This is an interesting gin in the sense it is very strong in lemon content. I believe these category of gins are called “citrus forward” gins. This is an Italian gin made near the Turin area. The area is famous for its beaches (Amalfi beach is next door) on the Mediterranean Sea, some of the best quality lemons (that goes to make the famous Italian limoncello) and a long history of distilleries (good output of wheat in the vicinity).

About a quarter century back, Veragnano and his family bought out a distillery (from Seagram) that had existed from the turn of the twentieth century and started focusing on small batch gins. They still run the place themselves.

This gin has an interesting design for the bottle. The family claims that the blue color symbolizes the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and the yellow color is for the zesty lemons nearby. The glass is of course, the famous Italian glass and I understand the cork is made from local oak.

While a lot is made of the Amalfi area lemons – and they do use the peels of local lemons, in reality it is only about one in five lemons that are local. The rest are brought from Sicily. Other than the lemons, the botanicals added includes local juniper, coriander, licorice, grapefruit peels and orange peels.

The nose clearly hits you with strong lemon aroma and so does the palate. But soon, you can get the undertones of the grapefruit and orange peels. The finish is strong and towards the end you start to realize the juniper.

While this can be taken on the rocks or neat, I would suggest at least some tonic water or sweet vermouth. Certainly would be great for cocktails.