The bottle is striking – squat, relatively small and coated in shiny, copper-coloured metallic foil. Ditto for the fat cork stopper, making the whole thing vaguely resemble Tik-Tok, the cute robot from Return to Oz.
Bottega has long stood out for packaging design; its other products include sparkling wines with similarly flashy, reflective bottle coatings. Here the colour is designed to evoke the metal of its pot stills, used in the region for grappas and digestivos.
This is dry, juniper-forward gin, fresher than most in the London-dry style thanks to what seems to be a stronger reliance on herbs and citrus versus spices or roots. Juniper’s evergreen profile combines with two other prominent botanicals, sage leaves and lemon zest, for a clean, bright, invigorating character. Bottled at 40-per-cent alcohol, it’s reasonably smooth and moderate in weight.
Note: The bottle contains 500 millilitres, not the standard 750, so consider this a superpremium product. But it’s a sipping gin, best enjoyed simply over ice (preferably one cube or two at most) rather than in a long cocktail. When my bottle runs dry, I plan to reuse and refill it with something of commensurate value, like, say, liquid gold.
- Price: $39.95/500 ml