#1 | Amaro Santa Maria Al Monte
Origin: Italy (Limbadi, Calabria) / 40% / Price: ca. 20-24€
We start this new little tasting diary with an appropriately emotional bottle. Because it was this bottling, or rather the entire visit to the Loretta Bar in Munich associated with it (an article on this will of course be coming soon), that really turned me into an Amaro fanboy for good. I don't want to go into too much detail, because the story itself is one for my soon to follow praise and plea to let more Amaro into your home bars. Or to at least educate yourself a bit on the subject in the near future. But I am asking for a little patience for this second article too, please.
In the Loretta Bar, certainly the best-stocked bar in Germany when it comes to Amaros, I had the Santa Maria Al Monte alongside a few other Amaros and herbal liqueurs. I also fell in love with the China China from Bigallet, as did my companion back then, and was immediately impressed. A certain elegance and yet complexity was felt, which I didn't know from the big standard names in German supermarkets and small liquor stores (think Averna and Montenegro), and just to be clear: I had already enjoyed mixing with these myself quite a lot.
The bottle design does the rest, Italian vintage style in perfection, the slightly rustic font in bright red on white, with lots of decorations, gold, and medals… Apart from the cap, this could also have been sitting in the back bars in Milan and Genoa in 1920, Art Nouveau influences are beautifully integrated.
Consisting of 36 herbs, spices, flowers, roots, and plants from 4 continents, with which alcoholic infusions, extracts, and decoctions are produced and then (as is so often the case with Amaro) mixed according to a secret recipe. The ingredients include aloe, myrrh, rhubarb, saffron, absinthe, cardamom and cola nuts; the base is wine alcohol. The recipe has allegedly not changed since 1858 and has (allegedly…) been handed down for five generations by the fathers of the Madonna del Monte shrine in Genoa. Production outside the monastery, which was curated by liqueurist Nicola Vignale, began at the end of the 19th century and is currently carried out by Distilleria Fratelli Caffo. It also produces Vecchio Amaro del Capo, for example, which can be found in many supermarkets in Germany.
As for specific recommendations: it's a real all-rounder when it comes to cocktails. Just be aware that drinks with Averna, Lucarno or even Montenegro will lack the noticeably fruity bitter orange note, so I prefer to simply split any recipe that calls for Amaro in half with Santa Maria, for example. It adds a touch more complexity and exciting spiciness, and because of its clear associations with pepper, allspice and cola nut, it also goes particularly well in tiki cocktails.
Nose:
It manages a great balancing act between classic but very elegant amaro, slight Fernet influences and also very subtle smoky notes, e.g. of a sfumato; gentian, myrrh, saffron, cola nut, licorice, eucalyptus, allspice and black salt are particularly noticeable
Taste:
Nice spiciness and piquant notes of pepper, myrrh, allspice, leather at the start, followed by black walnut. Eucalyptus, some juniper berries and bay leaves, cardamom and cola nut, balance freshness, bitterness, and sweetness just right
Finish:
Slightly peppery, licorice, aniseed, clove and juniper, myrrh, long
