Sting, Trudie Styler “& friends”, after wine, go bitter (again with Riccardo Cotarella)

There is still a lot of Italy in the new entrepreneurial interest - after the wine-making one he devotes himself to at his Tuscan estate “Il Palagio” - of legendary English singer Sting and his wife Trudie Styler. Who now, together with other manager friends, is launching the amaro-aperitif “Amante 1530”, with the intention of “recalling the authentic Italian taste, versatile, capable of breaking boundaries”, as Ana Rosenstein, ceo of “Amante 1530”, pointed out in the product presentation (an international launch organized simultaneously in New York, Rome, Venice and Los Angeles, ed.) staged last night, at the Bulgari Hotel Roma, with a cocktail tasting by the team of chef Niko Romito. To get the desired Italian taste, Sting & Friends entrusted Riccardo Cotarella with the task of working out the “recipe” for the bitter. For the winemaker, who is also president of Assoenologi, it was a return to the past, because - as he told Winenews - “my first job as a winemaker was in vermutistics, which is a complex art. In composing “Amante 1530”, I was inspired by Sting and Trudie, a perfect couple, poised, sweet in character and generous with collaborators”. For production, Sting & Friends then chose the historic Pallini distillery. “It’s a very nice blend”, Micaela Pallini, who is also Federvini president, told Winenews, “with an orange note that stands out, combined with other interesting spices. In producing it, we also managed to overcome certain difficulties. Orange, for example, is not an easy product to work with, being able to keep it stable and have such a fragrant and dry note was therefore a nice achievement and a source of pride”. At the presentation at the Bulgari Hotel Roma, Ana Rosenstein recalled the genesis of this bitter-aperitif, which was born from the idea that surfaced during an evening of chats at the Palagio between Sting and her entrepreneur friends (Rosenstein herself, as well as Richard Kirshenbaum and Barry Rosenstein, ed.) to create a new bitter with an innovative and modern taste. The small group, after also involving Len Tessler, Stuart Ellman, Sarah Foley, Mark Hauser and Michael Kassan, chose the name of the bitter by discovering the first card of a tarot deck they were spending time with. Out came the figure of the Lover, which immediately appealed “because”, Ana Rosenstein explained, “it captures the essence of what we are trying to distill: a bitter to be celebrated and sipped among friends and lovers of the joys of life”. 1530 is, however, the founding date of the historic estate “Il Palagio”.
The launch, in Rome, of this amaro-aperitif was a very mundane happening, where Sting (in a well-established format, ed.) also performed two songs from his repertoire: the iconic “Message in a Bottle” and the song “Amore” sung in Italian together with his colleague Giordana Angi. It was a special evening that allowed to appreciate the versatility of a product enhanced at the bar by the mixes of Walter Bolzonella, for 40 years at Cipriani in Venice, and Desiré Verdecchia, head barman at the Bulgari Hotel Roma. Sting & Friends' new basic aperitif has a delicate taste, which then immediately evolves into a stronger, fuller-bodied sensation; with aromas of Candied Orange, Oolong Tea, Ginger, Honeysuckle and Cooked Apples. Not too sugary-and with a more subtle bitter finish than other aperitifs-Amante 1530 is a good component for cocktails but is also appreciated neat or with a simple addition of tonic water. In addition to already being in the U.S. market since last September, Amante 1530 is coming to major Italian cities in a selection of cocktail bars, restaurants and distributors.
A project made out of passion, but without forgetting the business. After all, the spirits signed by the VIP pulls, and in the U.S. consumers are willing to spend up to 73% more for a drink “autographed” by a famous producer.