Don Ciccio & Figli - Carciofo Aperitivo (Artichoke) Liqueur 750ml

Don Ciccio & Figli is a Washington, D.C. distillery founded in 2012 by Francesco Amodeo, who revived a family liqueur-making tradition that began on Italy's Amalfi Coast in 1883 under his great-grandfather. Successive generations kept the craft alive through wars and, later, a 1980 earthquake that destroyed the original distillery and its lemon groves, before Amodeo relaunched the business stateside using his family's archived recipes, adapted for locally sourced American ingredients.

Carciofo Aperitivo follows one such recipe, dating to 1911, built around an infusion of three varieties of artichoke, including California-grown crops, along with cardoon leaves, grapefruit peel, and eighteen additional roots and herbs. The artichokes and cardoons, both members of the thistle family, supply the liqueur's dense, vegetal bitterness, while the grapefruit adds brightness during maceration. The finished liqueur is barrel aged for twelve months before being bottled at 23% ABV, a step that softens its edges compared to unaged bitters in the same style.

The nose is light and leafy, calling to mind radicchio and endive rather than heavy syrup. On the palate, a touch of sweetness gives way quickly to a dense, savory bitterness anchored by the artichoke character. It shares some common ground with Cynar but leans drier and more herbal, making it a natural fit for Negroni riffs, Americanos, spritzes, or rum-based cocktails.