6 O'clock Damson Gin

Damson gin is the sloe gin's richer, rarer cousin, and Bramley & Gage have been making it since before they made dry gin at all. Founders Edward Bramley Kain and Penelope Gage were West Country fruit farmers who started steeping leftover crop into liqueurs in the 1980s; when their children Michael and Felicity created 6 O'clock London Dry in 2010, they rebuilt the family's Damson and Sloe recipes on the new gin. Damsons are small, intensely flavored English plums — tarter and more perfumed than the dessert kind — and here they're steeped in 6 O'clock London Dry in small batches, then matured to draw out the fruit, bottled at 40% ABV, notably stronger than most fruit gins, so it holds its shape as a proper gin rather than a liqueur. Expect a deep purple-red pour with rich plum, almond from the stones, and a hint of marzipan on the nose, opening into a palate where the fruit combines with the gin's smoothness for what the distillery calls an intense fruity dryness — sweet on entry, then tart and warming, finishing long on dark plum. Gin Foundry placed both the Sloe and Damson firmly in luxury territory, and the clear glass bottle with gold cap makes the point. Superb neat after dinner, in a Damson Gin Fizz with champagne, with tonic and a twist of orange, or as the secret ingredient in a Bramble. English orchard fruit, distilled by the family that grew it.

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