DiBaldo Amaro ‘Un Bitter’

Ex-Master Perfumier Baldo Baldinini is making the most delicious artisanal vermouths and gins that we’ve ever drunk.

Baldo has a form of achromatopsia – a rare medical condition that causes total colour blindness – as well as synaesthesia, giving him a heightened olfactory sense and the ability to link smells to musical notes. Realising there was little formal notation in his field while working as a perfumer and, later, as a consultant for some of Italy’s best chefs (including three-Michelin-starred Massimo Bottura), Baldo invented his own method of writing aromatic ‘recipes’ on musical staves.

At his home laboratory in Rimini on the Adriatic coast, Baldo draws from an ‘aroma library’ of more than 50,000 essences, which he has carefully extracted from raw ingredients sourced from around the world. 

He adds a selection of these essences (along with a tiny amount of sugar and distillate) to base wines made by a winery in Emilia-Romagna to craft his amaros and vermouths, which are bottled without preservatives, colouring, or additives. Offering captivating perfumes and intense flavours, Baldo’s amaro is rich with exotic spices and bitter citrus notes, while his vermouth layers ripe berry fruit over dried herbs and petals.

For his ‘Paracelso’ gin – named after the 16th century Swiss alchemist – Baldo adds a secret recipe of rare botanicals to a high-quality neutral spirit. Such is its purity and complexity that it is perfect to be enjoyed neat over ice or with just a splash of tonic.

While our first love will always be wine, DiBaldo’s creations impressed us so much from the moment we saw their striking labels and tasted their dazzling flavour profiles, that we decided we had to import them to the UK ourselves. 

Best served over ice with a citrus peel garnish as a digestif
Cinnamon, cola berry, and anise on a bitter-sweet finish
92 Points, International Wine & Spirits Challenge