OUR HISTORY
Let us introduce ourselves
Leardini liqueurs have been handed down for four generations. The founder was Domenico, then Antonio, then Leonardo and now Mauro manages this characteristic artisan workshop. This reality, even if small, exists thanks to the passion and tenacity that the Leardini family has maintained over time and thanks to the ability to know in depth both the properties of the herbs, collected directly, and the recipes of infusions handed down from generation to generation. The Leardini family has the perseverance of those who continue to use ancient techniques, respecting the times that nature wants. It's not nostalgia, it's not fanaticism. It's experience and a bit of healthy madness given the times of "everything right away". For this reason you will not find any artificial flavors or added colorings in Leardini liqueurs. Production is limited and reserved for those who know how to appreciate the taste of genuine products. Liqueurs have been at home in the Leardini family since the young Domenico tried his luck in French Switzerland to help his family, which was very poor and remained in San Leo, a small town, center of Montefeltro. Upon returning, together with his son Antonio he developed many liqueurs, however only produced for the family or given to friends. It was after the war that Antonio's son, Leonardo, also very poor but in an Italy in rebirth, decided to try a small production with which to make a living. We are in 1958 and in that year he produced the "beauty" of 25 liters of liqueur! The young Leonardo marketed some products that his father Antonio had developed in previous years. Thus, in the very small artisan workshop under his house, four liqueurs were born which he sold to tourists passing through San Leo. Leonardo never married: he had his own liqueurs as a family, to which he dedicated himself continuously until the age of 88. However, he wanted his business, through his nephew Mauro, to continue according to the ancient liquor tradition that he himself had followed for almost 60 years. Mauro has resumed production, in the manner of his uncle Leonardo, no longer in San Leo but in Affile, a miniature village close to the abbeys of San Benedetto and Santa Scolastica, a few kilometers from Subiaco, nestled on the slopes of the Simbruini mountains. A sort of spiritual union between the places of San Francesco (San Leo) and San Benedetto (Affile), the place of his first miracle.
THE LAB
Where are we
The Leardini Artisan Liquorificio is located in the historic center of the town of Affile where the influence of San Benedetto can still be felt who worked his first miracle in this place at a very young age. Affile lives in the shadow of the Benedictine monasteries dug into the rock and built in mighty structures in harmony with nature. Generations of monks have contributed to refining products that time has improved. They only used elements that the surrounding nature offered them. Their elixirs, in addition to aiding digestion, soothed pain and improved the lives of the monks and the surrounding populations.Affile, a tangle of irregular alleys conceived over the centuries by hard-working farmers, is the natural place for liqueurs produced with the same methods as the monks Benedictines, come back to life through the resourcefulness of Mauro Leardini, the last manager of the family company LEARDINI LIQUORI ARTIGIANALI.
PRODUCTION METHOD
How we produce
The ancient liqueur tradition dictates that the herbs, according to the different recipes, are pounded, crushed and mixed in the mortar. The use of the mortar is of very ancient tradition and over the centuries various materials have been used for its composition: hard stone, marble, iron, silver, copper, wood, terracotta, ceramic, bronze. The most used in history was certainly the bronze mortar, which was forged in workshops throughout Europe using the same mold as miniature bells. Today the Leardini Liquorificio uses the same technique! We have a bronze mortar, which we still use, the use of which allows the herbs to retain their intense aromas and beneficial ingredients. Our production is divided into various perfectly studied steps, which ensure that the aromas and natural components remain intact. Above all, we observe the right balsamic time, that is, the optimal moment in which the plant reaches its maximum content of substances. Then, through various secret procedures depending on the liqueur to be prepared, we develop the recipe.
