Tag: fernet

How one savvy Italian kickstarted a bartending cult

Now if you’ve missed it, I have a slight interest in history. Couple this with a fine passion for anything that’s undergone a stage of distillation or fermentation and you’re talking my language. But what of this month’s main charge – liqueurs, vermouths & bitters – how do they fit into the historic landscape of Australia?

Well it’s September 1877, Governor Hercules Robinson is in charge of NSWs hotel laden colony and imports are flooding in. On the 27th of the month a Mr G.B.Modini – interestingly one of the colony’s earliest Italian additions – ran a hefty notice in the The Sydney Morning Herald for what appears to be of the first time that Fernet Branca was available downunder.