Gin from Puglia: What Makes a Spirit Born between Two Seas Unique
There is a point on the map of Italy where the Adriatic and the Ionian stop being two seas and become one. It is called Punta Palascìa, the easternmost strip of land of the peninsula, and the first Italian sunrise lights it every morning before any other coast. It is from this geographic and visceral border that the right question about gin from Puglia arises: not "why make it in Puglia", but "how could it not exist?".
The Land Before the Bottle
The Mediterranean scrub of Salento is not a brochure image: it is an ecosystem of botanicals no recipe can copy at a desk. Myrtle grows wild on the dry-stone walls. Rosehip blooms along the white country roads. Citrus — sweet orange, bitter orange, lemon — thrives in soil that tastes of salt and harsh sun. This geography is not a backdrop: it is the raw material.
An authentic gin from Puglia is born from listening to this landscape. It does not impose exotic botanicals on a land that already has extraordinary ones. Salento's Mediterranean botanicals have an inner coherence — citrusy, floral, gently balsamic — that in a spirit becomes a taste profile before it becomes a recipe.
London Dry from Puglia: a Category Being Written Right Now
The London Dry method is among the strictest in gin production: nothing added after distillation, no shortcuts. Choosing this method for an artisanal gin from Puglia is a precise statement: the land speaks for itself, or it doesn't speak at all.
Bain-marie distillation in a copper still amplifies this statement. Slow, gentle, almost midwife-like: it extracts the essential oils without burning them and preserves the delicate notes of rosehip and myrtle that would be lost in the steam of an aggressive distillation. The result is never identical to itself, because small batches don't allow it — and this irregularity is the hallmark of every London Dry from Puglia made seriously.
What to Look for in the Glass
A quality artisanal gin from Puglia has a precise identity. On the nose: fresh citrus with a delicate floral shoulder, never cloying. On the palate: soft, round, with low alcohol perception despite its strength. The finish is balsamic and lingering — it is the myrtle that closes the circle.
The simplest test? Drink it neat, with plenty of ice and a lemon twist. If it holds up without tonic, garnish or corrections, it is a gin with something to say. If it needs to be masked, the land was never in it.
Puntamari: the Gin from Puglia Awarded at the World Gin Awards 2025
Puntamari was born exactly in this tradition — a gin from Puglia distilled in small batches in a bain-marie copper still, with seven Mediterranean botanicals selected with surgical precision: juniper, angelica, rosehip, sweet orange, bitter orange, lemon, myrtle. Nothing exotic. Everything essential.
Its taste profile follows the logic of Salento: citrusy on the opening, floral in the body, balsamic on the finish. Velvety on the palate, with a persistence that never tires. In 2025 the World Gin Awards gave it two Bronze medals — for taste and for the design of the bottle, made from 100% post-consumer recycled glass with a natural cork stopper and recycled paper labels.
Part of Puntamari's proceeds goes to protecting the olive trees of Salento struck by Xylella. Drinking a gin from Puglia, in this case, is also an act of belonging to a land that needs protecting.
Puntamari thus takes its place in the landscape of Italian artisanal gin with a precise identity, made of sustainability (every bottle gives something back to the land) and production rigour.
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If you want to discover Puntamari — taste it neat, build your perfect Gin & Tonic or have it delivered to your door — you'll find everything at www.puntamarigin.com. One sip, and Salento arrives before sunset.