Valle d’Aosta
Quart AO
In the last year this amaro from Valle D’Aosta has caught the attention of our friend Joe Bastianich looking always to niche products, with small numbers and a great story. Ebo Lebo amaro is tied to a curious fate that binds it to America and his awakening and the U.S.A. love for this spirits category. In particular, this historic amaro born almost 45 years ago by Lorenzo Ottoz, owner of Laurent Ottoz, the oldest liquor firm of Valle d’Aosta, registered in 1902. «It was the 1973, but for a long time he was planning to produce a liqueur with that double name, Ebo Lebo: said it was beautiful and playing disruptive and unforgettable like “Coca Cola” recall» Ottoz’s relatives, whose brand was purchased a decade ago by Rosset. Bitter that baptism is also causing the DNA of his recipe: Ebo Lebo is the name, in the Gressoney dialect, the base of the mixture, the yarrow, a map in which in ancient times were given property tonic and digestive properties. And just to emphasize the latter, the firm Ottoz creates a claim that will prove to be one of the most persistent ever born in the Valley, ended up as an adhesive on tens of thousands of cars to tourists. Even today, that over 60 who see the bottle read as a jolly mantra the phrase: “By Ebo Lebo is possible to digest also my mother-in-law”. However, it is another claim, oldest because dates back to 1921, that accompanying the Ebo Lebo on the American market: the famous poster with the boy who pees in a pond. Underneath reads: “non bevete mai acqua“, become to the U.S. “never drink water” that Joe Bastianich has worshipped for this launch. Ebo Lebo is a wonderfully amaro classifiable as alpine where an herbaceous taste invades the palate and where the host is a plant that grows in these valleys: the yarrow, with which achilles, edited the wounds of his comrades-in-arms during the legendary Battle of Troy, connoisseur of the healing properties of this aromatic perennial plant. An amaro with the classic caramel color, limpid in its density, wraps the nose with an intense scent of alpine herbs that helps to remember the mountain. In the mouth it persists and its bitter taste fills and degreases the palate. Great as a digestive after a meal, fantastic on the rocks or with a splash of water to open its flavor, perfect mixing to replace a Chartreuse and give character to a Last Word Cocktail or to improve and give depth to a Ramos Gin Fizz.
Matteo Zed
