Italicus Italy then selected the eight finalists who competed to win and qualify for the international final in Rome on 29 May. This year, Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto launched the fourth edition of the Art of Italicus Aperitivo Challenge, a competition that asked Barkeeper to create an original aperitivo-style cocktail recipe inspired by any art form and containing at least 4 cl of Italicus.
The competition was open to countries all over the world. Switzerland took part in the competition for the first time. It was exciting to see the creativity with which the bartenders presented their drinks to the expert jury of Peter Roth, Taweechai Frick and Julio Enzler at the Swiss final.
Ranking list
After a two-hour competition, which was very charmingly moderated by Jessica Witzel (Brand Manager Italicus at Pernod Ricard), the winners were decided.
- 1st place: Marco Colelli with "Ensemble" (Tales Bar, Zurich)
- 1st place: Alessia Guerzoni with "Isabella" (Parkhotel Delta, Ascona)
- 1st place: Waldimir Reichert with "Il taglio d'oro" (Werk 8, Basel)
The other finalists were: Matthieu Doucet (Canvas Bar at The Dolder, Zurich), Christos Kostopoulos (Lora, Basel), Luca Huber (Bar am Wasser, Zurich), Victor Mary (Manhattan Café, Geneva) and Severin Bucher (Gütsch Bar, Lucerne).
Now it remains to be hoped that Marco Colelli will pull the coals out of the fire for Switzerland at the international final in Rome on 29 May and become Italicus' "Barartist of the year".