Peroni Nastro Azzurro September 21, 2019

Buon pomeriggio, signore e signori. For today's post I'm staying in Europe. I'm taking the SiscoVanilla Beer Chronicles from Ireland to Italy to profile the Italian beer Peroni Nastro Azzurro.

 

While the Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer has been around since 1963, the Peroni Brewery was founded by Francesco Peroni who established his first brewery in Vigevano, Pavia province in 1846. The company and its beer became so popular that in 1864, a second brewery was built in the Italian capital of Roma with Francesco's son Giovanni Peroni taking over the reins. The war years would prove to be difficult for most breweries on the European continent but the years post 1950 and 1960 would prove to be a bounty for Italy. With its economy on the rise and the shift of population from rural areas to cities, Peroni Brewery grew by leaps and bounds.

In 1963, the Peroni Nastro Azzuro beer was launched for the international market and would have a major advertising campaign launched in 1968. Here are a couple of examples of those ads:

The ads would highlight a nautical theme that would hark back to 1933 when the Italian liner SS Rex won the coveted 'Blue Riband', a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by passenger liners. Blue Riband translates to 'Nastro Azzurro' in Italian.

By 2005 the Peroni Nastro Azzurro beer went through a rebranding with slight changes to its logo and bottles. The bottle neck was draped with a blue label aka blue ribbon that states the following:

Peroni Nastro Azzurro
Il gusto unico, secco e rinfrescante della birra premium italiana più bevuta al mondo
Prodotta in Italia

Peroni Nastro Azzurro 

The unique, dry and refreshing taste of the most popular Italian premium beer in the world 

Produced in Italy

As with the launch in 1963, the 2005 rebranding produced a number of different ad campaigns. One that stands out to me is the series of posters created by Italian artist Riccardo Guasco. Here are four of those posters: 

 

I had this beer at the Artichoke Basille's Pizzeria (59 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217) with two slices of their Margherita pizza late on Wednesday night. Hey, I had a hankering for a pizza and a brew after work 🍕🍺. 

So what did I think of it? I thought it was crisp, clean and a little dry with a slight bitter taste of the back end. It was a refreshing lager that paired well with the slices I was enjoying at almost 3am in the morning. I've seen Peroni of draft at a couple places on my excursions. I'm going to have to pop into one of those places and have a taste of it to see how it compares to their bottled version. Anyone up for an excursion? For my next post I'm staying in Europe just going up to Holland and profiling Grolsch Beer. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,

SiscoVanilla

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