Scarlet Aperitivo Bitter Liqueur Iseya Distillery Japan 700ml

In 2020, Tatsuya Motonaga's career as one of Asia's most respected botanically-driven bartenders — shaped at Tokyo's legendary Bar Benfiddich and Taipei's WA-SHU — was upended by forces entirely outside his control. What he did with that disruption became the story of one of the most genuinely exciting new spirits to emerge from Japan in the past decade. Motonaga set out across Europe, visiting more than seventy distilleries, immersing himself in the centuries-old methodology of the continent's oldest amaro and bitter liqueur producers. Then he came home, rented a farm near Lake Sagami in Kanagawa Prefecture, moved into a 100-year-old house less than two kilometers away, and in 2021 founded Iseya Distillery — built around a single, genuinely audacious idea: what would an Italian-style red bitter taste like if it were grown, foraged, and distilled entirely in Japan?

Scarlet is the answer, and it is, by Astor Wines' own description, "without question one of the most riveting spirits in class." Twenty-five botanicals — lemon balm, golden berry sprouts, sage, angelica root, licorice, cinnamon, jasmine flowers, blood orange peel, ginseng, Japanese pampas grass, sorrel, yuzu, and more — almost entirely estate-grown on the farm Motonaga personally tends without pesticides and with minimal intervention. The wormwood and yomogi (Japanese mugwort) that provide the bittering backbone are sourced specifically for the role Italian gentian traditionally plays — but the result tastes nothing like a simple Campari imitation, because, as Motonaga himself observes, Japanese-grown botanicals carry vastly different flavor profiles than their European counterparts. Local terroir, reimagined through an entirely foreign template.

The botanicals are organized into four categories — grasses and leaves, roots, woods and barks, and peels — macerated in neutral sugarcane spirit, sweetened, rested in stainless steel, naturally colored with cochineal, then bottled, labeled, and wax-sealed entirely by hand. A gently mentholated nose of gentian, lemon verbena, rose petal, myrrh, and fruit-forward espresso opens into an earthy, velvety palate bursting with red fruit, white pepper, aloe, and orange peel, finishing with clove, sandalwood, and prickly ash on a long, drying close. K&L Wine Merchants put it most directly: "the depth of flavor and complexity is unmatched by classic or modern recipes." This is the first commercially packaged and exported Japanese amaro — and it has, in a remarkably short time, become one of the most sought-after bottles among serious bartenders anywhere in the world.

Origins & Craftsmanship

Iseya Distillery is the project of Tatsuya "Moto" Motonaga, an Osaka-born bartender whose career took him through some of Asia's most creative and botanically focused cocktail bars, including Tokyo's Bar Benfiddich — one of the most internationally celebrated bars in Japan, renowned for its house-distilled spirits and forager-driven cocktail program — and WA-SHU in Taipei, Taiwan. When the events of 2020 forced a career pivot, Motonaga drew on his deep appreciation for amaro and traveled across Europe, visiting more than seventy distilleries to study the methodology and production techniques of the continent's oldest botanical spirits producers firsthand.

Equipped with that knowledge, Motonaga returned to Japan and established Iseya Distillery in 2021, in a 100-year-old house located less than two kilometers from Lake Sagami in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. The distillery rents a neighboring farm where Motonaga personally grows many of the botanicals used in Scarlet production — without pesticides and with minimal human intervention, a farming philosophy that prioritizes authentic terroir expression over yield. Both dried and fresh botanicals are macerated in stainless steel tanks using neutral spirit distilled from sugarcane, with the 25 botanicals organized into four categories according to their character: grasses and leaves, roots, woods and barks, and peels. The infusions are meticulously blended, sweetened using beet sugar, honey, or refined sugar depending on the specific expression, then rested in stainless steel tanks before being bottled, labeled, and wax-sealed entirely by hand — a level of manual craft that places Iseya among the most artisanal bitter liqueur producers in the world, Japanese or otherwise.

Scarlet represents the first commercially packaged and exported Japanese amaro — a genuinely significant milestone in the global craft spirits landscape, taking inspiration from the Italian red bitters of the 1970s while building an entirely distinct botanical identity from Japan's own diverse natural bounty.

Tasting Profile

Nose
Deep red color from natural cochineal — a visual nod to the Italian red bitter tradition the bottle's design and name both reference. A gently mentholated quality opens the nose immediately — Iseya's most specifically distinctive and most immediately surprising aromatic signature, a coolness that no classic Italian red bitter delivers. Gentian and lemon verbena follow with bright, structured botanical depth. Rose petal adds delicate floral lift. Myrrh adds an ancient, resinous secondary aromatic. Fruit-forward espresso notes add unexpected dark roast complexity — a quality entirely its own in the bitter aperitivo category.

Palate
Earthy and velvety-textured — the 25 estate-grown botanicals' combined contribution producing a depth and a richness considerably beyond what most Western-produced red bitters achieve. Red fruit bursts forward with vivid intensity. White pepper adds a sharp, warming spice note. Aloe adds an unusual, faintly bitter-green vegetal quality specific to the Japanese botanical sourcing. Orange peel — including the blood orange component — carries the most classically bitter-aperitivo citrus character through the mid-palate, grounding the more exotic elements in something recognizable.

Finish
Clove, sandalwood, and prickly ash carry a long, drying close — the prickly ash specifically contributing the subtle numbing, tingling quality (mala-adjacent) that distinguishes Japanese and Sichuan botanical traditions from anything in European bitter liqueur production. The finish is genuinely unique: drying, warming, and lingering in a way that confirms this is not simply a Japanese-made Campari clone but a wholly original spirit built from its own specific terroir and its own specific botanical logic.

Quick Overview

Cocktail Suggestions

Neat Over Ice with Orange (the importer's own preferred serve)
2 oz Scarlet Aperitivo over a large ice cube with an orange slice. Several reviewers specifically prefer this simple serve to any cocktail application — sipped slowly, allowing the full 25-botanical complexity to unfold.

Scarlet Negroni
1 oz Scarlet Aperitivo · 1 oz gin · 1 oz sweet vermouth · expressed orange peel. A direct substitution for Campari that introduces an entirely different, more earthy and more complex botanical register to the classic format.

Scarlet Spritz
2 oz Scarlet Aperitivo · 3 oz Prosecco · 1 oz soda water · orange slice. The menthol and espresso notes add unusual depth to the familiar spritz format.