Citadelle Gin

A Smuggler's delight.

It all began in the year 1775, when Louis XVI allowed two Frenchmen, Carpeau and Stival to open a distillery making Genièvre at the Citadelle in Dunkirk. The port of Dunkirk was at that time a major hub where merchants from all over the World would bring their goods to trade… There was an abundance of spices coming from Far East, just what they needed for the production of Genièvre or Gin. Soon English smugglers overcrowded the port of Dunkirk in search of French Gin that was supposedly way better than the one coming from the Netherlands and Sweden.

The Gin business soon died out and it was not until a decade ago when Alexandre Gabriel began to study the distillation methods used to make Genièvre as they did back in the days. He hired a scholar to help him rummage through a century-old archive where they found notes from the golden times of Gin, refreshed the ingredients a bit, and Citadelle Gin was born.

Citadellle Gin is copper pot still distilled and made from 19 botanicals from all over the World. The infusion of these botanicals happens in three days in which time the Gin gains its character.