Santa Maria al Monte Amaro Antica Specialità Ligure

Santa Maria al Monte Amaro Antica Specialità Ligure is a historic Genoese bitter with roots in the 19th century. House legend holds that the Sanctuary of Madonna del Monte in Genoa gave its herbal recipe to the Duke of Aosta, whose chef Vincenzo Castrovillari turned it into an amaro and began producing it in Sampierdarena; the recipe was patented in 1892, the director of the University of Genoa's Medical Clinic judged it "superior to fernet," and in the early 1900s the liqueur maker Nicola Vignale, whose name still appears on the label, bought the brand and his family ran it for three generations before Gruppo Caffo took over production using the original recipe and methods. The amaro is built on more than thirty botanicals, including gentian, bitter orange, aloe, saffron, cardamom, coriander, juniper and Alpine mountain germander, which are grouped by recipe, cold-macerated in neutral grain spirit for two months, aged eight months in oak, sweetened with beet sugar, then rested a further six months in oak before bottling at 40% ABV in a 700ml bottle. The producer describes mint and fresh green cardamom on the nose, orange peel, rhubarb root and dry kola nut on the palate, and a long, pleasant bitterness. Sip it neat after dinner, pour it into a caffè corretto, or drizzle it over ice cream.

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