Herbal Amaro

• Amaro produced by Vicario Spirits in Greer, South Carolina
• Made with 31 herbs and botanicals featuring estate-grown bay laurel, dittany of Crete, lemon verbena, germander, lavender, peppermint, rosemary, sage, French tarragon, thyme, and yarrow
•  Base spirit distilled from non-GMO wheat
• The botanicals are macerated in alcohol for varying lengths of time and the resulting tinctures are combined with the base spirit
• Sweetened with certified organic sugarcane syrup
• Evoking a forest in late spring, with notes of lemony licorice and lavender and a finish of tarragon and cool peppermint
• 38% ABV

The last creation of beloved liqueur impresario Renato Vicario before his passing, this amaro pays homage to the tradition of centerbe liqueurs found in Italy’s Alpine and Apennine regions. From Janette Vicario: “[Renato’s] version followed more the homemade variation created in his homeland of the Piedmont…In his hometown of Baveno, the Branca family (Fernet Branca) lived a few blocks south of his home, so he was in good company. Yet it was his grandmother who he attributed his knowledge of tastes. A woman from Emilia, she taught him to make his first Nocino at age 5.

“The Piedmontese Centerbe type of amaro was made with a plethora of summer herbs and flowers, in fact, centerbe, meaning hundreds of herbs, just meant that the person making it would go out into the mountains and pick the many summer flowers and macerate it until the late fall. Although it had as many variations as the number of people making it and what was blooming the time they took their walk, the reason it was made was steady. It was prepared traditionally in the warm days for future days in winter in which one would climb the mountains, or go skiing. It was something to give the sensation of opening your lungs and breathing deeply during cold weather. (No medicinal or health implication intended, it was simply the tradition). Renato created his with 31 different herbs, some which we grow on our farm, and the taste is, to me, like taking a walk in an alpine forest just after a rain, and the aroma the wet pine needles present as you step on them.”