Hostile

Hostile takes its name from the places its botanicals come from. French Booze Project, based at Pierre-Buffière near Limoges, built this distilled ginDistilled ginGin made by redistilling neutral spirit with juniper and other botanicals. Unlike London Dry, flavourings may be added after distillation.GlossarySee Distilled gin gins around plants from inhospitable environments, jungles, deserts, mountains and ocean depths, and bottles it at 48.3% ABV in 50cl.

Citrus · Spicy · Fruity

Two peppers do most of the talking. Timur pepper, a Himalayan berry, smells strongly of grapefruit and gives a tingling rather than burning heat; Sichuan pepperSichuan pepperNot a true pepper but the berry of a prickly ash: citrus, lavender and a tingle that slightly numbs the lips.Glossary adds its own numbing, floral prickle. Around them sit citrus fruits and Tasmanian berry, which brings a dark, faintly peppery fruit note of its own. Juniper keeps the frame intact, and the higher strength means that none of these unusual botanicals ever gets lost.

Lemon leads the nose, brighter and cleaner than the botanical list would suggest, with the two peppers hovering just behind it.

The palate is fresh and balanced: grapefruit and lemon carry the front, the peppers build gradually through the middle without ever turning aggressive, and a blackberry-like fruit note appears towards the end. The close is subtle for a gin at this proof, peppery and lightly fruited, and the citrus line runs from start to end as the thread holding it together.

At 48.3% it takes a decent measure of mixer: 4cl against 11cl of a plain tonic, ice to the top, and a strip of grapefruit peel to echo the timur. Skip additional spice, since the bottle already has more than most, and let the glass rest a moment before the first sip. That same balance makes it a strong choice for a gin sour or a paloma-style drink, where the tingle of the peppers plays against fresh citrus juice rather than against quinineQuinineAn alkaloid from cinchona bark that gives tonic its bitterness. The British in India drank it against malaria and added gin: the gin and tonic was born.Glossary, and the Tasmanian berry finally has room to show itself.