Nocino — or green walnut amaro — is an ancient elixir rooted in pagan Celtic and Roman culture, and a liqueur that's easy to make at home.
By CINDA CHAVICH
There’s a lot to see on a stroll around my seaside neighborhood in Oak Bay but what caught my eye last summer was a tree literally sagging under the weight of its bulbous green fruit.
Though a friend had once tried to taste the golf-ball sized orbs, and deemed them inedible, I was intrigued.
Further investigation determined this prolific producer was an English black walnut tree (Juglans nigra) — and that these “inedible” immature nuts might actually make something rare and delicious.
And so it was that I headed down the rabbit hole of discovering how to make black walnut liqueur, aka nocino, a bittersweet elixir made with young, green walnuts, a digestif popular from Italy to France, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, and one long believed to be good for your health.
BLACK WALNUT BOOZE
Walnuts grow around the world, including here in Canada, but the tradition of making this rare infusion has its roots in Europe, from the classic Nocino of Italy, to the Vin de Noix in France and similar concoctions throughout eastern Europe like Croatian Orahovac and Nucata from Moldova.
Fast forward to today’s creative mixologists, and steeping green walnuts, and other foraged ingredients, to make bitter amaros for unique locally-inspired cocktails is a hot new thing.
Maybe it’s my own ethnic roots, but walnuts have always been part of my culinary vernacular, too, whether ground for my grandmother’s walnut roll or pounded into a paste with roasted peppers for the addictive Middle Eastern dip known as muhammara, a cousin to savoury Ajvar and romesco sauces. That may explain for my affinity for this walnut liqueur's dark, bittersweet character.
But until I tried the lovely Nocino! from local Ampersand Distilling, this boozy black walnut bitter was not on my radar.
They make the sweet digestif at their artisan distillery (most famous for Ampersand Gin) in the Cowichan Valley, using green walnuts collected from neighbours and spices including cinnamon, allspice and fresh lemon peel. It’s sweetened with local honey and aged for at least 80 days, then bottled for a pre-Christmas release.
Ampersand’s co-owner and head distiller Jeremy Schacht recommends his Ampersand Nocino! splashed into a rye-based cocktail or added to holiday eggnog. But it’s also delicious to sip on its own after dinner.
In Italy, villages and even individual families have their own (often secret) recipes, adding a variety of warm spices but careful to avoid overpowering the flavour of the young walnuts.
Other modern craft distillers in Canada are trying their hand at black walnut liqueur, too, including the Woods Spirit Co. barel-aged Nocino made in Vancouver with green walnuts from Summerland, and the fruit-based Nocino made in Ontario by Revel Cider.
The last I tasted was being poured by Sweetwater Distilling at a holiday market, the small Salt Spring Island distiller making spirits including vodka and gin from BC apples and local botanicals, and their Black Walnut Nocino infused with black walnuts, espresso, citrus and spices. The local chocoaltiers at Harlans Salt Spring even created a Nocino Truffle to celebrate the local liqueur.
The flavour is hard to describe — earthy and nutty with hints of spice, and the smoky, bitter tinge of roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate, with a slight citrusy edge. Some suggest serving it neat as a digestif, pairing it with dark spirits in cocktails (or as the amaro in a Negroni), even pouring it over ice cream.
HOW TO MAKE MAGICAL NOCINO
There’s lots of lore about this bitter black digestif, prized as both a medicinal and magical exilir. Rooted in ancient traditions of paganistic Picts, who believed the brew contained supernatural properties, legend also has it that witches sent barefoot virgins into the woods on Midsummer’s Eve, the shortest night of the year, to pick the unripe walnuts.
That’s the date when the walnuts are apparently perfect for making nocino as they are immature and still easy to halve or quarter for steeping.
I was a little late in discovering this fact, so my green walnuts were collected a month later, in July, and though some were fairly easy to halve with a chef’s knife, some were definitely in cleaver zone (with the shell starting to form under the soft green husk). I didn’t find a liquid centre, as apparently makes the finest brew.
But that said, I decided to proceed and steeped my green walnuts in some high proof vodka and take my chances.
There are several recipes for nocino online and I chose a mashup of many, adding some lemon and orange peel, a star anise and some vanilla to the mix. One maker advised first adding sugar to the chopped walnuts, and letting them steep for a few days first, so I tossed a little sugar into the big mason jars to see what would happen before adding the vodka.
A day later, I didn’t see any change so dumped in the liquor and loosely covered the jars.
I started by setting them outside in the sunshine for a week (as per some online advice), then put the jars into the cool basement pantry and waited the prescribed 40 days.
