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It has become de rigueur for the great spirit houses to put out ultrapremium expressions of their core products. A standout this season is Beefeater’s Burrough’s Reserve Barrel Aged Gin, a fairly radical reimagining of the historic brand’s classic liquid. The company’s Master Distiller Desmond Payne is adding to an already impressive legacy in the gin realm — he came to Beefeater 16 years ago, after a 25-year career at the helm of Plymouth Gin — with this new bottle. “I tried to think of ways to evolve the original recipe into a different space,” Payne says. He wanted to make a spirit that could be drunk alone, as a sophisticated nightcap, rather than in a gin and tonic. “I started to think of how to move it into the after-dinner experience,” he explains, “more alongside whiskeys and cognacs.”

Payne’s inspiration to create a sipping gin came around the same time that he tasted a Beefeater-based, barrel-aged negroni created by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, Ore. “It was fantastic,” recalls Payne, who then decided to start experimenting with resting gin in barrels. He was determined to stay faithful to the essence of Beefeater and its classic nine botanicals, the original recipe created by the brand’s founder James Burrough. He found an old pot still that Burrough used in the 1860s, which, combined with the wood barrels, gave him the small-batch flavor profile he wanted. “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that in Burrough’s days, wooden barrels were how almost everything was stored.” But something was still missing. “I finally hit upon using French oak barrels that had housed French aperitif wine, with strong notes of orange,” Payne explains. “That was the connection I was looking for, to the lemon and Seville Oranges in Beefeater.”

The resulting amber-colored spirit (the golden hue comes from the wood) is supple and just as delicious at room temperature as it is chilled. Burrough’s Reserve is rich with soft tannins, has subtle notes of dried fruits and boasts a fuller sweetness than classic Beefeater, while retaining the critical bristle that comes from juniper. The complexity feels closer to a fine single-malt or barrel-aged rum than to a traditional bright, crisp gin, and, like a good whiskey, it evolves as it washes across the palate. Beefeater Burrough’s Reserve Barrel Finished Gin is slowly rolling out around the United States in decidedly limited quantities, and costs about $70.