FIRST JOURNEYS - EUROPEAN EXPEDITION- PIN 14 OF 40
44N Gin - Comte de Grasse, France
A ROAD TRIP WHERE EVERY STOP HAS A STORY
I don’t usually do conventional gin reviews. Over the past few years, I’ve become much more fascinated by the stories behind the bottles — the people, places and ideas that explain why a gin exists in the first place.
So today, I’m going a little French and a little arty on you all…
As a jewellery designer and creative, this is exactly the sort of thing that fascinates me. I’ve always been drawn to the colour blue, and so was Yves Klein.
Klein was born in Nice in 1928 and became one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 1950s. He is perhaps best known for creating his own unique pigment — International Klein Blue (IKB).
Working with chemist Édouard Adam, Klein developed a vivid ultramarine pigment that retained its intensity and did not fade in the way many traditional pigments did. For him, this colour represented the infinite and the sublime. He believed blue could remove the boundaries between earth and sky, allowing the imagination to escape and experience something beyond the physical world.
His most controversial exhibition, “The Void”, was held at the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris in 1958. The gallery was completely emptied and painted white, leaving visitors with an experience rather than a traditional artwork. The anticipation was carefully staged, with only small groups allowed in at a time, creating a sense of mystery and theatre.
To continue his exploration of colour beyond the canvas, Klein served visitors a clear cocktail made with gin, Cointreau and methylene blue. The pigment was absorbed by the body and reportedly turned their urine blue afterwards — a final reminder that his art was not simply something to look at, but something to experience.
It therefore feels rather fitting that a gin born in the South of France should choose Klein Blue as its identity.
44°N Gin, created by Comte de Grasse, is presented in an unmistakable Klein Blue bottle. The colour captures everything about the Côte d’Azur — endless skies, shimmering seas and the fragrant breeze carrying the aromas of Provence.
Just 15km outside Cannes, at an elevation of around 350 metres, you will find the verdant landscape where Comte de Grasse have chosen to make their home.
Grasse is the perfume capital of France. Its fertile soil, sunny microclimate and protected valleys have created the perfect conditions for cultivating some of the world’s most prized aromatic plants, including jasmine, May rose, lavender and tuberose. For centuries, generations of local families have perfected the art of growing, harvesting and extracting these precious botanicals, creating a heritage now recognised by UNESCO as part of the “Savoir-faire related to perfume in Pays de Grasse”.
The old town is certainly worth exploring, with its cobbled streets, quirky shops and fascinating perfume heritage, but it is the historic perfumery site just outside the centre that has become the new home of 44°N Gin.
The buildings and tower are being lovingly restored, combining respect for the heritage of Grasse with modern technology and sustainability. Drawing on generations of knowledge from the perfume industry, Comte de Grasse have brought together traditional distilling methods with innovative extraction techniques normally associated with fragrance creation.
The result is a gin with a provenance like no other.
By carefully extracting the finest flavours from their botanicals, they have created a spirit that reflects both the landscape and craftsmanship of Provence, presented in that beautiful Klein Blue bottle.
This is an incredible gin — woody, floral, jammy, herbaceous and spicy. It is complex enough to deserve attention and, for me, it naturally called for a dry Martini so that all those layers could shine.
However, to reflect the surrounding landscape of Grasse, I have served it as a
Grasse Sour — a Basil Smash with the addition of St-Germain elderflower liqueur and a foamer.
Where perfume, art and distilling collide — a Provençal gin inspired by scent, colour and place.”
Grasse Sour
50ml Comte de Grasse 44°N Gin
Fresh basil
25ml lemon juice
15ml St-Germain elderflower liqueur
Sugar syrup to taste
Egg white or foamer
ATLAS NOTE:
One last little titbit — the gin takes its name from its location on the 44th parallel north. The wider commune of Grasse also happens to measure around 44.44 square kilometres.
Coincidence?
Who knows!
But just like the colour of the bottle, it certainly makes a good story.
"Show me a bottle and I’ll tell you a story."