Malt in a London Dry is what distinguishes the Tribute from everything else Filliers makes. Filliers works it alongside lavender, juniper and angelica inside the 28-botanical recipe that Firmin Filliers set down in 1928, distils in small copper stills, and fills the bottle at 40% ABV. Where the standard release runs hot and spicy at a higher strength, this one is pitched softer and considerably more floral.

Lavender is the loudest voice here and it is handled carefully, floral without ever tipping over into perfume, sitting high in the aroma where the spice would normally have been. Malt is what makes the difference underneath: it gives the palate a rounded, faintly cereal weight that a purely botanical recipe cannot produce, and that weight is why the lavender reads as gentle rather than sharp. Angelica dries out the foundation so the softness never becomes slack, and juniper keeps the green resinous armature that the style demands. The result manages dry and floral simultaneously, a herbal thread running through the middle and a finish that stays clean throughout.

That softness makes it more forgiving than the higher-strength bottling from the same recipe. Plain tonic is the answer, and there is no need to reach for an expensive one: the malt gives the drink enough body to carry the dilution on its own. Lemon peel lifts the floral side without competing against it, and a short sprig of lavender doubles the headline for anyone who wants it pushed further forward. Steer clear of sweet mixers: the malt is the first casualty. Two bottlings from one 1928 recipe, pitched at different strengths and pulling in different directions, is a more interesting proposition than another new label. It signs off dry, floral and softly grainy.