In 1905, Gennaro Fabbri took over an old general store with a wine cellar in Portomaggiore, in the province of Ferrara, and began producing liqueurs. Thus began the distillery “Premiata Distilleria Liquori G. Fabbri”, now known as “Fabbri 1905”.

Gennaro was born in the Ferrara area on a cold day in January 1860 and so owes his name not to Neapolitan roots, but to the month in which he entered the world. As a young man, he held many jobs and stood out for his entrepreneurial spirit, his skill and, above all, his ideas. The chance to go out on his own presented itself in 1905 at the age of 45, when he already had two sons, Aldo and Romeo.

There was a small general store with wine cellar in Portomaggiore. The business was for sale, but Gennaro didn’t have enough money. So his older brother came to his aid, giving him a loan that Gennaro was able to quickly repay.

Gennaro converted the general store into a shop for the production and sale of liqueurs, to which he gave evocative names inspired by the times, such as Primo Maggio (May 1st, May Day, Labor Day in Europe) and Amaro Carducci (after Giosuè Carducci, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906). Right from the start, the building bore the sign “Premiata Distilleria Liquori G. Fabbri”. But this was only the beginning of a business venture that was to grow beyond the rosiest of expectations clear into the next millennium.