Vecchio Amaro Del Capo

Vecchio Amaro Del Capo is the flagship bitter liqueur from the Fratelli Caffo distillery in Limbadi, a small town in Calabria at the southern tip of Italy. What sets it apart from northern Italian amari is its recipe of 29 botanicals grown exclusively in Calabria — sweet and bitter oranges, tangerine, chamomile, juniper, licorice, anise, mint, and hyssop among them — each macerated separately in neutral spirit to capture its truest character before blending. The approach preserves the individual brightness of each ingredient rather than cooking them all down into a monolithic syrup. Wine Enthusiast awarded it 94 points, making it one of the most decorated amari on the American market. The Caffo family has distilled in Calabria since 1915, and the distillery remains in Limbadi today, where the Mediterranean climate and mineral-rich soils shape the botanicals that define this amaro. Each of the 29 ingredients is infused separately in neutral grain spirit to isolate its aromatic profile, then the infusions are married and rested before bottling at 35% ABV. The result is a layered amaro that tastes distinctly of place — Calabrian citrus peels, wild juniper from the hillsides, and the anise and mint that grow in the region's herb gardens. The production method is labor-intensive but allows the distillery to control each botanical's contribution to the final blend with precision. On the nose, Vecchio Amaro Del Capo opens with mandarin peel, fresh mint, anise, and cinnamon bark. The palate follows with bitter orange, clove, licorice, and a thread of spicy juniper, while chamomile and allspice linger on the finish. It's approachable and food-friendly rather than aggressively bitter, which makes it versatile at the table — pair it with roasted lamb, aged pecorino, or dark chocolate desserts. Calabrians traditionally drink it ice-cold straight from the freezer, but it works equally well at room temperature as a digestif, over ice with a twist of orange, or in cocktails like a Paper Plane riff where it stands in for Aperol or Campari and adds more herbal complexity. Vecchio Amaro Del Capo is available for pickup at our Lincoln Park bottle shop at 1128 W Armitage Ave, for local Chicago delivery, and for shipping nationwide.