Marking 200 years of Luxardo excellence

As Italian liqueurs brand Luxardo marks its bicentenary, seventh-generation family member and export manager Nicolò shares his vision for the company.

Nicolò Luxardo Luxardo

The way people consume alcohol has changed a lot in 200 years – what have the most important changes been in that time, for a company like Luxardo?

The significant change for Luxardo over 200 years is the enlargement of our portfolio, in order to meet the different market requests and opportunities that arose over time. In 200 years of history, Luxardo has produced many diverse products, and many of these have been created in order to satisfy a request which was born from a specific trend in a specific country.

Can you give a brief history of Luxardo? How have its products and processes changed over the past 200 years?

We have been producing fine Italian liqueurs and distillates since the company was founded by Girolamo Luxardo in 1821, as a way to commercialise a family tradition of liqueur making.

At Luxardo, we have always aimed to achieve the best possible quality, leaving no margin for error. We have achieved this by continuously investing in cutting-edge technology. This combines with our family know-how and craftmanship and enables us to control our quality standards meticulously and make our specialities known in almost 90 countries worldwide.

In these 200 years, various processes have changed on the production line.  Many steps that were once done by hand are now automated, or brought up to date thanks to high-tech machinery. However, today our flagship products, Luxardo Maraschino Originale, Luxardo Cherry Liqueur Sangue Morlacco, and our Original Maraschino Cherries, still follow the same manufacturing process and attention to detail with which they were made back at the very beginning of our story.

This is because we truly believe in keeping them as authentic as possible so that they really stand out against the competition, and therefore we must keep the manufacturing process as true to the original as possible.

What is the global liqueur market like today? Where is Luxardo positioned in that market?

It has its ups and downs, and definitely this pandemic has not helped, but in general we think there is good potential for growth. The cocktail renaissance which has been strong in the last 10 to 15 years really has helped small companies with a rich history like ours. We are lucky to be part of it, especially with our flagship products which we love to communicate and showcase.

How is Luxardo responding to changes in consumer demand in the 21st century? For example, the increase in people making high-quality cocktails at home in the past few years?

We are very lucky that the evolution of the cocktail market has happened, since our core products have always been created for this kind of use. Luxardo has been part of cocktail history since the very first day. Just take a quick look at any recipe book of the golden age of cocktails; you will notice that many of the classic cocktails, to which we owe the more modern high-quality cocktail movement, feature a Luxardo product. 

In order to embrace these trends, in recent years we have brought back to life many old family recipes which had been discontinued in the past, such as Luxardo Bitter Bianco, and Luxardo London Dry Gin. We have created some new ones, Luxardo Sour Cherry Gin, and Luxardo Aperitivo.

To celebrate our 200th anniversary, we are launching a new Maraschino Luxardo Riserva Speciale (Maraschino Perla Dry Riserva Bicentenario) which was last produced in the 1970s. It is distinct with a high alcohol content, a considerably reduced sugar level, and a Marasca cherry distillate base which is more than 50 years old.

23 April 2021