From the Gabriel Boudier house in Dijon, established in 1874, comes a properly old-fashioned apricot liqueur. Fully ripe apricots are selected for their aromatics and macerated in brandy, the fruit-steeped spirit is drawn off, and only a small dose of sugar is added. The restraint shows.
Clear mid-golden amber in the glass. The nose is sun-ripened apricot skin and apricot tart, with light blossom, a touch of mango skin and the faint almond note that comes from the stone. The palate turns to cooked and confected apricot with a marzipan edge, the lightly syrupy sweetness cut by a genuinely assertive citric acidity.
The finish lingers on baked apricot pastry and apricot conserve with a dusting of cinnamon. A bar staple: essential in a paradise cocktail or a Charlie Chaplin, and excellent added to a whisky sour or poured over ice with soda.