Liquor Cabinet

Issue No. 66 —

Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

Since 1821, peo­ple have iden­ti­fied Luxar­do Maraschi­no Liqueur by its straw-plait­ed bot­tles. Orig­i­nal­ly it was used to avoid break­age dur­ing sea trav­el. Now it is a sta­ple of the brand, visu­al­ly pulling it for­ward on liquor shelves across the globe. Still owned and oper­at­ed by the sixth gen­er­a­tion of the Luxar­do fam­i­ly, it is one of the old­est Euro­pean liqueurs (learn more about the his­to­ry of Luxar­do).

Luxar­do Maraschi­no is a true clas­sic and is one of the most impor­tant bot­tles to pur­chase if you’re try­ing to com­plete your col­lec­tion at home. Obtained from the maras­ca, a sour cher­ry vari­ety exclu­sive­ly cul­ti­vat­ed by Luxar­do, it is one of the very few liqueurs in the world pro­duced by dis­til­la­tion. The dis­til­late is allowed to mature for two years in Finnish ash wood vats and is then dilut­ed and sug­ared. For a nice touch, they leave the cher­ry pits in with the fruit, which adds a fab­u­lous almond-like fla­vor. Ulti­mate­ly, Luxar­do is dis­tilled from ripe maras­ca cher­ries, their crushed pits, sprigs and leaves, hon­ey, and oth­er ingre­di­ents that remain a secret.

Tasting notes

One may think this is going to taste like cher­ries. You might be sur­prised to hear that they’d be wrong. The nose smells of pine, tree bark and lemon. The taste is sophis­ti­cat­ed, but not unap­proach­able. It may be bit of an acquired taste, but def­i­nite­ly one worth putting the time into. The up front fla­vor is very flo­ral with a hand­ful of pine and tree bark. The mild nut­ty mid palette comes from the cher­ry pits and is very sub­tle. Luxar­do fin­ish­es out with a pep­per­mint can­dy fresh­ness that cleans­es the palette nice­ly. The tex­ture is dense and syrupy, coat­ing the mouth.

Even though it is matured for years in wood vats, you’ll notice it has a clear col­or. Luxar­do Maraschi­no has a round­ed taste and a sur­pris­ing­ly per­sis­tent aro­ma. If you’re plan­ning on start­ing up a seri­ous col­lec­tion this is a great place to start. You can­not make the clas­sic Avi­a­tion with­out a bot­tle of Luxar­do on hand. If you do plan to make Avi­a­tions at home please gar­nish your cock­tails with a true Luxar­do Maraschi­no Cher­ry. Those lit­tle neon red cher­ries you see so often just don’t cut it. It is amaz­ing how one lit­tle piece of fruit can take your cock­tail cre­ation to the next lev­el. It only makes sense to pair the two.

Hint: For dessert try pour­ing a lit­tle Luxar­do Maraschi­no Liqueur over your ice cream. And of course top it with a Luxar­do Maraschi­no cherry.

Under $30 a bot­tle Here’s a clas­sic cock­tail recipe fea­tur­ing Luxar­do Maraschino:

Aviation (one variation)

aviation

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz Luxar­do Maraschi­no liqueur
  • 1/2 oz creme de violette
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • 1 Luxar­do Maraschi­no cherry

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