuminum cynimum_ L.), almond (_Prunus amygdalus_ L.) and licorice root (_Glycyrrhiza glaba_) [2]. The most important botanical in gin is juniper, which imparts the predominant, characteristic flavor of gin and is a required constituent for an alcoholic spirit to carry the name gin, as specified in legal regulations (e.g., EC Regulation no. 110/2008) [3]. In the latter regulation, for example, gin is defined as a juniper-flavored spirit drink containing at least 37.5% alcohol by vol. Gin can be further sub-classified as gin, distilled gin, and London (dry) gin. While pure ethyl alcohol infused with flavoring substances and/or preparations may be sold as gin, the term distilled gin is reserved for organoletically suitable ethyl alcohol of an appropriate quality (at least 96%vol.) that has been redistilled in the presence of selected natural botanicals; further, distilled gin produced in this manner may retain this term when it is mixed further with ethanol and/or when it is additionally flavored using substances and/or preparations. By comparison, London gin is retained exclusively for distilled gin obtained from ethyl alcohol that is limited in methanol content (max. 5 g/hL of 100%vol.) and whose flavor is introduced only through re-distillation, resulting in what is considered a higher quality spirit. London gin is often supplemented by the term dry because of its maximum permitted sugar content of 0.1 g/L. In general, the flavor profile of a food/beverage product can be examined by human sensory evaluations, e.g., quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) [4], to allow for individual nuances (e.g., _fruity_, _flowery_, _herbaceous_, etc.) to be described and quantified in their perceived, relative intensities. In many cases, especially in food/beverage production, knowledge of the odor-active compounds that elicit individual aroma impressions is important in order to tailor a product's flavor. The most common analytical approach to characterize the VOC constituents of a product (food or otherwise) is gas chromatography (GC), coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) [5]. While this technique offers very sensitive detection of VOCs, it does not discriminate between odorless and odorous compounds, the latter being responsible for the overall aroma of a product. To address this shortcoming, instrumental detection of compounds eluting from the GC column can be augmented with human olfactory perception, as is undertaken in GC-olfactometry (GC-O and GC-MS/O) [6]. In food science, this approach can be combined with aroma extract dilution assays (AEDA) to determine the respective contributions of individual odor-active compounds to the overall aroma of a product [7].