Ciao! Greetings from Italy – Malfy Gin

As soon as I see a bottle of Malfy Gin I instantly start dreaming of the perfect Italian holiday: sunshine, colourful buildings, gelatos, flowers and lemon trees. In fact, the turquoise colour on the Malfy bottle actually represents the Mediterranean Sea, and the bright yellow, the beautiful Italian lemon trees.

Not many people are aware of this, but it was actually monks living on the Italian coast who first distilled juniper and other botanicals with alcohol back in AD 1050. You might have expected more gins from Italy due to their history of distilling juniper spirits, but they seem to have got distracted by their wines and their grappas, and their beautiful limoncellos. This was on the minds of the makers behind Malfy Gin when they decided to give gin making in Italy a boost and craft a new, very Italian, gin. I say very Italian, as the beautiful Italian lemons already have a rich history in Italian culture.

Malfy Gin is distilled just outside of Turin, in a family-owned distillery. First, the fresh lemon peels are steeped in alcohol and pressed in a basket press, after which the infusion is mixed with Italian juniper and four other botanicals such as coriander and cassia bark. The blend is then distilled in a traditional stainless-steel vacuum still.

The lemons are from Sicily and the Amalfi Coast, the junipers from Tuscany… very Italian, don’t you think!?

Even if the main focus is on the lemons, the gin has slight notes of pink grapefruit and orange peel. Fans of a more classic gin, fear not, there is a beautiful balance of juniper and other botanicals in the background, making this gin suitable for more traditional gin drinkers as well as those lovers of all things Italian.

Malfy Gin works well on its own, served with ice and a lemon twist, but it is also great in a Negroni, or the Real Negroni, as the distillers of Malfy Gin like to call it. For Gin & Tonic try using a rosemary sprig as a garnish to bring out more herbal notes to balance the lovely zestiness of the Malfy Gin itself. Rosemary is also very Italian…

Want to bring some summer into your cold autumn nights? On the Sauce Again has teamed up with Malfy Gin to give you a chance to WIN a bottle of this delicious Italian dream!

To enter this simple competition, just share and ‘like’ both On the Sauce Again and Malfy Gin on Twitter or Facebook and tell us why you love Italy! Competition ends 27th October 2016.