Gioacchino Sorrentino: Nothing Is Excessive

The Amalfi Coast, southern Italy. Halfway down the hillside stands the Furore Grand Hotel, and by its pool you’ll find the Ria Lounge Bar. In front of you is a wide, open infinity pool, and beyond it the cobalt-blue sea stretches out to the horizon.

Open the menu and the first thing you see is this line:

“Nothing is excessive, everything has meaning.”

Turn the page and the signature cocktails are listed. At first glance, nothing stands out. But once you hear the person who created them talk about them, you start to see the menu in a completely different way.

That person is bar manager Gioacchino Sorrentino, a bartender who became a world champion at an international cocktail competition in 2022.

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What made a champion

The Netherlands, 2022. At the final of the No.3 Gin Pursuit of Perfection, which brought together bartenders who had battled their way through heats in the UK, Italy and Germany, Gioacchino took the top prize.

“It was truly a dream come true.”

What took him all the way to the top? The answer lies in the path he had walked up to that point.

At 18, he left his home in southern Italy for London. His first job was as a barback at the members’ club The Arts Club: breaking ice, polishing glasses and getting everything ready behind the bartenders. From there he moved behind the bar of a long-established restaurant, and eventually crossed the world to Australia. Country after country, style after style, he made his own way through very different workplaces.

Those experiences shaped the idea that lies at the heart of who he is today:

“A bartender only becomes great when they encounter different styles and ways of working behind the bar.”

That’s why he always gives young bartenders the same advice: try everything. Busy, high-volume cocktail bars, fine-dining restaurants, luxury hotels. Do that, and your eyes open to completely different cultures.

Even as a world champion, he still enters competitions. They teach him how to control his emotions under pressure, and they connect him with bartenders from all over the world, and those things matter to him. “I’ll keep competing for as long as I’m behind the bar,” he says.

When he won in 2022, he described his cocktail like this:

“It’s super simple but also super complex, just like my personality.”

Four years later, in our interview, he said exactly the same thing.

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“Simple, but complex”

When asked which cocktail best represents him, he answered without hesitation:

“Definitely The Fjord Stone. To put it simply, it’s simple but complex, just like my personality.”

The drink is inspired by À la Louisiane, one of his favourite whiskey-based classics.

First, he fat-washes bourbon with coconut oil. Fat-washing means mixing a melted fat into a spirit, chilling it until the fat solidifies, and then removing it. The spirit picks up the aroma and rich texture of the oil, and the result is an incredibly silky bourbon.

He then adds sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, which he calls one of his absolute favourite liqueurs, a precise touch of absinthe, Peychaud’s bitters and a few drops of saline solution, and stirs it all down.

But the real star is the garnish.

He takes the coconut oil left over from the fat-washing, mixes it with water, salt and flour to make a batter, and fries it in a small pan right in front of you as he starts making the drink. The result is a coconut oil tuile, a thin, crisp wafer.

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What comes back to the glass

The coconut tuile fried before your eyes is just one example. With Gioacchino’s cocktails, it’s often the garnish that steals the show.

The Green Loop is another. It was selected as a semi-finalist in the Cointreau Margarita Challenge 2026, the Margarita competition hosted by Cointreau.

Built on tequila and Cointreau, it reimagines the Margarita through the lens of Cointreau, paired with a cucumber and cardamom seed cordial. The green freshness of the cucumber meets the spice of cardamom, while saline solution brings out freshness and depth across the whole drink.

On the side of the glass sits an edible aromatic sponge, made from the cucumber peel and cardamom seeds left over from the cordial, combined with mint.

Both the coconut oil tuile and this sponge are born from what was left over in the process of making the cocktail. Why go that far?

“I simply don’t see myself just making a cocktail and throwing away ingredients without a reason.”

This is the core of how Gioacchino creates cocktails. He has been focused on zero waste for more than seven years now. He uses a single ingredient again and again through different techniques, and he chooses ways of working that put no unnecessary burden on the environment or on the venue he works for. Today, he never creates a cocktail without this mindset.

“Every new recipe begins with a plan for the entire lifecycle of the ingredient,” he says.

Just as the name The Green Loop suggests, the circle closes, from ingredient back to glass. For him, sustainability isn’t a small clever touch. It’s what the cocktail is.

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A cocktail loved by travellers

The Cliffside Nectar is the most ordered signature cocktail among guests.

At its heart is Tanqueray Gin infused with shiso leaves, which give it a fresh herbal note, slightly reminiscent of basil. Italicus, a bergamot liqueur from Calabria in southern Italy, adds a bright citrus freshness, and it’s paired with a pink peach cordial.

The aroma of peach is extremely delicate and disappears quickly when heated. So he uses no heat at all. Instead, he uses the power of osmosis to slowly draw out the juice and aroma of the peach, a method called “cold osmosis”. He then adds citric acid to balance the acidity.

Finally, a few drops of saline solution, which naturally lift the flavour of every ingredient.

For the garnish, he uses the shiso leaves left over from the gin infusion and the peach pulp left over from making the cordial. These are dehydrated and baked until crisp, then turned into a peach and shiso tuile served alongside the glass.

