Distillerie Capitoline
About
The liquorifico, as it’s called, is a tiny space in southeastern Rome—it looks like a tiny dive bar, with a number of small steel tanks and tiny barrels tucked behind the counter, and only two high-top tables for those who want a totally delicious local gin & tonic in sitù. There’s four products in total that Capitoline produces: one gin and three liqueurs—a dry vermut rosso, a barely-sweet, structured Amarena cherry liqueur that elicits tears, a top-tier amaro, and the gin. All of the products that are used in these spirits are completely organic and natural—no preservatives (not even SO2), no colorants, no chemicals, niente. As such, these products are living; they’re closer to natural wine than they are the massive production styles and scales of Montenegro or Cocchi rosso. They change in the bottle with time and oxygen; chef Emiliano says he thinks all of the liqueurs are best after around six months in bottle.
Capitoline collaborates with various small natural wineries in Lazio and Toscana; they’ve long-term partnerships for fruits and crops like Sorrento lemons, the afore-mentioned Amarena cherries, elderberries, flowers, on and on. Botanicals are infused whole—there are no extracts, powders, or pre-made tinctures. This is exactly the way all our chef friends in New York and NJ would operate, should they decide to make extremely small-batch spirits that evoke local flavors, without making an industrial or super-processed spirit.
We’re delighted to introduce these particularly Roman potions to New York – for all the back bars packed with American craft amaro, French apertifs, and all the Italian digestivo standards, we’ve got some very unique additions—and some killer ideas for a Roman negroni.
Products
Vermut Rosso
Dry vermouth rosso from the natural, tiny-production distillerie Capitoline in Rome. The base wine is Sangiovese, sourced from natural winery La Lupinella in Toscana. The botanicals are macerated in the base wine here, including (but not limited to): cinnamon, gentian, elderflower, iris, bitter orange peel, and cardamom. After this maceration, neutral grain spirit and a touch of homemade caramel for sweetness / balance are added. The batch is given a few days to rest in small steel tanks before being aged in 250L barrels for around one month. Unfiltered, unfined, zero added SO2. Spicy, deeply herbal, kicks the pants off Carpano Antica.
Cerasa
Cerasa is technically a fortified red wine with the addition of Amarena cherries; more simply, it can be called a natural cherry liqueur. The Amarena cherries are 'vacuum macerated' (a little bit like sous-vide) with some raw sugar; this concentration/reduction is then added to Montepulciano base wine, always coming from the natural winery La Lupinella in Toscana. Neutral grain spirit is added last, then the liqueur goes into 250L barrels in which Capitoline's vermut rosso was previously aged. The liqueur evolves in barrel for around one month. Unfined, unfiltered, zero added SO2.
Er Gin
'Er Gin' is what Capitoline calls a 'bathtub gin'--so named because it retains the distinctive golden hue that would have been present in pre-industrial gins made by infusing whole botanicals into the spirit, usually in a bathtub. Capitoline sources an unfiltered, organic gin from Bonollo distillery in Anagni for this bottling; the end product has the color of its botanicals retained, giving it a light bronze hue. Capitoline infuses this grain-based gin (wheat, barley, and rye) with a special blend of botanicals, including juniper, locust bean, lemon and bitter orange peel, coriander, licorice root, pink peppercorn, angelica, lime leaf, and cardamom. The infusion lasts only a few days to keep things delicate; there's a touch of gentle filtration at the very end to get big plant pieces out, then the gin is rested ten days before bottling to allow the infusion to come together. It's not as viscous or intense as an Old Tom gin, but neither is it sharp and keening like a London Dry. It's a style we can't exactly put our fingers on, but it's a Roman gin & tonic we absolutely can't stop drinking.
N’Amaro
N'Amaro is just what it sounds like -- an amaro named in Roman dialect for the way of saying, 'This is an amaro.' To make this bitter digestif, many botanicals are infused into neutral grain spirit, specifically licorice root, anise, bergamot, myrtle, and elderberry, among others. To this infusion is added a homemade lemon syrup, (made from crushed Sorrento lemons, water, and elderberry), a touch more of the NSG, and local Roman water. These are all blended in to find the right mix of concentration, bitterness, and a touch of acidity and sweetness. There is a light filtration done after blending, then the liqueur is bottled. No fining; zero SO2 or preservatives added. If you like Amaro Sibilla from Varnelli or Cynar--but don't want the fake colors or crazy amounts of sugar--this fully natural Roman amaro is for you.
