Bel Air Gin

Half the fruit in this recipe is ripe and half of it deliberately is not, and that split is what keeps a tropical gin from collapsing into sweetness. Green mango arrives sour and astringent; Victoria pineapple and passion fruit arrive at full ripeness. La Distillerie de Paris assembles them around vetiver, cinnamon, wild pepper and oak spice, taking Réunion Island as the reference point.

Woody · Spicy · Fruity · Herbal · Earthy

Vetiver is the piece that holds all of it down. A grass root used mainly in perfumery, it smells of damp earth and dry wood at the same time, and putting it under a fruit list this loud stops the whole thing floating away. Green mango works against the ripe fruit from the other direction, its sourness cutting where the pineapple and the passion fruit would otherwise pile sugar on sugar. Victoria pineapple is the small, intensely perfumed variety, more concentrated than the fruit sold by weight elsewhere, and passion fruit adds its sharp seeded tang above it. Cinnamon warms the middle, wild pepper snaps at the top with a rougher heat than the cultivated sort, and the oak spice deepens the base alongside the vetiver.

The palate ends up dense and smooth with a green vegetal streak running through it, which is not where a fruit gin usually goes.

Density like this needs cutting rather than supporting. Plain tonic and a glass filled right up with ice, and if you garnish, choose something sharp: a wedge of lime, or a thin slice of green mango if you can find one. A small measure neat is the fairest test, since the vetiver is clearest before any dilutionDilutionThe water added by melting ice. In the right amount it opens the aromas and softens the alcohol; too much flattens the drink.Glossary. Tropical gins usually settle for ripeness and stop there. Réunion supplies the reference while the assembly stays Parisian, and the two halves do not fight. It closes fruity, earthy and warm.