MORETTI
Heineken UK
Italy, 4.6% ABV
Moretti is from Italy of course: it’s Sophia Loren; it’s Dolce & Gabbana; it’s Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn gliding through the streets of Rome on a Vespa… it’s all of these things and more – things that make the country the planet’s capital of chic. But if this is the case then why oh why does one of Italy’s leading beers picture a man who for all the world looks like an extra from Heidi on the front of its bottles? There he is, all Bavarian hat and bristling moustache, looking like he’s more concerned about his goat herd than la dolce vita. As ever, though, there’s a story behind it. Moretti was first brewed in 1859 by Luigi Moretti in a small quiet town in Northern Italy. It wasn’t until 1942, however, that the character depicted on the label first arrived on the scene, when a descendent of Luigi, Leo Menazi Moretti, spotted a moustachioed old man sitting at a table in a local restaurant. Leo believed that the old gentlemen embodied the character and personality of the actual beer – genuine, traditional and authentic – and took a photograph of him. The image was retouched in colour and has since been used on millions of bottles of Moretti. The old man’s payment? ‘A glass of what I am drinking is sufficient for me,’ he told Moretti (in Italian, presumably). The beer itself has won countless awards (it recently claimed the gold medal at the Brewers Association World Beer Cup) and is a wonderfully light and charming drink. RM
