Strega Liqueur (700 ml)

When Carmine Vincenzo Alberti and Giuseppe Alberti established their distillery beside the Benevento railway station in 1860, they locked the full formula for Strega into a coded herb cupboard — a legal trade secret passed parent to child, known to exactly two living people at any given time. That unbroken secrecy is not theatre; it is the technical backbone of a liqueur whose character has remained unchanged across six family generations.

The distillery sits at the foot of the Apennine Mountains, roughly 50 km northeast of Naples, where the River Sabato supplies the wild Samnite mint that anchors Strega's menthol-forward spine. Apennine juniper and Abruzzese saffron complete the regional sourcing framework — the saffron responsible for the liqueur's vivid gold without artificial colouring.

Production begins with maceration of approximately 70 herbs and spices — confirmed botanicals include Ceylon cinnamon, Florentine orris root, gentian, wormwood, star anise, and white pepper — in grain alcohol, followed by distillation in traditional swan-neck alembic pot stills. Saffron and sugar syrup are blended in post-distillation, then the liquid is matured in large oak or ash vats before bottling at 40% ABV with no artificial colours or flavours.

Where peers such as Galliano read vanilla-sweet, Strega is assertively resinous and menthol-driven — a structural outlier in the Italian herbal liqueur category. The NV expression is consistent by design; no drinking window applies.