Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur Royale de France (Gift Box)

Chambord takes its name and its crowned, orb shaped bottle from the Chateau de Chambord in the Loire, and its recipe from a black raspberry liqueur said to have been served to Louis the Fourteenth there in the seventeenth century. The modern version infuses raspberries and blackberries with Madagascan vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey and Cognac, bottled at 16.5%.

Deep, fruity and rounded, it does several jobs in a glass at once, lending berry flavour, sweetness, body and a vivid colour. It is the berry heart of the French Martini, the vodka, pineapple and Chambord serve that spread out of New York's bars in the late 1980s, and it dresses a Kir Imperial or a Champagne cocktail in an instant. A measure also lifts a Margarita or a whisky sour into something fruit forward.