Amaro Nonino Quintessentia is a 35% ABV Italian bitter liqueur from the Nonino family of Pavia di Udine in Friuli. Its distinctive character begins with an infusion of herbs, spices, fruit, berries, and roots, made with natural ingredients and enriched by the family’s proprietary ÙE grape distillate. Rather than relying on a conventional neutral spirit, Nonino brings its own distilling heritage directly into the composition of this amaro.
ÙE is distilled from the whole grape—both juice and pomace—and the portion used for Quintessentia is matured in Nevers and Limousin oak barriques as well as small ex-Sherry casks. That cask-aged grape distillate gives the bottling an unusual foundation within the amaro category, linking its botanical recipe to Nonino’s longstanding work with grapes and maturation.
The recipe itself draws on an old formula created by Antonio Nonino. It belongs to a family tradition that began in Friuli in 1897, when Orazio Nonino established the distillery in Ronchi di Percoto. Later generations continued to reshape Italian grape distillation: Nonino released a commercial single-grape grappa made exclusively from Picolit in 1973 and introduced its first whole-grape distillate in 1984.
Quintessentia brings those strands together in one bottle: a historic amaro recipe, a varied botanical infusion, and a matured grape distillate produced by a family known for treating individual grape varieties and distillation methods with particular care. Vegan-friendly and firmly rooted in Friuli, it offers a compelling introduction to Nonino beyond the family’s celebrated grappas.
