Cardamaro Vermouth Amaro

Product of: Italy

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Cardamaro is a digestif amaro based on Piemontese Moscato wine flavoured with botanicals – most notably Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), a thistle-like plant after which this amaro is named, that is also known as 'artichoke thistle', 'cardone' or 'cardoni'. (Cardamaro has nothing to do with cardamom.)

Other ingredients in the seventh generation recipe include St. Benedict's thistle (Cnicus benedictus), also known as 'blessed thistle', ginger, other botanicals and sugar. The various aromatic herbs are individually macerated in neutral alcohol and these infusions blended with Moscato wine and sugar (170 g/l). Cardamaro is rested in oak tanks for at least six months prior to bottling.

This aperitif can be categorised as an aromatized wine and or an amaro – it is both. It is also believed to contain wormwood, in which case it can also be considered a vermouth. However, its foremost character is an amaro – hence both our categorisation and its positioning in most liquor stores.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 26/09/2019

Appearance:

Clear, mid-deep amber with bronze glints.

Aroma:

Intense, herbal, complex and mildly spiced with whiffs of wormwood, pine, liquorice, ginger and walnut.

Taste:

Rich sherry notes are perfectly balanced by bitter herbal complexity. Hints of quince, bitter almond and quinine.

Aftertaste:

Long quinine, lightly spicy and bitter herbal finish with tobacco notes.

Overall:

Reminiscent of sweet vermouth, amaro and oloroso sherry combined with a slight oxidised madeira and quinine tonic note. Wonderfully complex and quaffable.