RAISE a glass

Chin chin, make it gin time. If you’ve hovered around the edge of this page before, you’ll know I like gin and I like to share my explorations with you.

Here’s a trio which is slightly off the beaten track.

My first has such a glorious name nodding, in my mind, to a touch of oriental. But actually sing gin (£14.95, 20cl, or £38.50, 70cl, singgin.com, masterofmalt.com) owes its name to the village of Kettlesing in the Yorkshire Dales where its creators live.

Spanish grape varieties give it a point of difference, together with flax, a traditional crop from the Dales.

Wine from the grapes airen and macabeo are distilled into a spirit, delivered to Yorkshire, and then distilled again with botanicals including the all-important juniper.

I made a Floradora cocktail and it was delicious. Pour 50ml of Sing Gin into a cocktail shaker filled with ice, top with the juice of a lime and 25ml raspberry syrup. Give it a good shake and pour it into a glass chunked with ice. I topped it with ginger ale.

I loved it. The gin is also a good solo act, delivering a spicy, citrussy kick with tonic water.

My next gin speaks of hedgerows and herbs and is Cotswolds Wildflower no 3 gin (£34.95, cotswoldsdistillery.com).

It’s a green pour. Imagine a gin and bitter lemon, well it’s that colour. The hue is from the botanicals Cotswolds use to create the gin. They include juniper, coriander and angelica, to which artemisia, mint, yarrow and other botanicals are added.

I didn’t need anything fancy to make it a refreshing sip (hums of elderflower and aniseed) other than tonic water.

Finally a gin with a glam design and a lovely seam of citrus.

Wine producer Bottega, behind stunningly gorgeous prosecco bottle designs, has created Bacûr gin (£26, 50cl, or £33, 70cl, online at legacy-brands.store).

Its prosecco bottles are bling bling bling all the way. And here the bottle of Bacûr is also a glorious statement of shiny gold.

Italian botanicals, juniper from Tuscany, sage from Triveneto and Sicilian lemon zest are at the heart of the flavour combination, but the citrus notes have the upperhand.

The marketing is magnificent and the gin holds its own.

Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.