Maredsous Valéo Organic Gin

Woodruff is a woodland plant that smells of almost nothing while fresh and releases a scent of cut hay and vanilla as it dries. It gives Valeo its most recognisable character, in the middle of an infusionInfusionFruit or plants are steeped in the spirit to release their flavour. Done after distillation, infusion often adds colour too, and the gin can no longer be called London Dry.Glossary of wild flowers: poppy, St John's wort, mallow and primrose, with juniper.

Organic · Floral · Herbal

Each of them contributes little and the total adds up. Poppy is nearly silent on the palate but lays a pale sweetness in the background. St John's wort pushes the other way, resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary and slightly bitter, and it is what keeps the floral softness from collapsing. Mallow is the one you taste least and notice most: rich in mucilage, it thickens the mouth very slightly, and that is where the creamy impression comes from. Primrose closes on a fine, almost sweet floral note. None of the five is a common gin botanical, and all five are flowers rather than seeds, roots or peels, which is why the gin has almost no dry spine of its own beyond the juniper.

Juniper is left alone to carry the frame, an exposed position in a gin this floral. At 40%, in a twice-distilled organic grain spirit reduced to its heart cutHeart cutOnly the middle part of the distillate is kept. The overly volatile heads and the heavy tails are set aside.Glossary alone, it holds without hardening the flowers. Flowers are the most fragile material a distillery can work with, which is why the abbey infuses them rather than boiling them, and why the plants here are chosen on the same three criteria as the rest of the range: ecology, botany and pharmacognosy.

An elderflower tonic extends that floral register, provided it is measured: four centilitres to ten and no more, or the elderflower covers the woodruff. Clear iceClear iceIce without air bubbles, made by slow, directional freezing. Denser, it melts more slowly and dilutes less.Glossary, a broad lemon peel to give the flowers something firm to lean on, and if you can find one an edible primrose flower, which has the rare advantage of already being in the recipe.