LièGin Standard de Liège

Blackcurrant bark is the wood of the plant, not the berry. It is bitter and tannic where the fruit is sweet and sharp, and using it means taking the plant's structure rather than its flavour, which is a distiller's decision rather than a marketing one. LièGin puts it into this Liège edition alongside blueberries and blackberries, organic throughout, at 43%.

Fruity · Herbal

The two dark berries carry the profile. Blueberry is the softer of the pair, rounder and jammier, and blackberry the deeper, with a faint tannic grip of its own that meets the bark on the same ground. Together they give a fruit character that is genuinely dark rather than red, and the higher strength keeps it from turning syrupy. Orange and lime zest lift the top, one warm and one sharp, and they keep the berries from sinking out of sight. Underneath, the classic work is quietly thorough: juniper as the structural backbone, coriander adding warm spice, angelicaAngelicaThe root of a tall umbellifer, earthy and musky. After juniper and coriander it is the most common botanical: it binds the aromas and holds the finish.Glossary earthy and dry underneath, liquorice lengthening the finish, and almond contributing a dry marzipan weight beside the bark. The texture is round and expressive, and the finish runs long.

A neutral organic grain base is the reason the botanicals read this cleanly, and the distilling is done at Radermacher in Raeren, one of the oldest houses in Belgium. Neutral tonic, generous ice, an ordinary measure; a berry-flavoured mixer would only say again what the gin has said. A blackberry on a cocktail stick follows the recipe exactly. Naming a bottle after a city usually means a label change. Here it also meant a higher strength and a recipe carrying enough tannin, from the bark and from the blackberry alike, to earn the name it was given. It closes fruity, dark and dry.