Gin was first made by Bordiga in 1889, and this gin is made from the original Bordiga recipe. Only four main botanical flavors are used, some from the Occitan* Alps, hence the name. The four are angelica, juniper, cardamom and a secret ingredient (with traces of orange and lemon peel). Occitan Gin has traditionally been made exclusively from juniper that grows wild (not cultivated) in the Maritime Alps, near Cuneo, which are some of the highest mountains in Europe. This combination of altitude and maritime influence enriches the essential oils of the juniper berries grown here, giving them a unique flavor; the berries are picked by hand. The different botanicals are macerated separately in triple-distilled grain alcohol, then distilled before being bottled.
Juniper, traditionally the most important botanical in Gin, has been used for centuries in Piedmont to make non-alcoholic remedies for digestive and other health problems. A distillation of juniper has been made by Bordiga since the founding of the distillery in 1888, and gin as such was sold from the early part of the 20th century, although the word ‘gin’ was banned by the fascists as foreign (even the word ‘vermouth’ had to be Italianised as ‘Vermut’). This is not a new marketing effort, in other words.
*‘Occitan’ is a language that originated in the Languedoc region of southwest France and is still spoken in some of the isolated mountain valleys to the west of Cuneo, on the border with Provence.
