Axia Mastiha

The bouquet shows aromas of pine, wet grass clippings, hints of caraway. A subtle floral note – rosewater. Rosemary/lavender. Some deeper notes of resin, dried bitter orange peels, cedar and dusty wood. The palate is sweet notes of liquorice and pine at first, then notes of pepper and lemon zest with a hint of scented wood. A horseradish flavour begins to develop and you get a delicate taste of summer grass clippings A vegetal character finish with notes of cucumber.

For millennia, mastic resin has been extracted from the Mastiha tree and coveted and traded for its sweet floral scent, distinctive flavour and revered anti-oxidant healing qualities. During the Ottoman’s 300 year rule of Chios, it was worth its own weight in gold and incited jealousy and warfare. What’s more, the powerful elixir has been used as a snakebite antivenom for centuries. Axia is a refreshing, extra-dry Mastiha spirit that mixes ancient tradition with provocative new ideas and processes. The clear spirit is distilled from the resin of the Mastic tree farmed in groves on the Greek island of Chios. The resin oozes from the tree’s branches and is left to dry in the wind like crystal teardrops. The crystals are then harvested, cleaned by hand and shipped to the Plomari distillery nearby. Here they are twice distilled in a process that combines the age-old art of the hand-crafted copper still with the cutting-edge science of the Master Distiller and her team.