Citadelle Jardin d'Été

Charentais melon is not a botanical anyone reaches for, and it is the reason this summer edition tastes unlike the rest of the Citadelle range. The distillery works it alongside yuzu, whole lemons and orange zest at 41.5% ABV, distilling at the Chateau de Bonbonnet in Cognac, and the melon does something that none of the citrus around it can manage: it brings sweetness without any sharpness at all.

Citrus · Floral · Fruity · Herbal

The fruit arrives layered rather than all at once. Yuzu opens with its perfumed, faintly bitter edge, whole lemons follow with a rounder and more complete citrus character than peel alone would give, and orange zest fills the warmer middle. Then the melon appears underneath all of it, soft and watery, closer to ripe flesh than to anything candied, and it is what prevents the citrus from coming across as sharp. Coriander, cucumber and angelica supply the herbal counterweight, cucumber echoing the melon's cool watery quality, and a faint almond note rounds the base. JuniperJuniperThe one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.Glossary holds the frame throughout, pitched lower than in the house's classical bottling but never absent from it.

Everything about this points to a long drink in warm weather. Plain tonic, poured over plenty of ice, keeps the melon legible; a flavoured one buries it under a second fruit and gains nothing. A thin ribbon of cucumber suits the recipe better than anything else, cooler and less obvious than citrus, though a strip of lemon peel works if you want the top brightened. It also makes a light, uncomplicated spritz for an afternoon that does not need anything more complicated. Summer editions are usually the same gin with something sweet added; this one changed which fruit does the leading. It closes fresh and fruity, the melon fading last of all.