Pour an inch into a flute and top it with sparkling wine, and you have the drink this bottle was made for. Sloe gin has served that function in Britain for generations, and Sipsmith produces a version of it from its own London Dry, at 29%.

The method is seasonal and slow. Wild sloes are picked in autumn once they have reached full ripeness, then macerated in the finished gin with sugar added to answer the fruit's natural acidity. The infusion is then left to rest for an extended period, and that resting is where the colour, the flavour and the texture all develop; none of the three can be hurried. Starting from a completed London Dry rather than a neutral spirit means the juniper and the botanicals are underneath the fruit from the beginning rather than added to it afterwards.

The nose is ripe red fruit with clear sloe character, an almond-like stone fruit note behind it and subtle herbal tones from the gin. The palate is rounded and smooth, sweet and tart fruit together with gentle juniper in the background, and the texture is soft and properly liqueur-like. The sweetness is balanced rather than overt. The finish is persistent and fruit-driven with a light dryness and the faint bitterness sloes always leave.

Undiluted and lightly chilled is a second option, and a Sloe Gin Fizz a third. All three treatments work because the sugar was measured against the fruit rather than poured in to cover it. Sloe gin is one of the few categories where the sweetening is structural instead of cosmetic: without it the fruit is simply too sharp to drink, and with too much of it the sloes disappear entirely. The whole craft sits in that narrow interval, and nothing about the interval is obvious from the outside.