Nonino Amaro Quintessentia

This Friulian amaro has the bitterness and herbal backbone to cut through rich desserts or a cheese course, and it serves as a digestivo to close a meal.

Nonino is a family-run distillery in Friuli, northeastern Italy, founded in 1897 and credited with modernizing Italian grappa production in the latter half of the twentieth century. Quintessentia is their amaro. It is built on a base of aged grappa and UE, their proprietary eau-de-vie distilled from whole fruit.

The botanicals include roots, herbs and spices, among them gentian, rhubarb, saffron, licorice and tamarind, macerated and blended with the aged spirit. It is bitter, softened by the fruit-forward base and notable sweetness, less bitter than Fernet. It is aged in small oak barrels.

It is served neat, over a large ice cube, or used in stirred cocktails.