Two Belgian top sommeliers with Michelin-star experience, Benoît Couderé and Dries Corneillie, created Santé Gin for their wine company, Santé. It is distilled and bottled for them by The Bruges Gin Society, an award-winning trio of distillers, and released in extremely limited quantities in 50 cl bottles. Bruges, a city better known for its beer, is where the gin is made.

The recipe is deliberately short: fresh bergamot, fresh kaffir lime, juniper and cardamom. Using the citrus fresh rather than dried captures an unusually large amount of essential oils, and the creators aim for a delicate balance between full-bodied herbs and the fresh aroma of limes such as kaffir. Bergamot, the fragrant citrus of Earl Grey tea, brings a floral perfume; kaffir lime adds a greener, sharper note; cardamom, a spice of the ginger family, gives warmth, and juniper anchors the London Dry style at 42% ABV.

Because fresh citrus can only be bought once a year, every production depends on a single seasonal supply, and each bottle is genuinely unique. The limited release follows directly from that choice: the gin cannot simply be made on demand throughout the year.

The creators see three roles for it: as an aperitif, in a cocktail, or neat as a digestif, where the concentrated citrus oils and cardamom show most clearly. As a gin shaped by sommeliers, it is designed to be tasted rather than hidden. For a long drink, a Mediterranean tonic keeps the bitterness soft enough for the bergamot to lead, and a thin twist of fresh lemon lifts the citrus without competing with the kaffir lime. Kaffir lime is prized in Thai cooking for its intensely aromatic leaves and bumpy rind, and that perfume carries straight into the gin.