Americano

Think red vermouth, but lighter and less herbal, with more baking spice and a raspberry lift. The name comes from amer, bitter, not America.

Mauro Vergano spent years as a chemist working on flavours and fragrances before turning an old family chinato recipe into a small lab in Asti; his nephews Tommaso and Pietro now carry it on. The Americano is his vermouth, built on Grignolino, a pale, barely tannic Piedmont red that gives it that bright magenta colour. Wormwood and gentian bring the bitterness, chinotto and sweet orange the citrus, galangal and vanilla the spice. Raspberry and flowers up front, then warm spice and a long bitter tail.