A lively afternoon with Amaro dell'Etna
When an iconic Sicilian bitter brand visits New York
As many of you know, I have a passion for amaro. I even wrote an entire book on the subject. When I first started getting into amaro, in the early or mid 2000s, when I lived in Seattle, the selection of brands available was pretty limited to Campari , Averna and Fernet Branca , but soon other Italian imports such as Zucca began to appear on the counter , Cynar and Ramazzotti . When I moved to Brooklyn in 2010, dozens of new imports were filling the shelves of liquor stores, and soon dynamic expressions from American producers began to enter the conversation.
While the subway shelves that take up an entire wall of my kitchen are now weighed down with hundreds of different bottles of amaro, I can't help but get excited when a new brand launches or a previously unavailable Italian import hits the U.S. That was the case in 2017, when distributor MS Walker Brands brought Sicilian-origin Amaro dell'Etna to the United States . Since 1868, Averna has been produced in Caltanissetta and is known throughout the world, embodying what we expect from a Sicilian amaro: a brightness of southern Italian lemons and oranges complemented by warm Mediterranean herbs.
Amaro dell'Etna was first produced in 1901 in Catania, but until recently it seemed content to be a local brand, known far beyond the borders of Sicily, but once it arrived in the United States it quickly became a favorite among bartenders and amari lovers like me. (Although it's not a scientific fact, I'd say the number of times someone drops an after-dinner amaro on the table or sends me a glass across the bar is Amaro dell'Etna .)
With a herbaceous structure and rich bursts of citrus and warm layers of spiciness, Amaro dell'Etna is made from a blend of 26 100% natural herbs, plants and botanicals (including bitter citrus and orange peel, rhubarb and licorice), left to rest and mature for 2 months before bottling. But what really drives the character of Amaro dell'Etna is that 15 of these ingredients come directly from the mineral-rich soil on the slopes of nearby Mount Etna. A sommelier friend once described Amaro dell'Etna as "the love child between Amaro Nardini and Braulio", and I couldn't agree more.
Last year, when MS Walker Brands He asked me if I was interested in attending an event with the CEO and owner of Amaro dell'Etna , Fabio Parziano, here in New York, I didn't hesitate to say yes. The event was supposed to take place last fall, then moved to last spring, but was postponed due to commitments and travel plans. And finally, last Tuesday, we all gathered at Caffè Dante with a small group of baristas, waiters, bar owners, and media for a late afternoon aperitivo, where we sampled their portfolios while I led an interesting conversation with Fabio on Amaro dell'Etna , Sicily and Italian drinking culture.
