Gabriel Boudier Saffron Gin

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%.

Citrus · Spicy · Floral · Herbal

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 rootOrris rootIris rhizome dried for years, then ground. Powdery and violet-like, it mainly works as a fixative that binds and lengthens the other aromas.Glossary 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 MartiniDry MartiniGin and a little dry vermouth, stirred over ice and served in a well-chilled stemmed glass, with an olive or a twist.Glossary and a genuinely different NegroniNegroniAn Italian cocktail of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and red bitter (Campari), served over ice with orange peel. Born in Florence in 1919.Glossary, where the saffron meets the bitter head on. A macerationMacerationBotanicals soak in alcohol, from a few hours to several days, before distillation to release their aromas.Glossary 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.