Origin & Craft
Where it starts
Alphonso mangoes, picked by hand, distilled in the Cognac region. No artificial colouring and no artificial flavouring, which is why one batch is not quite the colour of the last. The fruit changes with the harvest and nothing is added to cover it.
The house
What is in the bottle
The first bottle the house ever made, and still the one people write about. Juicy mango on the nose, sweetness held in check by a citrus lift, and a finish that is crisp rather than syrupy. Ninety two points, and Winner at Battle of the Bottles in Atlanta, GA. Distilled at Vinet-Puranik, from fruit picked half a world away and brought here to be made into something French.
Where it started
The first bottle we made
Jus d' Manguier came before the cognac and before the vodka. Everything else in the range followed from it.
Alphonso
The mango people wait for
Alphonso has a season and no substitute. The fruit is picked by hand at ripeness rather than cut early and ripened in transit.
The fruit itself
Nothing artificial after it
The flesh goes in and nothing synthetic follows it. What tastes like mango in the glass is mango.
Tasting profile
Mimosas, made better
Juicy tropical mango, a citrus lift through the middle, and a crisp finish. Ninety two points.
The moment it belongs to
When to open it
Jus d' Manguier belongs to a hot afternoon that turns into an evening without anybody deciding it should.
Serving
Chilled, over ice, or long
Chilled and neat in a small glass, over ice when it is warm, or lengthened with soda. It is a liqueur that does not need help, which is unusual.
Temperature
Six to eight degrees
Cold. The mango is loud at room temperature and reined in when it is chilled, which is where the citrus gets its say.
In a cocktail
In a cocktail
Where a recipe asks for a fruit liqueur and usually gets a sweet one. A margarita with this in place of the orange, a daiquiri with a spoonful in it, a spritz with dry sparkling wine.
