Most gin begins with a neutral grain spirit. Wa Gin begins with sake. Meiri Shurui, in Ibaraki prefecture, distils a sake-based spirit and lets it mature at length before redistilling it with botanicals - an unusual amount of patience to invest in what most producers treat as a blank canvas. The botanical list is correspondingly short: juniper, lemon peel, orange peel and cinnamon, bottled at 45% ABV.

That short list is a decision rather than a limitation. With only four elements in play the base spirit becomes audible in a way it rarely is, and the long maturation shows as a soft, faintly grainy sweetness running under everything else. Lemon and orange peel do most of the aromatic work up front, bright without being sharp, while juniper sits closer to the middle than to the top. Cinnamon arrives late, warm and dry rather than sweet, and it is the note that lingers alongside a light woody impression from the matured base. At 45% the mouthfeel has real weight, and the finish is longer and rounder than the citrus opening would suggest.

Because so little is competing, this is a bottle worth meeting neat first, at room temperature or barely chilled, which is where the sake character is easiest to find. Mixed, it asks for a dry, straightforward tonic and a restrained hand: a citrus twist rather than anything sweet, and enough ice to keep the glass cold without watering down the very base spirit you are paying attention to. Heavily flavoured mixers bury the thing that makes this gin unusual in the first place.