Seimilametriquadri
about Seimilametriquadri (Six Thousand Square Meters):
Valerio de Stradis grew up in the countryside near Bari, in the far south of Italy. He trained as a winemaker before falling in love with distillation and specialty spirit production, and now works at a facility in Trieste, in the far north-east of Italy, making small batches of specialty spirits for independent spirits labels. In 2021 he decided to make his own botanical spirits to honor his father’s garden back home in Puglia; he calls these spirits ‘Seimilametriquadri,’ referring to the size of that garden (six thousand square meters, or about an acre). His father works in the garden for several hours every day: in the morning before his job as a clockmaker, and again during the typical Italian siesta (a couple of hours around lunchtime), before returning to his job until 8pm . The spirits Valerio makes with the leaves, fruit, and flowers grown in the garden are inspired by his home. When he was born, in 1991, his father planted a pink peppercorn tree to celebrate his birth, and those peppercorns are an important ingredient in these spirits. The peppercorn tree grows, thriving and tall, next to Valerio’s old swing-set.
These spirits are made only from a select group of twelve leaves, fruit, and flowers grown in their garden, and alcohol derived from a distillation of wheat. No sugar, no caramel. Botanical Spirit is a broad category of spirits that includes gin; these spirits are different from gin in that they don’t contain juniper.
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spirits
Lu Sule (‘The Sun’ in dialect)
This botanical spirit is made from alcohol derived from wheat, with pink peppercorn, orange, lemon and tangerine peel, mint, lavender, and orange blossom. All of the plants grow in the home garden; the orange blossom is harvested in October and early November, the citrus fruits are harvested in December and January, and the herbs are harvested in August. Lu Sule is made using two different techniques, infusion and distillation; the fresh citrus peels are infused in tanks for 20 days in almost pure alcohol, the dried mint and fresh orange blossom are infused for 5 days in 50% alcohol, and the dried pink peppercorns and lavender are macerated for 12 hours in 40% alcohol, then distilled in a pot still. Then these different fractions are blended together, filtered, and bottled. The finished ABV is 37.6%, which seems arbitrary upon first glance but is the result of dozens of micro-experimentations by Valerio.
Smells and tastes of orange marmalade, spiked by candied citrus rind, savory green herbs and mint chutney. Try it in a rickey with orange or meyer lemon.
Lu Mare (‘The Sea’ in dialect)
This botanical spirit is made from alcohol derived from wheat, with pink peppercorn, basil, rosemary, bay leaf, wild fennel, mint, and olive leaves. All of the plants grow in the home garden, and some of the wild fennel is foraged (it grows all over in the south of Italy, as it does in parts of California). All of the plants are harvested in August, and then dried in the hot summer sun in Puglia. Valerio then takes the botanicals up to Trieste, where they are macerated separately in 40% alcohol for about 12 hours, then individually distilled in a copper pot still. The blended spirit is then filtered and bottled. The finished ABV is 41.6%, which seems arbitrary upon first glance but is the result of dozens of micro-experimentations by Valerio.
Savory aromatics reminiscent of the primary botanicals give the overall impression of hiking the sprawling, sage-y coast of Puglia. The French term ‘garrigue’ comes to mind. The palate is equally savory and distinct with a complex herbaceous make up that leads to a long, dry finish. We drink this out of the freezer on it’s own with a rinse of dry vermouth, and find that tonic also enhances the unique flavor profile.