Nine hundred bottles, each numbered by hand, tells you what kind of production this is before anything else does. La Conspiration works in Champagne and macerates hand-picked Chardonnay grapes taken straight from the parcel and the press, then distils slowly in a hundred-litre copper still heated by bain-marie, and bottles the organic result at 46%.

Bain-marie heating is the technical detail that shapes the taste. Because the still sits in a water bath rather than over a direct flame, nothing scorches, and delicate material survives a process that would otherwise strip it, which is exactly what macerated grape needs. The Chardonnay comes through as brioche, that toasted, yeasty, slightly buttery note the grape is known for in its sparkling form, and finding it in a gin is genuinely unusual. Citrus runs above it, lemon-bright and clean, and the pair of them give the palate a gourmet quality, rounder and more mouth-filling than the strength alone would produce. Juniper stays clearly in place beneath the fruit, which is what allows the London Dry designation to stand. At 46% the intensity is real, and yet the texture keeps its finesse, the bain-marie showing again in how smooth the spirit arrives.

A gin built from a wine grape deserves a glass that lets it be tasted. Neat and lightly chilled comes first, where the brioche note is at its clearest. If you mix, choose a plain tonic with a fine bead, keep the ice generous, and garnish with lemon peel, which follows the citrus already there. Anything sweetened buries the grape. Champagne makes wine and almost nothing else, so a gin from the region is already a departure. Nine hundred bottles is a run a single parcel can justify. It closes toasted, citric and long.