Claudia Romeo: We are at Villa Divina,
a wonderful villa on the Amalfi Coast
in the city of Vietri,
where they grow lemons that, as you can see,
can reach very, very big sizes.
Here they have about 600 lemon trees,
and it's all grown using no pesticides.
They're all handpicked,
and this is where the production line starts.
So, we're gonna go and see how they're harvested.
Limoncello is one of the most popular Italian liqueurs.
The yellow drink is made in southern Italy,
in particular in the sunny Sicily,
the Gulf of Naples, and the Amalfi Coast.
Mostly because these areas offer the perfect soil
and weather conditions to grow lemons.
Villa Divina supplies lemons to Pallini,
a company established in 1875
in a small village near Rome
that specializes in Italian liqueurs
such as Sambuca and Mistrà.
Pallini Limoncello production started in the '90s,
and today Pallini makes almost 1 million liters
of the lemon liqueur per year.
Micaela Pallini: Limoncello is a very traditional
Italian liqueur; it's really a family tradition.
Most Italian families do it at home.
The key to Limoncello is the quality
of its ingredients and the procedure.
So, as every family,
especially being a producer of liqueur,
we had our proprietary family recipe,
and around the end of the, during the '90s, actually,
Limoncello became fashionable,
also more of an industrial production,
not just a family recipe,
and so we started producing our own recipe.
Also family recipes, generally,
are very high in alcohol proof,
so what we did, we had to counterbalance it
in order to have the flavor of the perfumes come out
and become balanced with the tartness and the sweetness
so that none of them overcomes the other.
Claudia: The type of lemon used
for making Pallini Limoncello
is the Sfusato Amalfitano,
also known as Amalfi lemon.
These lemons are protected by
the Protected Geographical Indication, or PGI, from the EU,
delimiting a specific area where they can be grown
that comprises the 13 towns of the Amalfi Coast.
Approximately 100,000 tons of lemons
are harvested each year in 40 hectares across the coast.
A key quality of the Amalfi lemons
is that they are grown using no pesticides.
Micaela: This special lemon cannot really travel
because it's not classified organic,
but the way it's grown is very similar
to an organic lemon, so these lemons,
if you have them in your fridge,
actually go bad after two, three weeks.
They don't resist.
If you buy them in the supermarket,
you see the lemons can stay for months
without really changing anything,
but these are lemons that...
the lemon peel is extremely rich in lemon oils.
If you dig your fingernail in the peel,
you actually see the lemon oil coming out,
so rich as it is,
and this gives the Limoncello totally a different flavor.
Claudia: So, this is one of the freshly harvested lemons,
and here at Pallini they say that these lemons are special
not just because they are massive
but also because they are the only lemons
that you can literally eat like an apple.
So, we're gonna put this to the test
and literally bite into this lemon slice.
Wow...
incredible but true,
this is the first lemon that I have
that tastes almost sweet.
Like, the inside in here, of course, it's a bit tangy,
but it's not, you know,
you don't get the same reaction when you go like,
ugh, that was really strong,
when you eat, like, your standard supermarket lemon.
But what's interesting is the zest here.
It's very soft. It's not really an apple;
it's even softer than an apple.
I would say this is like melon, maybe?
You know, one of those, like, orangey lemons
that are, like, very, very soft and juicy.
And now there is no aftertaste;
I could, like, easily finish this.
It's really, like, a good snack to have on its own.
The average weight of an Amalfi lemon
is no fewer than 100 grams.
And the lemons are typically harvested
between spring and summer.
When they're ready, lemons are harvested by hand,
peeled, sealed, and then sent
to Pallini's distillery in Rome within 24 hours.
Claudia: During the infusion, the lemon peel transfers
all its flavor and richness to the alcohol
to get the yellow liqueur we call Limoncello.
This is why the use of a superior-quality lemon,
like the Amalfi lemon, is so important.
Micaela: This means that, when you do the infusions,
the key, the heart of Limoncello,
is the lemon-peel infusion,
and you cannot wash the lemons with chemicals,
otherwise it would have them in the infusion.
This is why it's so important
that there are no pesticides on the peel,
because otherwise in the alcohol infusion
you would extract the pesticides
even before extracting the flavor of the lemons.
Moreover, these peels are very, very thin,
and this, and very rich in lemon oils,
and this makes the infusion
even much richer in perfumes and flavor
and it gives it a special sweet tartness
that Limoncello Pallini has.
Claudia: A sample of the infusion is tested
to establish the alcoholic strength by volume
and correct it, if necessary.
After that, the Limoncello is ready to be bottled.
The production line at Pallini's distillery in Rome
bottles 9,000 liters every half hour.
Snacking lemons on the Amalfi Coast.
How can you get more local than this?