A copper still on a wooden table beside a bottle of amber liqueur and a tasting glass, under bunches of herbs hung up to dry.

Food and wine

Liqueurs and Spirits

Making liqueurs is a craft that lives on the border between cooking, pharmacy and alchemy. It starts from simple raw materials — fruit, herbs, roots, bark, flowers — and through maceration in alcohol, distillation, blending, sweetening and rest arrives at a complex drink that concentrates aromas, flavours and sometimes digestive or medicinal properties. It is an ancient art that had its first codification in the medieval monasteries (the monks prepared elixirs, ratafià and aquavit for medicinal purposes) and that in Italy has become popular and regional heritage.

Rows of lavender and aromatic shrubs climb beside a dry-stone wall towards a stone farmhouse with cypresses, wooded hills behind.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

The geographies of Tuscan liqueur making are many. Livorno has historic traditions of liqueurs tied to the port and to Mediterranean culture: Ponce alla livornese (coffee laced with rum), Aurum, and recipes for local herb liqueurs. The Garfagnana (Lucca) and the Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara) have a traditional production of grappa and of chestnut aquavit — fermented chestnuts distilled in rural stills. The Chianti and the Siena area have vinsanto (not a liqueur in the strict sense, but a fortified wine from dried grapes) and grappa di vinaccia from local vines. The Versilia and the Archipelago produce liqueurs of myrtle, of medicinal herbs, and rosolio made with roses. The Arezzo hills have traditions of nocino (a liqueur of green walnuts picked at San Giovanni, at midsummer) and of mulberry liqueur. The Mugello and the Casentino have traditions of wild raspberry and bilberry liqueurs and of medicinal herbs gathered in the Apennines.

Bundles of dried herbs laid out on a wooden table beside an infusion jar, amber bottles, a copper funnel, a mortar and a dish of spices.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques of the craft combine alcohol and time. Maceration of the raw materials (fruit, herbs, roots, citrus peel, spices) in ethyl alcohol extracts aromas and active principles: it lasts from days to months depending on the ingredient and on the result sought. Distillation — in a copper still — concentrates the aromas and separates the useful fractions (the heart) from the unusable ones (heads and tails); it is the technical core of the production of grappa, aquavit and artisan gin. Sweetening with sugar syrup or honey balances the bitterness and the alcohol. Filtration refines the liquid. Resting in glass or in wood lets the aromas settle and knit together — many liqueurs are ready only months or years after they were made. The passage in wood (oak, chestnut or cherry casks) gives colour, tannic structure and aromatic complexity to aged spirits.

In a workshop lined with shelves of glass jars, a man tends a large copper still; bottles and jars of macerating infusions stand on the bench.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today means standing in a sector poised between tradition and contemporary trend. On one side the historic liqueurs of popular tradition (nocino, rosolio, grappa, herbal amari) have a niche but loyal market, above all as a product of regional identity and as a gastronomic souvenir. On the other there is the great wave of artisan gins and signature vermouths — products that have conquered the world of mixology and that some Tuscan distilleries make with great success. The challenge is fiscal and health regulation (the production of spirits is one of the most heavily regulated sectors in Italy), which imposes licences, inspections and precise labelling. The finest businesses live on direct sales, markets for typical products, trade fairs and qualified export.

The producers of this craft

Visionair Gin Visionair GinCampi Bisenzio, Firenze