Bottega Vodka Puro Grano

The Bottega family has worked the hills near Refrontolo since 1635, moving from vines into grappa and, with Distilleria Bottega founded in 1977, into a wider range of spirits run from a restored seventeenth-century farmhouse in the Veneto. The vodka is built on pure grain, which Bottega ferments and then puts through five distillation phases. Repeated distillation lets the house draw out the grain's character while removing the heavier compounds, so the spirit reads as clean but not stripped bare. Pure alpine water brings it to strength and a careful filtration removes anything that would muddy the profile, with the spirit set at a gentle 38%.

The nose is clean and delicate with citrus fruit and a light balsamic note. The palate is soft and rounded with clear cereal and citrus flavours, and the finish is long. That natural citrus thread makes it a fine base for a Lemon Drop: shake the vodka with fresh lemon juice and a little sugar syrup, strain into a sugar-rimmed coupe, and the spirit's own citrus note runs straight into the lemon rather than sitting apart from it.