The colour comes from the fruit, not from anything added afterwards, and that fact shapes everything else about the bottle. Saint Amans assembles eighteen botanicals on a base of French grape spirit, which is an ambitious way to build a pink bottling. Real raspberries go into the recipe alongside rose, lavender and the Toulouse violet at 38% ABV, with juniper, thyme, angelica, ginger, coriander, cinnamon, iris, citrus, almond, hazelnut, goji berry and a touch of Espelette pepper filling out the rest.

Raspberry leads and reads as fresh fruit, tart at the edge rather than jammy, and that tartness is what keeps a pink gin from sliding into liqueur territory. The floral trio sits directly behind it and each contributes something different: rose deep and slightly jammy, lavender cooler and more aromatic, Toulouse violet powdery and delicate in a way that violet rarely manages without turning to confectionery. Underneath, thyme and juniper supply a dry herbal frame, almond and hazelnut give a soft nutty roundness, and Espelette pepper adds a warm prickle right at the end that most drinkers will feel before they identify. The grape base contributes body and a vinous softness that a grain spirit would not have given. The palate is floral and fruity but finishes properly dry.

At 38% it is built for aperitif drinking. A plain tonic keeps the florals legible; a flavoured one simply adds a fruit the recipe does not need. Fill the glass right up with ice before pouring, and finish with a single fresh raspberry or a twist of lemon, never both. It also makes an elegant spritz alongside a dry sparkling wine, a build in which the low strength stops being a limitation at all. Eighteen botanicals rarely stay this legible. It ends floral, dry and faintly warm.