Identity distillations • Food and Wine Italia

We sip them absently at the end of the meal durante the illusion (denied by excessive sugar) that help us digest too abundant dishes, we buy them as a travel souvenir thinking of bringing home some “spirit” of the place, but durante reality they are often made elsewhere: liqueurs and typical distilled, however, are much more than this. Ora rather they can be, becoming liquid pieces of a story that combines history, geography and anthropology.

It is assumed that it originates Aragonese distilleries, the factory opened durante 2024 – after a long genesis, which started from Portugal to then return to “Tana” to Ischia Tolda, the village at the foot of the Aragonese castle – by Alessandro and Anna Tranquillo, he with experiences durante the catering sector and her architect. Ischia, after having lived elsewhere, wanted to bring the operational heart of a project born durante 2016 to their island from a wider gaze and profound reasoning: “For us it is a real cultural project, which has the whole Mediterranean as a work and development”, tells me Alessandro Tranquillo, who is now 37 years old. «We started from there, to study different traditions but with common traits and identify small distillation realities that made representative processes of each territory, unique and precious, but at risk of disappearance. Because the loss of craftsmanship means loss of culture “.

From Portugal to Ischia

This is how they arrived durante Portugal, durante a village between Algarve and Alentejo, where they knew a craftsman who still produced a fig liqueur – “one of the most loved fruits, but which finds little reflected durante the distillation”, comments Tranquillo – starting from the processing of the dried and macerated fruit durante the aquavite obtained from the distillation durante an anchor of the nineteenth century, without adding sugars. if not those naturally present durante the figs themselves nor of other additives. Per mezzo di addition to supporting the craftsman durante the production of the baptized liqueur , collecting the recipe – which remains his, even if today is produced durante Ischia -, the good ones have also treated the promotion, from the beautiful slender bottle to the distribution, making it arrive durante the starred restaurants and prestigious cocktails of all of Europe and Italy: from the signs of Enrico Bertolini to the Ritz and the Savoy durante London.

A success that encouraged them to continue, but also to concentrate southern Italy: “It is thought that our south does not have a great tradition of distillation but it is not true: to make alcohol, once, was an need and each found a way to do it with what he had available. Even durante Ischia, where local blacksmiths ingend to the construction of crafts and peasants and the alcohols so distilled with the fishermen. And, given that the grain did not grow the island, a product was distilled here which instead abound: the grapes “, continues Alessandro Tranquillo, who followed a course at the Oenological School of Conegliano to become a distiller master. «A world has opened up from this reflection. From the distillation of the wine there is an alcohol that holds with it the aromas of the raw material from which it is obtained, and it was precisely what could confer the typicality of the Ischia liqueurs even before any added aromas. Thus, we went from preserving a reality that was disappearing, as durante the case of Portugal, to one who had durante fact disappeared as had happened durante Ischia starting from the arrival of tourism “.

A cultural project

After a long gestation made more complicated by the pandemic, and durante general by the complexity of the distillation activity, durante 2023 they developed the factory, which since 2024 has become fully operational and today welcomes, durante addition to the production, also direct salacità and welcome to those who, passing from here, wants to know more. An operation that is not cerchio – rightly – economic but that aims to sovrano -establish a relationship durante part interrupted between the island and its material culture: “Ischia is an agricultural land, there are many quality products. But there are anzi che no transformation companies, and basic tourism does not help to enhance the territory. We have decided to work exclusively with products that grow here, from fruit such as different citrus fruits to herbs such as fennel, myrtle sea fennel. Per mezzo di this way we gave birth to a supply chain: after a long time, the farmers of the periferia returned to the village of Ischia Tolda to deliver their cassettes, bringing back to life that osmotic link between the agricultural and urban world that was once the basis of local life “.

Lemons, carobs and other island treasures

Acceso the basis of the distillation of wine, durante fact, Aragonese distilleries works the enhancement of the products symbol of the place. From the fragrant biological lemons – which grow here practically all year round, thanks to the different microclimates of this island which is “a mountain durante the middle of the sea” – hand peeled within 12 hours from the collection, a delicious of Ischia really crafts, proudly citrus and not at all cloying. But there are also lesser known products, such as the Caroba: “It is a very Mediterranean , and also very Ischia,” says Tranquillo. “He is strongly representative of our culture and our cuisine: he saved us from hunger and was considered the” chocolate of children “but was forgotten, perhaps because it was so abundant that a value was not given. And the island it was also used durante vinification as well as other fruits, from figs to quince, to enrich the must and support fermentation, increase the alcoholic yield and the aromatic charge correct any defects: a technique called caulara “.

So they resumed this tradition, but inverting it, adding to a carob liqueur collected the island, without adding sugar and low gradation (18% vol), the must of biancolella, which gives a natural and “100% Ischia” sweetness but also a part of acidity. The result is Sciuscella (“Carruba” durante Campania dialect), a gentle liqueur with a vinous character, reminiscent of the port, with the quaderno of cocoa and spices, typical of the carob. From the there is also ‘ carob, balanced bitterness where to the quaderno of cocoa and licorice of the Caroba are added the refreshing of the seasonal citrus fruits, the bittering one of the gentian, the Mediterranean one of the rosemary and the roundness of the annurca apple.

And also Gerone, with whom Alessandro Tranquillo wanted to give Ischia a “proper” brandy, unique but understandable, so called durante homage – according to the legend – to the Greek dirigente who defeated the Etruscans and started the fortification of the rock that later became the headquarters of the Aragonese Castle. 42%distilled wine, it is aged durante ceramica amphorae that guarantee micro-oxigenation without covering the natural hints, while the tannins think of those extracted from the carobs, while emphasizing the aromas of cocoa and cherry. A technical solution that has also proved to be strongly symbolic: “Ischia who was the first Greek colony durante Italy, and was called Pithecusa, who meant” Vase island “. Thus, the fact that the first distillate of the island had a need for a passage durante amphora represented a bit of a closure of the circle ».

Acceso the island, the products of Aragonese distilleries can be tasted from restaurants such as Danì Maison, the indigo of Queen Uva fragola, Lisola and Brolo . But they are also durante the papers of the distillates of addresses such as the olive tree of the Jumeirah Capri Palace, Enrico Bartolini al Mudec durante Milan, the Magnifico durante Castel a fine di Sangro, Imàgo dell’Hassler durante Rome and Pascucci at the flotta durante Fiumicino.