Qual­i­ty bou­tique gin is sweep­ing the states, so it makes sense that France’s famous micro-dis­tiller (Gabriel Boudi­er of Dijon) has giv­en us an arti­sanal Saf­fron Infused Gin. The gin is based on an old French colo­nial recipe, cen­tered around the spices of India, and hand­craft­ed in small batch­es that uti­lize an old pot still method.

The first thing you notice is the gold­en orange col­or. I’d imag­ine they’d like you to think that comes from the saf­fron infu­sion, how­ev­er after fur­ther inspec­tion you’ll notice that the ingre­di­ents include cer­ti­fied col­or and FD&C Yel­low #5. This is a bum­mer, but I pow­ered through it as I’m on a mis­sion to try all gins known to man. But yeah, neg­a­tive points for that one, Gab. The upfront smell is of juniper, nat­u­ral­ly. The sip test revealed a spicy saf­fron and almost a sweet hon­ey taste. You’ll also notice a hint of fen­nel, corian­der and orange peel. It’s def­i­nite­ly a dri­er gin. Very crisp and clean. Offi­cial­ly the botan­i­cal heavy recipe includes saf­fron, juniper, corian­der, lemon, orange peel, angel­i­ca seeds, iris and fennel.

So maybe I was a bit hard on this gin. It’s pleas­ant and I think the col­or could be lever­aged nice­ly in some pre­sen­ta­tions. You can def­i­nite­ly taste the saf­fron, which gives it a very unique taste.

Sells for around $30 a bottle.

Note: Gabr­i­al Boudi­er of Dijon also makes a fan­tas­tic creme de cas­sis.