Everyone is aware of wine from Sonoma, California. Now get this – this gin is made in Sonoma too! If any one of you have ever like Hendrick’s (a favorite of Sharmila’s and mine), you are bound to like this gin.

This gin derives its name from the company’s chairman’s uncle – Uncle Val from back in Italy who had a penchant for great cooking. And the nephew focused on his uncle’s favorite ingredients to create this gin.

The base alcohol is made from gin and is distilled as many as five times. The botanicals used includes juniper, cucumber, lemon, sage and lavender. This gin is difficult to categorize. It is not a traditional London Dry gin in the sense that the juniper is far more understated. In fact, I would say this is closer to the American style gin. But the strength of cucumber leaves a strong hint of Scottish kind of gin (like Hendricks).

The nose is clearly very floral with the citrus making its presence felt a little later. As I said, not much of juniper strength. The palette almost makes it feel like a weak gin. What it is – is that the lack of juniper is made up by the strong floral effects (especially lavender) and the cucumber makes it lot more cool and soothing as it goes down.

Highly recommend to anybody who is looking for a nice and mild gin but can hold its own with some tonic water.