Scarlet Bitter Aperitivo 2024 Liqueur 700ml

Scarlet Aperitivo comes from Iseya Distillery, a small operation built inside a hundred year old farmhouse in Sagamihara, in Japan's Kanagawa prefecture. The distillery is the creation of Tatsuya Motonaga, a veteran bartender whose reputation includes time behind the bar at Bar BenFiddich, once ranked among the world's best. Before founding Iseya, Motonaga traveled to more than seventy distilleries across Europe to study traditional bitters production, then returned home to grow many of his own botanicals on the farmland surrounding his distillery, applying that research to a distinctly Japanese take on the classic red bitter category.

Scarlet Aperitivo draws on roughly twenty five botanicals, many estate grown, including lemon balm, sage, angelica root, licorice, jasmine flowers, wormwood, mugwort, and blood orange peel. These botanicals are macerated in a neutral sugarcane spirit rather than a grain base, then rested before bottling at 28 percent alcohol by volume. True to the aperitivo tradition it draws from, the liqueur gets its deep red hue naturally from cochineal, without synthetic dyes, and the Japanese-grown ingredients give it a botanical character distinct from European-grown counterparts.

The nose is gently mentholated, layering gentian, lemon verbena, rose petal, and myrrh over a surprising note of fruit-forward espresso. On the palate the texture turns earthy and velvety, with red fruit, white pepper, and aloe leading into clove and sandalwood. The finish is long and drying, closing on a tingling note of prickly ash that lingers well after the sip.