What began as jars of electric green walnuts immersed in clear spirit, with their creamy white interiors exposed, morphed into blackened fruit suspended in an dark, inky soup, which may be why the lore of black magic comes with making nocino .
I fished out the blackened walnuts and strained the liquid into a clean jar. At first, I tried a coffee filter but lost patience and switched to a fine mesh tea infuser to strain the nocino and remove the heaviest sediments.
THE INITIAL TASTE TEST
It was late in September when I first tried my nocino experiment, alongside a small glass of Ampersand’s excellent Nocino!from my bar. That bottle was purchased at least a year before so I’m not clear exactly when it was made, and may not be a fair comparison, as most experts say nocino improves the longer you can keep it — the tannins softening over time.
I admit, the results at this point were mixed. The flavour was promising — not as intense and layered as the commercial nocino, but with a tannic edge to provide structure and preserve it. This may be because the nuts I used were older, with less of the fresh green flavour found in the walnuts in June.
But my young nocino had nice bitter and citrusy notes, even at this very early stage, so I’m hopeful it will improve over time.
Oddly, the alcohol was more prominent on nose of the Ampersand, though the label indicates it is 27% ABV, while my nocino was made with higher proof (50% ABV) vodka and had not yet been diluted.
At this early stage, my brew is a tad cloudy, a murky chocolate brown with a khaki tinge on the rim, while the Ampersand Nocino! is very dark garnet colour, leaning to black with a slightly red hue, and with perfect clarity.
I added 1/3 cup of brown sugar syrup and returned my big jar of nocino to the dark basement pantry to rest for a couple of months longer, the sugar said to bond with the sediments and help clarify the liqueur.
I’m waiting to try it again just before Christmas to see if it’s ready to bottle and serve (or gift to cocktail nerd friends).
TRICKS AND TIPS
A black walnut infusion is a fairly simple amaro to make at home, but I did learn a few tricks.
One thing to remember when using black walnuts, they will stain your hands, clothes and counters so wear gloves and protect surfaces when you’re cutting up the green fruits.
If you’re not making booze with your green walnuts, look for recipes for traditional English walnut pickles.
I even saved the already steeped green walnuts to make a kind of alcohol-free vermouth — transferring the blackened fruit to a clean jar and dumping in a bottle of Loxton zero-alcohol Cabernet Sauvignon.
The results were rather amazing. Despite the lack of alcohol in the red “wine” I used, the result is a deep garnet coloured vermouth-like beverage that even my alcohol-forward friends found delicious to drink neat after dinner.
I thought those blackened walnuts might have one more flavourful steep left in them, so I poured a bottle of Loxton zero-alcohol Semillon Chardonnay over them to create a “white vermouth”, but the results were a little insipid. Yes, the mixture took on a little residual bitterness from the walnuts, but the white “wine” seems a tad too acidic, and even adding a touch of honey to sweeten it didn’t really produce a passable vermouth flavour profile.
Still, I’ll keep it around to add to zero-proof cocktails and try again next year!
Apparently, it’s popular to make vermouth this way, using actual red or white wine, in France, so stay tuned.
WINNER WINNER — BEFORE AND AFTER DINNER
Served as an aperitif before dinner, splashed into a cocktail or sipped after dinner as a digestif, nocino is a versatile addition to the home bar.
Though some may find nocino an acquired taste, this bittersweet green walnut liqueur is having a moment, and turning heads at spirit competitions around the world. Ampersand’s Nocino! was named best in the liqueur class and overall Spirit of the Year 2021 at the Canadian Artisan Spirit Competition (CASC) and Moldova’s Nucata Pomul Regal won a gold medal at the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) 2024.
I bottled my nocino in December and I was very pleased with the results — a dark, slightly sweet, barely bitter amaro that added much to our holiday libations, splashed into a whisky or brandy cocktail, subbed into a negroni or sipped straight after a big meal.
The new year is just now upon us and when June rolls around, I will again be scouring my neighborhood for green walnuts, at their peak, to make a double (or triple) batch of this unique boozy brew!
COCKTAIL RECIPES:
Here are a few ideas from Ampersand Distilling for shaking up some tasty cocktails using their Nocino! green walnut liqueur.
AMPERSAND NOCINO! NEGRONI
1 oz Nocino! Green Walnut Liqueur
1 oz Ampersand Gin
1 oz Campari
Add ingredients to ice filled shaker. Stir and strain into chilled cocktail glass.
AMPERSAND NOCINO! ALEXANDER
1 oz Nocino!
2 oz Cowichan XXO Brandy
1 oz heavy cream
1/2 oz simple syrup
Grated nutmeg
Combine ingredients in an ice filled shaker and shake vigorously. Fine strain into a chilled coupe glass and garnish with grated nutmeg.
©CindaChavich2025
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