There are plenty of pink gins and fruity gin liqueurs out there, but we’ve never had anything like Citadelle Rouge before. This is undoubtedly the gin of the summer!
The gin itself is completely clear, but as soon as you put your nose in the glass, you have no doubt where the rouge part comes in: it is a veritable cornucopia of delicious red fruit and berries; rhubarb, raspberry, blackberry, cranberry.
Citadelle Rouge is not added to anything after the distillation. No sugar, colour, flavor or fruit. The taste is solely the result of the distillation with copious amounts of berries and rhubarb, in addition to the usual Citadelle botanicals such as violet, almond and of course juniper.
Color: Clear as crystal.
Scent: There is no doubt that it is gin, but juniper shares the spotlight with raspberries, blackberry liqueur, and a clear, slightly nostalgic note of tivolistang. It’s almost like being a kid and walking into a candy store – just without the artificiality.
Tasting notes: Deliciously creamy on the tongue with a nice natural sweetness. The alcohol is fantastically soft and integrated, and the forest berry notes wash in in a steady stream. Finishes dry, fresh and elegant.
Serving suggestion: The perfect serving is in a gin & tonic garnished with a small piece of rhubarb (e.g. thinly sliced with a potato peeler). It can of course also be included in other classic gin drinks, where the summer atmosphere just needs to be lifted a little.
Maison Ferrand, led by spirits guru Alexandre Gabriel, is the company behind some of the most essential cognacs, rums and gins in the modern spirits landscape. Under the umbrella there are, among others, Pierre Ferrand Cognac, Plantation Rum and Citadelle Gin, rum under the Kaniché brand and cognac under the name Claude Chatelier. In addition, a number of luxury wines are produced, of which their curaçao in particular has caused excitement in cocktail bars worldwide. The company is broad, but common to every drop is an unwavering dedication to quality.
Maison Ferrand was created with one mission: to preserve the gastronomic treasures of France. Alexandre has made a virtue of breathing life into old and long-forgotten traditions, and the eternally eager Frenchman is known, among other things, for dusting off and buying up old archives from bankrupt houses, in order to learn more about the production methods of the past. But at Ferrand you also understand the value of renewal, and today innovation is valued as highly as tradition. This is clearly seen in the Citadelle Gin brand. Getting permission to distill gin in Cognac required five years of bureaucratic struggle against the area’s stubborn spirit giants.
Since then, the company has spread beyond France’s borders, and today Ferrand is perhaps best known for its series of rums. Under the name Plantation, Alexandre buys rums from many different countries in the Caribbean and stores them in France in cognac casks. In the series there are rums for both the beginner and the connoisseur, for both the daiquiri and the Glencairn glass. In 2017, the company bought the Barbados distillery West Indies Rum Distillery, and now also has its own rum production from scratch.
