Immortelle flowers, picked by hand, are the reason this gin exists in the form it does. Melifera grows its own on the island of Oleron and distils them into an organic French gin at 43% ABV, supported by juniper, angelica root, kaffir lime, maceron and French artemisia. The brand also funds local biodiversity work, including conservation of the black bee on Oleron, which is a rarer kind of commitment than a botanical list usually implies.

The immortelle is immediately apparent and unlike most floral gins: warmer and drier than rose or elderflower, with something closer to honey and curry leaf than to perfume. Kaffir lime cuts across it with a sharp green citrus fragrance, and the two together are what give the gin its particular signature. Maceron and French artemisia bring a bitter herbal undertow, artemisia especially adding the dry, faintly medicinal note that keeps the flowers from turning sweet. Juniper and angelica hold the frame. The palate is fresh at the front, herbal through the middle and floral on the way out. Being organic is not incidental to any of this: the flowers are grown by the brand itself, and an immortelle picked by hand and distilled nearby behaves differently from a dried imported one.

A neutral tonic serves it best, because the immortelle is easily buried and there is no good reason to add a competing flower to the glass. Pour it over a well-filled glass, and garnish with a strip of lime peel or with a single sprig of a dry herb if you happen to have one to hand. It works in a gin and tonic and equally well in a Martini, where the immortelle and artemisia become considerably more prominent than any mixer allows. It closes dry, herbal and quietly floral.