Distilleria Varnelli Liquore Amaro dell'Erborista Pievebovigliana, Marche

1000ml bottle

21% abv

Opaque, tobacco-brown with brick red tones. The nose is earthy and resinous: stewed dark fruit, sultana, rhubarb, sandalwood, and a faint camphor note underneath. The palate is dry and intensely bitter, driven by gentian root and cinchona bark, with rhubarb and dried orange peel adding a tart, tannic grip. Honey provides a brief sweetness on entry before the bitterness takes over and doesn't let go. The finish is long, astringent, and forest-floor earthy, with lingering spice from clove and cinnamon.

Botanicals: Gentian root, rhubarb, cinchona bark, dried orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, and additional undisclosed herbs and roots from the Monti Sibillini; sweetened with local mountain wildflower honey

Botanicals are decocted over a wood fire — the same technique used since the distillery's founding in 1868. The liquid is blended with pure grain alcohol and mountain honey, then aged and settled over several months. Bottled unfiltered and without artificial coloring, resulting in natural cloudiness and variation between batches.

The dell'Erborista is the wilder, less polished sibling of Varnelli's Amaro Sibilla. It's lower in alcohol at 21% but arguably more complex and more demanding. Where Sibilla is rooted in a classic bitter-sweet digestivo tradition, the dell'Erborista reads more like a medicinal tonic from another century: earthy, resinous, and deeply herbal in a way that suggests the forest floor more than the bar. The name translates simply as "the herbalist's amaro," and the recipe reflects exactly that — a working herbalist's formula, not a product designed for mass appeal.

Both Varnelli amari share the same production foundation: wood-fire decoction, honey sweetening, unfiltered bottling, and a botanical base drawn from the Monti Sibillini of the Marche. The dell'Erborista distinguishes itself with a higher proportion of rhubarb and a rawer, more astringent profile that makes it one of the more challenging and interesting bottles in the category. It has a following among serious amaro drinkers precisely because it doesn't meet you halfway.

Distilleria Varnelli was founded in 1868 by Girolamo Varnelli, a herbalist working in Pievebovigliana, a small village in the Macerata province of the Marche, in the shadow of the Monti Sibillini. The distillery holds UTIF license number one — the first spirits production license issued in the region — and has remained in family hands ever since.