Bartender turned entrepreneur Giancarlo Mancino built his eponymous vermouth on an initial spend of just £10,000. And he's still building.

'Whatever I do, I never stepped back from the bar. So yes, I'm an entrepreneur, a businessman, whatever. But for me, I always go back to the bar world, because that's where I started,' says Giancarlo Mancino, creator and co-owner of Mancino Vermouth. 'To give you an idea, on 19–21 I'm going to the Churchill Bar at the Hyatt Regency London and doing a shift myself.'

Mancino launched his vermouth back in 2012, funding it out of his own resources. 'It was the classic startup: £10,000 at the time to build a brand. No debts, no loans, no partners,' he recalls.

Today, Mancino Vermouth is available in 55 countries and Mancino is a minority partner, having sold out 70% of the brand to Amaro Lucano in late 2021 for an undisclosed figure. He's committed to remain involved until 2026, when he might sell his remaining stake, continue to drive business development as a director, or step into a different role.

Despite the timing, the sale wasn't inspired by the Covid carnage, Mancino says. 'It was an opportunity. There were some big companies interested in my brand as well, but I wasn't happy with them,' he explains. 'Amaro Lucano knocked on my door with the opportunity and we closed the deal because they are what we call "paisano" [fellow countrymen]. They are from the same area in Italy where I grew up. "Lucano" means Lucanian, and I am Lucanian, from Basilicata.'

From an Italian hilltop to the world of five-star hotels

Born in 1977, Mancino grew up in Pignola, a charming yet stultifying hilltop village 150 kilometres (100 miles) or so southeast of the bright lights of Naples. His parents ran a grocery store and their son enjoyed a typical southern Italian childhood, studying with the nuns and serving as an altar boy in the village church.

Music, which Mancino learned in a nearby town, provided an avenue for adventure and seeded a love of theatre that came in handy in later life. 'I started to travel with a folklore music band: I used to travel the world singing folk music with my village,' he says. 'It was the typical south Italian music: the tarantella, mazurka, all together with the harmonica. We used to exchange countries and travel two or three days by bus from Pignola to Poland, the Côte d'Azur, Hungary....'

By age 17, Mancino was doing shifts in the village pub as a bartender, serving drinks at weddings, and even working as a wedding photographer. 'I said: "OK, this village is too small for me," so then I went to Rome,' he recalls. 'It was insane, but I didn't like Rome: too confusing, too commercial. So I decided to go to the UK.'

It was in London that bartending legend Salvatore Calabrese-also from a small town in Italy-hired him to work at the Library Bar at the Lanesborough Hotel. After Calabrese left to open his eponymous bar at the now-defunct Fifty London casino, Mancino pursued a career first in five-star hotels and then in consultancy in Asia. He helped launch what was then the world's highest bar in Hong Kong and worked on the bar programme for the island's 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana as it progressed from two Michelin stars to the three it currently holds. Along the way, he identified a gap in the Asian market that Mancino Vermouth could fill.

Staying ahead of the curve

Mancino's natural understanding of marketing and PR helps him not only with his consultancy projects-Giancarlobar Ltd, his bar consultancy, works with brands including Rosewood, Oberoi, Capella and Dubai's Sunset Hospitality Group -but with keeping Mancino Vermouth front of mind for industry and industry press alike.

'Mancino Marino, which is the first ever vermouth aged underwater-at 52 metres (170 feet) for six months in Portofino-is the latest addition to the family,' he says. 'At the moment it's only for the Italian market, but next year we will do 1,200 bottles for the rest of the world.'

Underwater ageing doesn't mean Mancino has taken up scuba diving: The process, including security, is entirely managed by a subcontractor. But Mancino waxes lyrical about the effects that the consistent pressure and constant movement of the submarine environment produces.

'When it comes to vermouth, which is a fortified wine, the effect is like it's getting rusty, like when a piece of metal rots it steals some of the strength but adds a little bit of something on top," he says. "It's an unstable kind of flavour. It's insane. It's absolutely insane. I love it."

On the sustainability front, also, Mancino is constantly innovating. He has partnered with ecoSPIRITS to make Mancino Vermouth the first vermouth available in low-waste circular bulk packaging. This reduces the carbon footprint of the product by slashing shipping emissions-as the packaging is much lighter than cases of glass bottles-and eliminating single-use glass. Besides the environmental benefits, it can work out cheaper for bar programmes, and some opt to decant the vermouth into their own bottles.

Onwards and upwards

Mancino Vermouth is not Mancino's only project. His Rinomato Aperitivo, launched in 2015, sells over 75,000 bottles, mainly in America and Asia; his Sprezza RTD, a vermouth and soda product for the US market, is developing; and, as well as a new collaboration with the House of Negroni marketing brand and two new bottled cocktail lines, there's a project in the works with Calabrese.

The secret of his success? Mancino cites the saying that 'behind every great man, there's a great woman.' He met his wife, Yasmin, when she walked into the Library Bar-'Salvatore said, "Don't even try!"'-and she's supported his endeavours ever since. 'She's helped me a lot,' he says. 'She's always pushing me to do the right things and that's just the perfect partner, especially in this business.'