11 Aperitifs to Serve at Your Next Dinner Party

Cocchi Americano

"Cocchi Americano is an aperitif wine hailing from Italy's Piedmont region," explains Toronto-based bar consultant Juliana Wolkowski. The brand itself launched in 1891, and the recipe calls for a base of white wine fortified with alcohol then "macerated with botanicals, including gentian, cinchona, bitter orange peel, rhubarb, juniper, coriander, rose, and mace."

Cynar

Cynar is an Italian amaro that calls for "a secret blend of herbs and spices, with one ingredient that is both known and stands out: artichoke," says Simpson. "This unique blend creates a smooth, slightly sweet blend with a bitter(ish) finish that is guaranteed to satisfy. It's slightly vegetal, with a light smokiness and a richness that lends well to a medium/full-bodied amaro."

Fernet

Despite Branca's popularity and market share, fernet doesn't just refer to this single cult favorite brand championed by bartenders around the world. Fernet can be defined as a subcategory of amari, or herbal, bittersweet liqueurs, known for its mentholated and bitter flavor profile, as well as its punchier ABV (for a liqueur), ranging between 30% and 45%. Most fernets are made from a common set of botanicals such as black aloe ferox, bitter orange, cardamom, rhubarb root, and mint, all of which are macerated in neutral grain spirit for various amounts of time before being blended into a final bittersweet elixir. Depending on the brand, the types of herbs and spices used to flavor a fernet can vary, but the ones previously mentioned are considered the core components of this specific digestivo.

Amaro

Amaro is traditionally made by infusing grape brandy with a (usually secret) mix of herbs, flowers, aromatic bark, citrus peel, and spices — a blend that can include anything from cardamom to elderberry flowers. Then it's sweetened with sugar syrup and aged, sometimes for years. It's silky, like a liqueur; bitter and sweet in varying degrees.

Chartreuse

Both yellow and green Chartreuse are produced by the Carthusian Order, a sect of Catholic monks based in the Chartreuse mountains in southeastern France, who are privy to a secret recipe that calls for more than 130 herbs. While the monks initially produced Chartreuse to fund their own monasteries, the liqueur has gained popularity stateside, in part due to its high alcohol level — yellow Chartreuse is 80 proof, while green Chartreuse is 110 proof — but also due to the complex flavor it imparts in cocktails like the Last Word, the Irish classic Tipperary cocktail, and the Naked and Famous. 

Vermouth

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine flavored with various botanicals. Aromatized means the wine has been flavored with fruit, spices, and florals. Common botanicals include cinchona bark, wormwood, angelica root, orange peel, juniper, orris root, and star anise, though ingredients will vary from region to region depending on what's grown locally. The phrase fortified means that these wines are topped up with stronger alcohol — such as brandy or a neutral grain spirit — added to the wine to pause the fermentation process and preserve the product.

Campari and Aperol

The key ingredient to cocktails like the Americano, Boulevardier, and TikTok’s favorite Negroni Sbagliato, Campari is beloved for its bright red color and bittersweet flavor. Aperol is made much like Campari, but unlike its deep red counterpart, the ingredients for this orange-hued liqueur are slightly better-known. Aperol’s key ingredients include bitter rhubarb, vegetal gentian root, and cinchona, a tree bark which gives tonic water its characteristic bitterness. 

Lillet

Lillet comes in three variations: blanc, rosé, and rouge. Broadly speaking, all call for a base of Bordeaux wine topped up with macerated liqueurs that are then blended and aged in French oak.  

“To make Lillet, similar to any fortified wine, a base wine is infused and flavored with aromatic herbs, roots, and spices,” says Mattie Hansen, bar manager of Piccalilli in Los Angeles. “Then, the alcohol content is raised slightly with a proprietary brandy.” 

Suze

Suze is an aperitif that has a gorgeous, golden yellow hue with a strong herbaceous aroma and bittersweet notes of tangerine and lemon. It has just enough sweetness to create a rich mouthfeel and balance. 

Cappelletti

If you don’t know Cappelletti, prepare to make its acquaintance and find out why it’s the bottle that has been heretofore missing from your bar. The aperitif is bitter and herbal but just a little sweet. It's also quite light on the alcohol, friendly and mellow in character, and so refreshing you can drink it just chilled over ice, with nothing more than a citrus garnish. Think of it like Campari’s even more drinkable cousin. Unlike Campari, Cappelletti is a wine-based aperitif. That gives it a rich, full character alongside its gentle herbal flavors and hint of citrus peel, which means it mixes great in cocktails, too.