Villa Massa Limoncello

The sweetness is very genuine in this one. Tastes like it is sweetened with sugar cane but the lemon still bites through

Enjoyable. Very smooth. Not quite as flavorful as I would have liked.

Appearance: Transparent but slightly cloudy. Chrome yellow. Some particulate suspension. Aroma: Oily sherbet lemon, lemonade, boiled sugar sweets. Flavour and Texture: A thick, sweet liquid with a dense lemon character. You can taste that this is derived exclusively from lemon zest with no artificial additives. It does, however veer towards being simplistic and there is a very faint oily metallic note. Limoncello is very easy to make (I've made it myself) and the BEST limoncello is always home-made, but getting it perfect is hard. It's just lemon peel, macerated in alcohol then sweetened with simple syrup and cut to the desired proof with distilled water (if necessary), but you have to take great care to avoid it developing a bitter, oily aftertaste. This is a classic limoncello, made since 1890, and it's a reasonably good one. Villa Massa use only PGI-certified Sorrento lemons and their process avoids as much of the fruit pith as possible. The result is a liqueur that tastes like pure sweet lemon essence with alcohol. My main criticism is that it lacks a certain freshness, and the taste of lemon oil is a little prominent. There's also very little finish. Nice by itself in a small glass or over ice, with tonic or with soda water. Add a dash to a gin & tonic to add a sweeter lemony note and some body. "Good" : 84/100 (3.75 stars)