Luxardo Sambuca

The Luxardo story

Luxardo fine liqueurs are made in the Veneto region of Italy, in Padova, near Venice. Established nearly 200 years ago, the company is still owned and managed by the founding family.

Luxardo was founded in 1821 in Zara, a port city on the Dalmatian coast (now part of Croatia), which for over six centuries was an integral part of the Republic of Venice.

In 1817, Girolamo Luxardo from Genoa moved to Zara with his family. It was customary at the time for people to make liqueurs at home and Girolamo’s wife Maria Canevari was no exception. She dedicated herself to creating a delicious rosolio maraschino, a traditional Dalmatian liqueur often made in convents. Hers was of such high quality that it caught the attention of connoisseurs. Her husband Girolamo founded a distillery in 1821 to produce Luxardo Maraschino. After eight years perfecting the product, he won an exclusive and much prized acknowledgment of the superior quality of the Luxardo liqueur from the Emperor of Austria. Today, Luxardo continues to be proud to bear the "PRIVILEGIATA DITTA MARASCHINO EXCELSIOR".

Ever pioneering, in 1913 the third generation Michelangelo Luxardo built an extremely modern distillery, one of the largest in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the end of the First World War, Zara became part of Italy as 85% of its population were Italian. Luxardo then became the most important distillery in Italy, but unfortunately the distillery was destroyed in the Second World War and many of the family suffered.

In the 1940s, during the occupation by General Tito's communist partisans, Piero Luxardo, Nicolò Luxardo and his wife Bianca, were killed and it seemed that after more than a century of activity, the Luxardo firm was destined to disappear. The only brother of the fourth generation to survive was Giorgio Luxardo. He fled across the sea to Venice where he had the courage and vision to rebuild the distillery in the Veneto region, at Torreglia (Padova), together with the young fifth generation Nicolò.

Today, many members of the sixth generation of the Luxardo family are active in the company, lead by Franco Luxardo. Guido Luxardo is the creative director in charge of research and development. The Luxardo range has expanded to ten different styles. Beyond Classic Sambuca, Luxardo offers an exciting range of liqueurs. Their vibrant colours are matched by tantalising individual flavours they continue to innovate with new creations.