Each bottle is labelled by hand with the exact date it was made, which tells you the run is small enough for that to be practical. GIN ZIMOWY is Mikrogorzelnia's winter release, built on Sicilian oranges and the spices of a mulled drink, distilled under vacuum in Warsaw at 40%, and it took a gold at the Concours International de Lyon in 2022.

Winter spices in a spirit are a risk, because the same mixture in a warm drink turns cloying very quickly. What prevents it here is the citrus and the temperature at which the still runs. Sicilian orange zest leads, bright and generous, and it is zest rather than juice, so the aroma is oily and aromatic instead of merely sweet. The spices arrive behind it in order: cloves first with their strong medicinal warmth, cinnamon drier and more rounded, star anise adding a clean liquorice lift, nutmeg a dry aromatic depth, ginger a fresh prickling heat, and cardamom cooling the whole arrangement from above. Juniper holds the balance underneath, and it needs to, because six warm spices could easily push a recipe out of its category. Vacuum distillation keeps the orange from cooking.

Warmth like this can be served either way. Neat and lightly chilled, the spices separate most clearly. Mixed long, it wants neutral tonic and a well-filled glass, with a generous pour so the cloves are not lost. A wide curl of orange peel repeats the recipe; one star anise pod is the showier alternative. Nothing sweetened, since the spice already reads sweet without any sugar behind it. A seasonal gin that tastes of the fruit rather than the sugar is the harder version. Writing the date on a bottle by hand is a small claim that anybody can verify against the next one. It closes spiced, citric and warm.