| Luxardo owns and controls the largest European orchards of the sour cherry variety Marasca, with 22,000 trees located on the Euganean Hills near Padua and Venice in northeastern Italy. Workers begin the harvest in July, collecting the fruit by hand to avoid damage. The harvested cherries are pitted and crushed in hydraulic presses. After fermentation and maturation in larch vats, a careful distillation in small pot stills yields pure Maraschino at about 80% alcohol. Luxardo matures the spirit for 2 years in Finnish ash vats, where it gains its distinctive flavor and bouquet. Girolamo Luxardo proved in his experiments in the 1820s that the aging process cannot be shortened. Papers from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office confirm that Luxardo Maraschino was sold in the United States since at least 1882. |
