OXXiTAN Les Remparts

Immortelle earns its name by keeping its colour long after it has been cut, and it earns its place on this list by bringing a honeyed sweetness that no other botanical here supplies. OXXiTAN builds an organic Languedoc gin around it with ten more plants, most of them growing within sight of the Mediterranean, and seals the bottle at 40%.

Spicy · Floral · Herbal

The recipe divides cleanly into three groups. The scrubland herbs come first: rosemary and thyme, dry and resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary, the two plants that define the garrigue, with heatherHeatherA small flower of the Scottish moors, honeyed and slightly woody.Glossary adding a drier, slightly dusty floral note beside them. Then the softer material arrives, and this is where immortelle does its work, laying honey across the middle where the herbs would otherwise leave the palate austere. Chamomile and lemon verbena extend that softness, one gently apple-like, the other sharply lemony without any citrus fruit involved. Lemongrass sharpens the top further. Underneath, the classical botanicals hold everything in place, juniper green and firm, coriander warm, angelica root supplying dry earth, and cinnamon closing the finish with a delicate warmth. Honey and pear are what the palate offers, and a faint genepi note adds depth behind them.

Herbs this dry and a flower this sweet are a balance worth protecting. Take a neutral tonic, keep the glass properly cold, and use enough ice that nothing warms before you reach the bottom. A sprig of rosemary is the garnish the recipe points to, while lemon peel lifts instead of deepening. Sweetened mixers ruin it outright, since the immortelle already supplies the honey. Eleven botanicals from one region is a narrower brief than most gins accept. Most gins gather their plants from four continents; this one barely leaves one department. It ends herbal, honeyed and warm.