Distilleria Varnelli Liquore L'Anice Secco Speciale Pievebovigliana, Marche

1000ml bottle

46% abv

Crystal clear with faint bluish highlights. The nose concentrated aniseed, green and slightly sweet, opening into wild fennel, dill, and cumin, with a faint floral note underneath. The full-bodied palate is dry and warm, with the anise carrying through from entry to finish. Notes of fennel seed, cucumber, and licorice root. Long, clean finish. There is no sweetness here to speak of. This is the dry, assertive end of the anise spirits spectrum, closer in spirit to pastis without water than to sambuca.

Anise seed (Pimpinella anisum), wild fennel, and additional undisclosed herbs from the Sibillini Mountains. Secret family recipe, unchanged since the late 19th century.

Botanicals are hand-ground with mortar and pestle. Production is entirely by hand, as it has been for over a century, using traditional artisanal methods passed down through four generations. No artificial flavoring or coloring. Higher ABV than most anise spirits, which is central to the product's direct character.

The Anice Secco Speciale is the flagship of Distilleria Varnelli and the product that made the family's name. Where Girolamo Varnelli, the herbalist founder, built the distillery's identity around medicinal bitters in 1868, it was his son Antonio who created the anisette that put Varnelli on the map — awarded best Italian dry anise in 1950 and largely unchanged since. The label has carried Antonio's phrase ever since: "One taste is all it takes to prefer me." The distillery, now in its fourth generation and run entirely by women of the Varnelli family, holds UTIF spirits license number one in the Marche region.

The traditional local use is as a caffè corretto — a half-teaspoon in an espresso — and Varnelli is widely considered the definitive version of that ritual in the Marche. It also forms one half of the calzolaro, the regional two-ingredient drink combining Anice Secco with Varnelli's own Caffè Moka. At 46% and bone dry, it is more demanding than most anise liqueurs sold in the US market, and more rewarding for it. Add ice cold water and watch it louche.