Nocino 

Indiana Green Walnut Amaro

We created this walnut spirit using a traditional European method, harvesting the walnuts while they were still green in mid-summer and steeping them in our vodka along with warming spices and fresh orange peel.

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2024 bottle release is Friday 11/15 at the distillery!
Call dibs on a bottle with one of our Nocino Cocktail Classes.

What Is It?

A traditional Italian liqueur made from green, unripe walnuts that is enjoyed as a digestif or mixed into cocktails. For our version, we harvest the walnuts ourselves from trees in Fort Wayne, giving this liqueur an Indiana twist. We are the only distiller in Indiana that produces Nocino, and one of just a handful of craft distilleries in the country to do so.

How we made it

We harvest green, unripe walnuts from English walnut trees in Fort Wayne. The trees belong to Cardinal Spirits co-founder Adam Quirk's wife's aunt and uncle. The walnuts are brought back to the distillery and quartered by hand (opening up this part of the process to volunteers from the community), then steeped in our Vodka along with spices for months. Shortly before bottling we sweeten with maple syrup from the famed Burton's Maplewood Farm in Medora, Indiana.

how to drink it

Traditionally, Nocino is sipped on its own as a digestif (an after-dinner drink) - just a little pour of something special that warms you from head to toe. But it's great in cocktails too. We recommend using it in a Milk Punch, Walnut Manhattan, and Nocino Sour. You can also pour a bit over ice cream, hot chocolate, or eggnog!