Featured Artisan: Amázzoni Gin

The story of Amázzoni starts with two artists: Alexandre, the Brazilian, and Arturo, the Italian. These two artists embarked upon a creative project that soon evolved into a great ambition: to create Brazil’s first truly craft, truly premium gin. 

Culturally, Brazil is the land of cachaça. In fact, until recently the only gins available in all of Brazil were the big name imported brands. Gin was, at best, an afterthought to most drinkers.

But Alexandre and Arturo had a different idea. They had fallen under the spell of gin but they were not content to simply imitate the standard-bearing British gins that are ubiquitous the world over. No, they wanted to imbue their gin with its own heritage, taste, and verve. They sought to craft a gin that would satisfy their aesthetic tastes and desires, that would balance the complementary forces of tradition and creation, and that would truly evoke its place of origin: Brazil. Their gin that would both live up to classic gin standards but also exceed them by bringing something wholly fresh and new to gin, something worth seeking out, something worth sharing.

The two artists spent many months experimenting with different blends of botanicals, and attending to the alchemy of distillation, the “spiritual process” as Arturo describes it. Finally, with the highest standards of quality, purity, and taste, they arrived on a gin that married old world and new with a combination and balance of botanicals that they deemed worthy of becoming Brazil’s first craft gin.

Amázzoni starts with classic gin botanicals familiar to any gin drinker’s palate, among them juniper, lemon peel, and laurel. It marries these with new, never-before-used-in-gin ingredients, one from each of Brazil’s five regions. These ingredients evoke the abundance, vitality, and exceptionality of Brazil: cocoa nut, Brazil nut, maxixe (a type of cucumber), clove-vine, and Victoria regia, the water lily’s seed.

A nearly overnight success, Amázzoni turned heads, captured hearts, and may have even played a role in transforming the culture of spirits in Brazil, helping to spark what is now a full-on gin craze in the country.  

Amázzoni Gin is distilled at a 300-year-old fazenda that sits in the river valley of Paraíba. Formerly a coffee plantation and cachaça distillery, Amázzoni Distillery is Brazil’s first distillery dedicated exclusively to gin and is the largest craft gin distillery in Latin America. The farm is 100% sustainable, as is the entirety of the Amázzoni production process. 

Not content to rest, Amázzoni has recently launched a second gin, a true tribute to the London Dry style. Amázzoni Rio Negro is complex and bold, clocking in at a punchy 52% ABV. It is made with an edited botanical blend and an augmentation of the classic gin ingredients: juniper and lemon peel.

Amázzoni continues to be crafted according to the highest standards of quality, purity, and taste. And it has been well-recognized for its excellence and distinction, winning the World’s Best Craft Producer award at the 2018 World Gin Awards, a Double Gold at the 2019 International Wine and Spirit Competition in San Francisco, and Best Brazilian London Dry in 2020 at the World Gin Awards. 

After dazzling tastebuds across South America and Europe, Amázzoni is now poised to make its grand American entrance.

We can’t wait for you to experience the stunning result of what began as just a little artistic side project: Brazil’s first truly premium, truly craft gin, Amázzoni.