Forest Dry Gin Autumn

The label can be scratched and smelled before the bottle is even opened, which tells you something about how this range wants to be approached. Forest Spirits releases four seasonal gins conceived by Jurgen Lijcops, the sommelier behind the Michelin-starred restaurant The Glorious, and the autumn one is built from twenty-four botanicals on a base spirit distilled from cereals raised at an organic farm outside Antwerp. Bottled at 42% in a matte black bottle.

Citrus · Spicy · Floral · Fruity · Herbal

Autumn here means orchard fruit rather than spice, which is not the obvious reading of the season. Pear leads, soft and quietly sweet, and apricot sits alongside it with a denser, slightly jammy weight that gives the middle its body. Tangerine lifts both from above, sweeter and more perfumed than an ordinary orange. Lavender is the surprise in that company: a cooling floral note against ripe fruit, and it works because it stops the sweetness from settling. Underneath, the recipe turns dark. Angelica root supplies a dry earthiness, the earthy herbs extend it, pine adds a resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary green line beside the juniper, and black pepper closes with a sharp heat that arrives late and stays. The result is complex and spiced, the fruit up front and the earth behind it.

A gin with this much fruit already in the bottle needs nothing added. Unflavoured tonic, ice in quantity, and a slice of pear or a strip of tangerine peel, whichever half of the recipe you want emphasised. Avoid sweetened mixers, which would turn the apricot into dessert. It is worth a short measure without dilutionDilutionThe water added by melting ice. In the right amount it opens the aromas and softens the alcohol; too much flattens the drink.Glossary too, where the pepper and the roots are most audible. Building four gins around four seasons risks three of them being filler, and the fruit here argues otherwise. It closes fruity, earthy and peppery.