Pink peach, southern Italian bergamot and Japanese shiso. Local ingredients at the core, combined with ingredients from around the world. That’s his style.

“The menu is rooted in the ingredients of this land. On top of that, I deliberately bring in select international ingredients and premium world spirits. That’s how regional flavours become modern, well-travelled cocktails that speak to an international palate.”

There’s also a little secret hidden in the name. “Cliffside Nectar” refers directly to the view from this hotel, which stands partway down a cliff that drops to the sea. A drink that combines local and international ingredients, finished with a name that captures the local landscape. It’s a lovely touch.

Look at the menu again with that in mind, and you’ll find more. The Fjord Stone, the drink he says represents him, is named after the “fjord” in the village of Furore, a narrow inlet where the sea cuts in between steep rock walls. It’s a stone from that inlet. The non-alcoholic Fury of the Sun is another one: once you know that “Furore” means “fury” or “rage” in Italian, it’s hard not to smile.

As Gioacchino puts it:

“From the choice of glass to the garnish, and even down to the name of the cocktail, everything is connected.”

The menu turns into a little puzzle. Once I noticed the meanings hidden in the names, it became fun, and I found myself wanting to know what the others meant.

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Three or four ingredients, no more

Both the Cliffside Nectar and The Fjord Stone have only a few ingredients on the menu. That’s no coincidence. It comes from a clear belief.

“Some people might think that something simple looks basic. But I believe simplicity is actually the most attractive way to create something. My motto is always: less is more.”

When you put too many ingredients into a drink, he says, it becomes almost impossible to understand them all in a single sip. That’s why he limits himself to a maximum of three or four ingredients, garnish included. He wants each element to be fully felt and appreciated. In exchange, he doesn’t hold back on the complex techniques needed to bring those few ingredients together perfectly.

So where do the ideas for new cocktails come from?

It all starts with a single ingredient. It could be a fruit, a herb or a spice. The moment he chooses it, he already knows how the drink will be made: shaken, stirred, built directly in the glass, or thrown, poured from a height to aerate it. Then he picks a base spirit that complements it, and finally he imagines a garnish using that very same ingredient. Sometimes he also starts from a classic cocktail and twists it using this approach.

What’s remarkable is that he builds most of it in his head.

“I map out the combination in my mind, and if I’m satisfied, I test it physically. It works out about 90% of the time.”

If you deeply understand the spirits and ingredients behind your bar and have a well-trained palate, you can create an exceptional cocktail in no time. That’s what he believes.

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Everything starts with the classics

Gioacchino’s menu has another side to it: classic cocktails, especially Martinis.

“A great bartender should first and foremost know the classics. Without a deep understanding of classic cocktails, you simply cannot be a truly great bartender.”

However much you know about advanced modern techniques or rare spirits, the foundation is always the classics. Even after more than ten years in hospitality, he says he’s still learning them.

When you know the classics inside out, you feel confident standing behind the bar in front of a guest. You can twist the base spirit on the spot to match a guest’s request. And when he creates a new signature cocktail, he often uses the structure of a classic as his starting point. For him, the classics are the blueprint.

Open the Martini list and the first thing it asks you is to choose your Martini. Dry, extra dry or wet? Dirty, with olive brine, or even filthier? From there, the list moves on to the Vesper, the Tuxedo, the 50-50 and the Perfect. Each one is crafted with the highest level of precision.

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Another thing he cares deeply about is aperitivo, the Italian ritual of the pre-meal drink.

Before lunch or dinner, or in the early afternoon: he wants guests from abroad to discover how Italians enjoy that part of the day. The menu includes many cocktails created for aperitivo. Enjoyed before a meal, they help you appreciate the food that follows even more.

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From welcome to farewell

Some guests from abroad prefer to enjoy their meal with cocktails rather than wine. That’s why he has built a clear connection between the chef’s cuisine and his cocktails. Matching the acidity of a dish or echoing its herbal notes, the drinks are designed to elevate the food.

At a restaurant, the staff explain each dish as it arrives. At Ria, they do the same with cocktails. Before the glass is served, the team explains what’s in it. Every member of staff is trained to do this. So before the first sip, guests know exactly what they’re about to drink. Knowing what’s inside changes the way you taste the same cocktail.

Gioacchino calls this “a short masterclass”.

“Our goal is that every time a guest leaves, they walk away having learned something new.”

And what he values most of all is hospitality.

“Anyone can make a great cocktail, but not everyone can make a guest feel truly welcomed.”

From the first smile and greeting to the moment guests are politely seen off, every single interaction matters. That’s what Ria, and the entire Furore Grand Hotel, are aiming for.

Can Ria become a destination for cocktail lovers in its own right, beyond being a hotel bar? His answer: “100% yes.”

There’s the view across the coast, a breathtaking location. There’s live music every week. But the most important reason, he says, is the service and knowledge. In fact, many locals make a special trip just for an aperitivo or a digestif.

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What’s next for Ria

“There is always something new to explore.”

He keeps studying every day, and puts what he learns straight into his cocktails and the guest experience. He’s currently working on several major projects for Ria. He can’t reveal the details yet, but he left us with this:

“I will do everything in my power to establish this place as one of the best hotel cocktail bars in the world.”

His pursuit continues behind the bar.

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