Antica Distilleria Quaglia Amaretto; From Piedmont to North London with ice and a slice

I love a digestif. I also love an aperitif. The saline silkiness of a beautifully balanced Martini, the perfect sharpener, or glass of cool, smoky en rama Palo Cortado. Needless to say, I love wine. The glasses in between that follow the aperitif and precede the digestif, hold their own distinct pleasure. I love the drinks that the food goes with as much as the food. The ceremony of a drink, whatever the casualness of the surroundings or situation, whether I’m skulking at home on a rainy Tuesday evening or out somewhere snazzy, always excites me.

When it comes to the digestif, I’m largely a traditionalist, and will invariably reach for a Calvados or an Armagnac but if I’m feeling like something a little bit sweeter and little less alcohol rich, I’ll on occasion choose an Amaretto. Perhaps it’s being a child of the 70’s or having a closet sweet tooth and not so closet love for things a tiny bit kitsch. Who knows and who cares! I proudly love Amaretto.

As a teenager I’d sometimes drink it in the pub thinking myself quite the sophisticat. Lots of ice and slice of lemon please barkeep. The soft, warm, sweet, almond that you can smell from across the crowded bar, there is nostalgia about that smell which I love.

You can imagine my delight when I walked into F&C last week to find Paul unwrapping bottles and low and behold, amongst the far more grown-up tipples, there sat a bottle of Antica Distillery Quaglia Amaretto.

The Quaglia family have been making liqueurs and single variety Grappa since the late 1800’s. The artisanal distillery prides itself on the high quality of its produce, using the same distillation methods today as they always have. The original recipes having been passed down through generations to carefully maintain the integrity of their prized liqueurs.

Their Amaretto is keenly almond, velvety and balanced with the vanilla aromatics smoothly following suite. It is so clean, they have gone light on the sugar allowing the purity of the almond oil to sing.

Amaretto lends itself brilliantly to cocktails with bourbon, and tequila and citrus, the obvious and very delicious one being an amaretto sour. It’s equally good but a little less glamourous poured over ice-cream.

Much as I love it in a cocktail, I like it most in a tumbler with lots of ice and the zest of a lemon a la 1996 somewhere in north London. Feel free to Click and Collect if you fancy some.