Iseya Distillery Scarlet Fernet Amaro

36% ABV

Fernet Amari are some of the most bitter liqueurs in the world. In Japan, the use of Gentian as a bittering agent is restricted, so Moto had to get creative to achieve the high bitterness of the style, using chicory and aloe amongst other botanicals.

He also aged some of the sugarcane derived base spirit in a Chichibu Whiskey barrel and sweetened it with honey. Umami, layered/approachable bitterness, and a delicate sweetness make this one of the more nuanced Fernet we've ever tried.

Producer Notes:
Hailing from northern Italy, Fernet is widely considered an acquired taste as it is one of the most bitter herbal liqueurs in the world. Because the use of gentian is restricted in Japan, Iseya's Tatsuya Motonaga needed to get creative in order to approximate the level of bitterness he was striving for. As a result, he incorporated ingredients like chicory and aloe to give this fernet the bitter punch it needed. A delicate balance between umami and the moderate sweetness of honey is maintained by the blending of aged as well as unaged spirits in its base. About 15 of its over 30 botanicals are grown at Iseya Distillery's farm in Kanagawa and are macerated for alternating times before being rested in stainless steel for no less than 10 days. This fernet is truly a labor of Moto san's love for the category and offers a new interpretation of this classic amaro.

About Iseya Distillery:
Osaka-born Tatsuya Motonaga cut his teeth working at some of the most creative and botanically driven cocktail bars in Asia, including Tokyo’s Bar Benfiddich and WA-SHU in Taipei, Taiwan, before the events of 2020 necessitated a career shift. Drawing on his deep, long-held appreciation of amaro, Motonaga took it upon himself to travel across Europe, visiting over 70 distilleries in an effort to better understand the methodology and production techniques of some of the continent’s oldest producers of botanical spirits and liqueurs. Equipped with this centuries-old knowledge, Motonaga returned to Japan and in 2021 established the Iseya Distillery in a 100-year-old house located less than two kilometers from Lake Sagami.

The Iseya Distillery rents a neighboring farm that grows many of the botanicals used in the production of Scarlet liqueurs, all of which are farmed by Motonaga himself without pesticides and with minimal human intervention. Dried and fresh botanicals are macerated in stainless steel tanks using neutral spirit distilled from sugarcane, and the botanicals are organized either individually or in groups according to four categories: grasses and leaves, roots, woods and barks, and peels. The infusions are meticulously blended, sweetened using beet sugar, honey, or refined sugar depending on the expression,  and then rested in oak casks before being bottled, labeled, and waxed-sealed by hand.

Representing the first commercially packaged and exported Japanese amari, Scarlet has captured the hearts and minds of bartenders and spirits enthusiasts the world over with its expertly crafted range of both continuously produced and limited release bitters, establishing the fledgling brand as one of the most exciting new additions to the contemporary craft landscape.