Tempus Fugit Gran Classico Bitter Liqueur 750ml

Gran Classico traces back to an 1860s recipe originally produced in Turin, Italy under the name Torino Gran Classico, part of the broader tradition of Italian bitter aperitifs. In 1925 the small Swiss distillery E. Luginbühl purchased the recipe and quietly produced a version mostly for local consumption for decades. Tempus Fugit Spirits, whose mission centers on reviving rare liqueurs lost to history, later reverted the recipe back to its original 1860s formulation, bringing it to a wider audience under the Gran Classico Bitter name and earning recognition including a spot on Spirit Journal's 130 Best Spirits in the World for 2010.

The liqueur is built from a maceration of 25 aromatic herbs and roots, among them wormwood, gentian, bitter orange peel, rhubarb, and hyssop. This maceration process alone produces the liqueur's natural golden amber color, with no additional coloring added at any stage. It is bottled at 28 percent alcohol by volume, or 56 proof, in Switzerland.

The aroma is multifaceted, combining clove, vanilla, and orange zest with rhubarb, white pepper, and the underlying bitterness of gentian and wormwood. On the palate it is syrupy and bittersweet, opening with rhubarb sweetness before gentian's rooty bitterness takes over at mid palate, finishing with orange peel, mild quinine bitterness, and a resiny, spiced edge. It serves as a compelling non-red alternative to Campari in a Negroni, or simply over ice with soda.