Roseroot grows on cliffs and in mountain scree, in places where almost nothing else takes hold, and it has to be climbed to rather than harvested. It is one of thirty-three botanicals on this list, more than any other Norwegian gin carries, and nearly all of them are hand-picked from the country's mountains and forests. Det Norske Brenneri bottles the result at 45.9%.

Thirty-three plants risk becoming a wall of aroma, and what prevents that is how differently the wild material behaves from the cultivated. Heather is the plant that gives the bottle its name and its character, dry and honeyed with a dusty floral quality that no garden flower matches. Watercress works against it from the other direction, peppery and green in the way only a plant grown in running water manages. Roseroot adds its own rose-scented, faintly bitter root note low in the glass. Birch leaves supply an earthy green layer, elderflower a sweeter floral lift, and coriander with citrus fruits holds the more familiar middle ground. Spices and further herbs fill in behind them without stepping forward. Floral and herbal notes dominate, citrus brightens, and earth runs underneath all of it.

At 45.9% there is enough strength to take a full mixer. Neutral tonic, ice all the way up, and a measure firm enough that the wild material is not thinned away. Lemon peel is the safe choice; a sprig of heather, if the season and the geography allow, follows the name directly. Nothing sweetened: the peppery side is the first casualty. Spirit of the Year at the 2022 Bartender Spirits Awards is a serious verdict from people who mix for a living. Counting botanicals proves nothing on its own; picking them by hand from cliffs and riverbeds proves rather more. It ends floral, herbal and bright.