Saffron is the stigma of a crocus, three threads per flower, picked by hand, and it costs more by weight than any other spice on earth. Adding it to a gin is therefore a decision with a price attached, and Gabriel Boudier has been making this one in Dijon since long after the house itself was founded in the nineteenth century, at 40%.

What saffron gives is not what its reputation suggests. It is warm and faintly honeyed rather than sweet, with an earthy, almost metallic edge underneath, and it colours the spirit as much as it flavours it. On the nose it arrives second, after juniper and fresh citrus peel have opened the glass, and it settles into the middle of the aroma instead of sitting above it. Orris root adds a powdery floral quality beside it, and fennel and coriander bring the herbal half: fennel sweet and aniseed, coriander warmer and rounder. Angelica seed lays a dry structure underneath, and lemon and orange peel keep the top bright throughout. The palate is smooth, balancing citrus brightness against soft spice, and the finish is long, holding spice, zest and a delicate floral trace.

A gin with a colour this distinctive deserves a glass that shows it. Neutral tonic, ice up to the rim, and a normal measure; anything sweetened blunts the earthy side of the spice first. Orange peel suits that warmth better than lemon would. It also gives an unusual Martini and a genuinely different Negroni, where the saffron meets the bitter head on. A maceration house using its most expensive raw material is a fair way to demonstrate the technique. Colour is what people notice first here, and it is by some distance the least interesting thing the spice is doing. It ends spiced, citric and warm.