Antonio Molinari, the entrepreneur president of Molinari Italia, who, together with his father and his brothers, made Sambuca, the star anise-based liqueur, died on Saturday morning at the age of 81. His wife Daniela and their children Angelo, Inge and Mario announced his death with a note. “Brilliant man and far-sighted entrepreneur” who, as his relatives write in the message, “dedicated his life to the company and family, from an early age” together with “his father Angelo and the brothers Mafalda and Marcello, then took the reins bringing it, with passion and dedication, thanks to its strong entrepreneurial intuition and its innovative and unconventional vision, to today’s success and launching it internationally. All employees and collaborators cling to the pain of the Molinari family and honor its memory by drawing inspiration from the values of responsibility, honesty and respect of which he has always been a promoter ».
The history of Sambuca is intertwined with that of the company founded in 1945 by his father Angelo Molinari and with which his sons Marcello, Mafalda and, since 1967, Antonio have worked. The Sambuca produced differs from the others on the market because it is based on a formula based on “star anise”, and as it is “precious”, it adds the name “extra”. The product began to become popular in the 1950s and 1960s, when the phenomenon of Sweet life told by Federico Fellini and the barmen of the bars in Via Veneto offer Sambuca with a coffee bean: thus the «Sambuca con la mosca» is born. In 1959 the first factory was built and the company also advertised with television and radio commercials with testimonials such as Carlo Giuffré, the top model Veruska, Adriano Panatta, Paolo Stoppa and Rina Morelli, Walter Chiari, Sidney Rome, the Formula 1 champion. Mario Andretti and, in recent years, José Mourinho. Among the curiosities mentioned on the company’s website, also the letter written by Frank Sinatra in which he praises the Sambuca of which he was a great admirer.