Twelve months in a single American ex-port cask turn 30 Knots Christmas Gin into a winter spirit. The Western Australian distillery fills 700ml bottles at 38% ABV, working from juniper, orange peel, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and star anise, with no sugar added at any stage.

The cask does the rounding. Port-soaked oak lends vanilla, a mellow spice and a faint fruit sweetness that meets the baking spices of the recipe instead of burying them. Orange opens the aroma with a fresher lift, clove and nutmeg take the finish, and juniper holds a dry line through the middle. The colour and the softness both come from the wood, which is why the gin drinks like a matured spirit rather than a flavoured liqueur.

30 Knots Spirits works out of Beresford, on the coast north of Perth, and this bottling is its seasonal release. A year in a single cask is a long stretch for a gin, long enough that the oak becomes a botanical of its own. At 38% the alcohol sits lower than most gins of this style, which makes the barrel notes easier to taste and the drink gentler when poured neat. Nothing is sweetened afterwards, so what reads as richness on the finish comes from the wood and the spices alone.

The distillers suggest ginger ale and dried orange, or a festive spritz. Our own glass keeps it closer to a classic: a 4cl pour, 10cl of Indian tonic and large ice, with an orange wheel and a short cinnamon stick resting between the cubes. Let the cinnamon perfume the drink rather than stirring it hard. Tasting a small measure neat first is worth the trouble, since dilution softens the port character quickly, and the seasonal bottling is not something you can go back for once the summer arrives down there.