Cappelletti Vino Aperitivo Specialino

Locals around Trento just call it Specialino. Antica Erboristeria Cappelletti has been compounding aperitivi from herbs, roots, and flowers since 1906, first in the city's Piazza Fiera and today in Aldeno, twenty kilometers south, where the fourth generation, Luigi and Maddalena Cappelletti, still handles all production. Their Vino Aperitivo may be the oldest style of the classic red bitter still made: a true wine base of Pinot Bianco, Garganega, and Trebbiano, colored crimson with natural carmine rather than dye. Less sweet than its industrial rivals, it keeps a vinous texture, gentle bitterness, and a distinctly drying finish, which is exactly what you want in a Spritz or Negroni that refuses to turn to candy. At 17 percent, the thinking drinker's red aperitivo.