Red Meadow Amaro: Our Take on an Old Tradition
Red Meadow Amaro just earned a Gold Medal and a 90-point score from the Beverage Testing Institute — the same independent panel that rates spirits from around the world by blind tasting. For a Montana-made amaro going up against Italian classics in its category, that's a real result. But the story behind the bottle matters as much as the medal.
Our Red Meadow Amaro was awarded a Gold Medal by the Beverage Testing Institute!
Why We Made an Amaro
Amaro has been a fixture of Italian drinking culture for well over a century — bittersweet, herbal, meant to open an appetite before dinner or settle one after. For most of that history, it stayed largely Italian. That's changed over the last decade or so: craft distilleries across the U.S. have started making their own versions, not by copying the Italian originals line for line, but by applying the same idea — herbs, roots, and bark, macerated and balanced — to what's actually around them.
We wanted in on that. Not because flavored liqueurs are trendy, but because amaro is genuinely useful — in a spritz, in a Negroni, or just poured over ice at the end of a long day — and we wanted a version of it that was ours.
What Makes It Ours
Red Meadow takes its name from Red Meadow Lake, a quiet, out-of-the-way spot in northwest Montana — the kind of place worth the extra effort to reach. The amaro is built the traditional way: sixteen carefully selected herbs, roots, and bark, macerated slowly in neutral spirit until their flavor and aroma fully infuse, then lightly sweetened to bring the natural bitterness into balance rather than cover it up.
Red Meadow Lake, the northwest Montana spot our amaro is named for.
We'll be straightforward about something: amaro's traditional botanicals — things like gentian root and cinchona bark — aren't Montana plants. They're not native to anywhere in North America. Every American amaro maker, including us, is working with some ingredients sourced from wherever that tradition has always gotten them. What makes Red Meadow ours isn't a claim that every root came off a Montana hillside — it's the balance we built with them, and the place we named it after.
What the Judges Found
The panel described a dark-brown pour with aromas and flavors of kola nut, hay, and ginger cookies, a sweet medium-to-full body, and a peppery finish carrying notes of coffee, yogurt, and thyme. Their summary: a mellow, elegant, lightly fruity amaro built for spritzes.
Tasting Notes from the Beverage Tasting Institute.
That matches how we'd describe it ourselves — herbal and earthy up front, with a smooth, lingering finish that doesn't overstay its welcome.
How to Drink It
Red Meadow is built to do more than one job:
As a spritz — 2 oz Red Meadow Amaro over ice, topped with tonic water, finished with a fresh orange garnish. The simplest way to see what the judges were talking about.
In a Negroni — Red Meadow stands in for the more familiar Italian amaros, bringing the same bittersweet backbone with its own herbal character.
Neat, over ice — for anyone who wants the full sixteen-botanical profile with nothing else in the way.
Speaking of Negronis — Negroni Week runs September 21–27 this year, and we'll have more on that shortly!
Ready to try Red Meadow? We ship almost everywhere!
Order Red Meadow Amaro online — just $20 flat-rate shipping on orders under $200, and it's free once you hit $200+.
💛 One quick note for our Montana friends (and a few other states): state alcohol laws mean we currently can't ship to AL, AK, HI, ID, MA, MI, MS, MT, OK, or UT.
If you're in Montana, no worries — swing by our tasting room in Coram or grab a bottle at your local Montana liquor store instead!
About Glacier Distilling
Glacier Distilling is a small-batch craft distillery in Coram, Montana, just outside Glacier National Park. We make whiskey and spirits the Montana way—with local grains, real fruit, pure glacial water from the Northern Rockies, and a hands-on approach from start to finish. Every bottle is crafted right here in Coram, with a focus on where it comes from and what goes into it.
Come see us: Visit our tasting room near Glacier National Park to taste our spirits, enjoy a cocktail, and discover bottles you won’t always find anywhere else.
Shop online: Can’t make it to Montana? Select Glacier Distilling spirits are available to order online and ship to eligible states through our licensed partners at Big Thirst. Shop our Online Store >
Red Meadow Amaro just won Gold — sixteen herbs, roots, and bark, macerated the traditional way, named for a quiet lake in northwest Montana.