Malfy Originale Gin

Grapefruit peel is the choice that separates this from a textbook dry ginDry ginGin with no perceptible sweetness: in the European Union, the word "dry" allows at most 0.1 g of sugar per litre.GlossarySee Dry gin gins. Orange is the safe citrus and almost every recipe uses it; grapefruit carries a bitterness along with it, and Malfy Originale takes its shape from exactly that. Everything else on the list is deliberately classical: hand-picked Italian juniper, coriander, cassia, licorice, and orange peel alongside, on Italian winter wheat spirit at 42%.

Citrus · Dry · Herbal

Juniper opens the aroma clearly and without apology, which is the point of a bottle called Originale. The citrus arrives immediately behind it, and the two peels divide the work: orange occupies the middle with a rounder, sweeter zest, while grapefruit sharpens the edges and leaves a clean bitterness at the back. Coriander bridges them with its warm, faintly citric seed spice. CassiaCassiaThe bark of a Chinese cinnamon tree, coarser and hotter than Ceylon cinnamon. It brings a warm, slightly sweet spice.Glossary bark adds a dry cinnamon-like warmth deeper down, and licorice is the one that changes the finish, bringing a sweetness that carries no sugar and lengthening everything considerably. Italian winter wheat gives a soft, slightly creamy base that stops the citrus turning shrill.

The palate stays smooth from start to close, and the finish is crisp and properly dry.

A gin built this classically wants a classic glass. Unflavoured tonic, ice by the handful, and a grapefruit wedge in place of lemon, since that tracks the more interesting half of this recipe. It also makes an excellent NegroniNegroniAn Italian cocktail of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and red bitter (Campari), served over ice with orange peel. Born in Florence in 1919.Glossary, where the licorice meets the bitter vermouthVermouthAn aromatised, fortified wine flavoured with herbs and barks; its name comes from the German Wermut, wormwood. Dry vermouth goes into a Martini, sweet red into a Negroni.Glossary without either giving way. Flavoured tonics are the thing to avoid here: the citrus is already doing that job. Hand-picked juniper is a labour cost that shows in the aroma rather than on the label, and it explains how clean the opening is. Bitterness is the rarest thing in a modern citrus gin, and this recipe keeps hold of it. It ends citric, dry and clean.