Artificial Roses – Mühle 4 Marille

You might already know that I love apricots, especially eau de vies. Therefore, I am always keen on trying bottlings from other distillers. In this case, I got the chance to try the Mühle 4 Vinschger Marille which won silver at the 2018 Craft Spirits Awards. Furthermore, I came up with a floral cocktail using an Italian rosé apéritif.

Peter Day distils apricots from the South Tyrolean Vinschgau region for his Mühle 4 Apricot Eau de Vie. In my case, the bottle is a 2019 vintage and has the number 72 out of 110. Apart from that, the eau de vie has an ABV of 42 %. For the drink, I combined the apricot eau de vie with an Italian apéritif wine. The Starlino Aperitivo Rosé uses Ambrette, angelica, coriander, cloves, centaury, elderflower, hyssop, Orris root, Roman wormwood, sweet orange peel, sandalwood, savory, stone mint, thyme, and wormwood. After harvesting and collecting, the botanicals are extracted and / or distilled. Afterwards, Starlino combines the extracts with Trebbiano wine and rests the apéritif for six months in stainless-steel tanks.

Perfumed apricot notes

The Mühle 4 Marille delivers everything you could expect from an apricot eau de vie. The eau de vie has a clear apricot flavour with additional hints of apricot jam. On top of that, you can find perfumed notes which are reminiscent of roses. All in all, it is quite complex, but also mellow with a whiff of fresh cut grass. This made the eau de vie a perfect fit for my flowery cocktail.

A fruity wine apéritif

Pink grapefruits dominate the flavour profile of the Starlino Aperitivo Rosé. Additionally, you will find some spices in the taste in combination with typical vermouth flavours and rosé wine notes. The herbs in the Starlino’s taste remind me of thyme and rosemary. In the end, it is quite refreshing and surely makes excellent summer drinks.

Quite an unusual Martini

Well, obviously my drink is not really a Martini variation. However, I still got the idea from a Martini style cocktail. Additionally, I built the drink around the combination of the Siglo Cero Pox, a Mexican spirit made out of corn, sugarcane and wheat. I just thought that it would work nicely with the apricot eau de vie. Furthermore, I also used peach bitters and a drop of rose water to take the cocktail’s flavour further into the flowery direction.

Despite its fruity and flowery appearance, the “Artifical Roses” cocktail is quite spirit forward. Nevertheless, my intention of combining floral spirits to evoke the impression of roses still worked. The fruit notes of the apricot eau de vie nicely accompany the rosé vermouth. On top of that, the Pox supports the other flavours without dominating them. In the end, the bitters and the rose water finally conclude the layering of the different flower notes.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The eau de vie was provided by Mühle 4 and the apéritif by Starlino.