Collina Viola’s story begins in the beautiful Italian city of Parma, where our founder Neil Grosscup first fell in love with Italy and the convivial evening time ritual of the aperitivo. In 2020, Niel, his wife Lilly, and their daughter Viola quarantined at their family home in Lunigiana, where Niel began to experiment with local ingredients to develop a new drink to celebrate his daughter and the region he fell in love with. Further west in Massa, Neil met Alessandro Gherardi, an Italian distiller passionate about elevating Italian drinks. Here, Neil and Alessandro worked to perfect Neil’s recipe with Alessandro’s knowledge of Italian liqueurs. Together they took local mountain herbs, bright fresh citrus from Italy’s south, smooth Madagascar vanilla and the sweet Parma Violet. After much trial and error, voila! Collina Viola was born.

Collina Viola's proprietary recipe includes numerous flowers, barks, roots, and citrus peels steeped in a high-proof Italian wheat spirit, producing intense tinctures. Drawing on 200 years of aperitivo tradition, the essence of each is captured in its own way through macerating, infusing with heat, and cold-press extraction.

Blending is the process of marrying all the ingredients together to create Collina Viola. The sum is greater than its parts, with sweet, bitter, tart, and floral flavors coming together to create something unique. The same craft and attention that goes into creating what is in the bottles goes into crafting the final product. Their locally produced labels are applied by hand, checked for quality, and shipped off to the final destination: your drink.