The first version has a light and elegant aroma. Notes of juniper and lemon give way to the woodiness of oak vats. The palate is somewhat sweet, followed by a barely spicy flavor. The aged version puts more emphasis on the floral notes of violet and iris and entrusts the spicy flavor to grains of paradise.

The idea for the creation of this gin was inspired by stories about French smugglers crossing the English Channel transporting gin to England in oak barrels. This operation had been authorized in 1775 by a royal decree of Louis XVI. The inventor of Citadelle Gin, Alexandre Gabriel, thought he would try to make what gin might taste like transported in this way. He also wanted to bring gin closer to the production of cognac, the distillate on which much of the Cognac Pierre Ferrand distillery’s production is based.

The first Citadelle Gin Reserve was born in 2008 from an idea of master distiller Alexandre Gabriel . A small batch of classic Citadelle was taken and aged for six months in 12-year-old oak barrels with heavy smoking, then put on the market as a limited edition. The second, from 2009, is aged 5 months with medium smoking to make the flavor finer. Only 8,000 bottles were released, but they were a resounding success. From 2010 they also began to change the botanicals to better adapt the gin to aging. Since 2013, production has begun using the Solera aging technique, the same as balsamic vinegar or Madeira. Note that the recipe changes every year: in fact, the list of botanicals we made applies only to the 2008 and 2009 vintages.