Nearly every gin sold on the market today is bottled immediately after distilling, but Citadelle Réserve Vintage sleeps for several months in small, seasoned French oak barrels before being bottled. While this is very unusual today, this painstaking and lengthy practice is reminiscent of how gin was stored and transported more than 100 years ago when glass (too fragile and expensive), plastic and stainless steel were not options. Gabriel’s experimentation began in 2008 when he put his Citadelle Gin into a few old French oak casks – and voilà, Citadelle Gin Réserve was born and became the first barrel-aged Citadelle gin. It was a very rounded gin with notes of wood and vanilla while still being very juniper forward. It was such a new and unique gin that it sold out within weeks of its global introduction! Upon tasting Citadelle Réserve 2008, the Spanish press called Gabriel the “master of spirits.”
Citadelle is half revival, half new innovation: the revival is based on one the first gin produced in France at the “Citadelle.” The innovation is in the where and the how. Maison Ferrand Distillery and the SW corner of France is best known for its Cognac. But perhaps the boldest part was the revelation that during the offseason when they legally couldn’t distill Cognac, they could distill gin. The government finally relented in ’95, and so began the magic of open flames [don't try this at home] and pot stills: Citadelle 2.0 was thusly born.