Gin de Binche

Blood orange is the deliberate signature of Gin de Binche, a nod to the oranges the Gilles hand out on Shrove Tuesday during the town's UNESCO-listed carnival. Plus Oultre Distillery designs, distils and bottles it in Belgium at 40% ABV, in 35cl and 70cl formats, and the idea for the name came out of a conversation between friends in March 2017.

Spicy · Floral · Fruity · Herbal

Juniper, citrus and spice form the backbone, with the blood orange given pride of place. Around them the recipe gathers clove, caraway, hyssop, lavender, coriander, cumin, fennel, aniseed and hops, a wide aromatic palette for a gin of this strength. Each spice is distilled separately before blending, which is the distillery's way of keeping quality even from batch to batch rather than a marketing flourish.

The opening is floral and delicate, then the herbal core takes over, supported by the freshness of juniper. Hyssop and caraway give that middle section its slightly medicinal, anise-tinged character, and the finish belongs to the blood orange: fine, citrus-fresh and long. It is a busy recipe that still reads clearly, which is the hardest balance to strike with a botanical list this long.

The house serve is worth following exactly: 4cl over ice with 10 to 12cl of neutral tonic and a slice of blood orange. A flavoured tonic covers the very note the gin is built around, so keep the mixer plain. It also holds up neat over ice and in classic cocktails where citrus and spice are useful. The bottle has collected more than a dozen international medals, among them a Double Gold in New York in 2020, a Platinum in San Francisco in 2019 and Gold in Brussels in both 2018 and 2019, and the distillery itself was named distillery of the year in New York.