Monaco - L'Orangerie

Obviously Monaco is a little bit of a stretch on a blog about Italian drinks, but bear with me! Monaco is only a few miles from the Italian border, and the ruling family - the House of Grimaldi - originate from Genoa. In many ways it has more in common culturally with Italy than with France.

Prior to our most recent trip in September 2018 I'd read about the "Spritz Monégasque" - a local variant of the classic Italian cocktail which seems to have found worldwide fame in recent years. The Monaco version blends together Prosecco with a locally made liqueur - L'Orangerie. Although I didn't manage to try a Monaco Spritz while I was there, I did manage to visit the shop and distillery for L'Orangerie

It's in a lovely curve fronted shop, with the gleaming stills in which the liqueur is made proudly on display inside. The owner was there manning the shop and we spent a while talking and tasting some of their products. They use the bitter oranges which grow on trees lining the Principality - traditionally these were collected by locals to make marmalade, a custom which largely seems to have vanished, so by the time the owner started his business most of the potential harvest each year was just being left on the trees. It's hard to imagine in such a tiny and so heavily built up country that there are any genuinely local products, and yet here is a great example - a drink distilled in the Principality from the fruit grown there.

I bought a bottle to take home, and naturally with a bitter orange liqueur my thoughts turned to how it might work in a Negroni. So I tried this extremely orangey Negroni - some of the L'Orangerie liqueur, as well as a few dashes of orange bitters, and a slice of orange. Very orangey!