Whitley Neill Pink Grapefruit Gin

Chamomile turns up on this list, which is not where anyone would look for it. A flower better known from a bedtime tisane, apple-scented and faintly honeyed, it sits underneath a grapefruit gin doing something no citrus could: rounding the acidity from below and adding a softness the fruit has no way of supplying. Whitley Neill bottles this at 41.3%.

Citrus · Floral · Fruity

Pink grapefruit peel is the headline, and taking the peel instead of the juice is what keeps it bright rather than sweet. It leads the nose with a lively zest, and the bitterness it carries is the reason the gin finishes clean instead of cloying. Juniper stays clearly present behind it. Beneath both, the classical frame is complete: coriander seed, angelica and orris as roots, and cassia barkCassiaThe bark of a Chinese cinnamon tree, coarser and hotter than Ceylon cinnamon. It brings a warm, slightly sweet spice.Glossary do the structural work, and cloves add a darker spiced note that most of the house range does without. Between the cloves and the chamomile, the base under this particular fruit is doing more than it does elsewhere in the family.

The palate opens on crisp citrus acidity, then a gentle sweetness arrives, then the warming spice. Chamomile and clove between them supply the roundness and the aromatic depth, and the juniper holds throughout. The finish is clean, fresh and lightly bitter, which is exactly what grapefruit zest should leave behind.

A neutral tonic and a pink grapefruit garnish, and nothing else is needed. Light citrus-forward cocktails suit it. The bitterness is the part worth paying attention to: it is what makes this drinkable in quantity rather than merely pleasant in a single sip. Grapefruit is the one citrus that brings its own bitterness rather than needing one supplied, and a flavoured ginFlavoured ginGin with flavourings, often fruity, added after distillation. It may be coloured and lightly sweetened.GlossarySee Flavoured gin gins built on it starts with an advantage the sweeter fruits never have.