Iseya Distillery Scarlet Aperitivo

REGION: Kanagawa, JP 
SIZE: 700ml / ABV: 28%

The Verde Amaro is based on beverages born in the manufacturing process of health foods and is finished with a unique botanical recipe utilising fermentation methods of various straws and herbs. More than 30 types of medicinal herbs such as sage, lemon balm, fennel, rhubarb, pine leaves, mulberry leaves, dandelion roots, rice bran, sorrel, and wormwood grown in their own fields are used.

(This is a limited production item and is bottled with a cork stopper. There may be sediment on rare occasions, this is hand-bottled product thus filtration is minimal to keep the character of the drink intact.)

Located in Lake Sagami Kanagawa, Iseya Distillery was founded in 2021 by Tatsuya Motonaga. The distillery is housed in a repurposed 100 year old traditional house, where each batch of Scarlet is handmade and hand bottled. A majority of the ingredients used in the production of Scarlet are sourced locally including a nearby field that is being used to grow botanicals specifically by Motonaga-san.

Tatsuya Motonaga spent his previous career working in some of the world’s greatest cocktail bars. Shibuya’s Coal Ila, Shinjuku’s BenFiddich, Taipei’s Wa-shu to name a few. His desire to work towards creating a unique Japanese Amaro brand started with a trip visiting over 70 distilleries around Europe and the UK. It was during these visits that he experienced the depth of craftsmanship with the local agriculture that helps create some of the world’s greatest beverages. These products are the essence of ‘handmade’ with every process done without machines - filtering, bottling, labelling, sealing. Also each Amaro is not heavily filtered with the aim to retain as much character of the raw ingredients as possible. Thus every bottle continues to have a heavy flavour-filled sediment that showcases these unique ingredients.