Which gin can you drink neat?

Under the European rules gin must have at least 37.5 per cent alcohol; for drinking neat, a higher percentage gives more aroma to work with.

Alcohol carries the aroma compounds from the botanicals. The higher the percentage, the more of those compounds stay in solution and the more is released above the glass. From about 45 per cent you also have room to add a few drops of water yourself without too little being left.

The actual alcoholic strength by volume is always on the bottle: that is compulsory for every drink above 1.2 per cent. At ’t Bockje in Bathmen we will line up the gins by percentage for you if you want to compare.

The label says whether it is gin, distilled gin or London gin, and that difference tells you how the botanicals got into it.

Gin, category 20 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787, may be made with flavourings and flavouring preparations, as long as the flavour of juniper dominates. Distilled gin, category 21, is obtained by distilling ethyl alcohol of at least 96 per cent together with juniper berries and other natural plant material; gin made solely by adding essences expressly does not count as distilled gin.

London gin, category 22, goes a step further: the distillate must have at least 70 per cent alcohol, the gin is not coloured and nothing may be added except water.

The number of botanicals is often on the label, but the law sets no requirements for it and says nothing about the proportions.

The only requirement in the European rules is that the flavour of juniper dominates. A gin with eight botanicals can therefore be much more pronounced than a gin with thirty, because what matters is how much of each plant was used and how long it was macerated or distilled along with it.

More useful than the number is the plant named first, after juniper. Citrus peel, coriander, angelica root, cardamom or pine needle: that name predicts more about the glass than the figure on the bottle.

Pour 3 to 4 cl into a glass that narrows towards the top, and keep the bottle cool but not in the freezer.

A tulip-shaped glass or a small wine glass gathers the aroma above the liquid. A wide tumbler lets that aroma escape, so you mainly smell the alcohol.

Cold holds volatile compounds back. Straight from the freezer, gin is syrupy and you smell almost nothing; at room temperature the alcohol jumps to the front. In between lies the room to choose. A few drops of water lower the percentage and release aromas, and that works most clearly with bottles above 45 per cent.

Four details appear on almost every gin bottle: the alcohol percentage, the category, the first-named botanical and the volume.

Go through them in that order. The percentage tells you how much aroma to expect and how much room you have to dilute. The category tells you whether the botanicals were distilled with the spirit or added as flavouring. The first-named botanical tells you which direction it takes. The volume, usually 50 or 70 cl, decides whether you are buying a bottle to get to know or to keep.

If the label says dry, no more than 0.1 gram of sweeteners per litre has been added, expressed as invert sugar. For drinking neat, that is the detail that tells you most about how dry the gin is in the glass.