Dolia

22/04/2026

14/04/2026

Nicolas Maiarelli had no experience in the beverage industry when he started IESSI Alcohol-Free Aperitifs. He was a financial controller at L’Oréal.

The product came from his grandmother’s homemade amaro recipe. He found a distillery in Trieste willing to help.

When one of the workers tried an early sample and said “I only smoke when I drink, but when I drink this, I crave a cigarette” — he knew it was done.

IESSI refused to position itself as a healthy alternative to alcohol. Instead it embraced the aesthetic of traditional spirits and made it unmistakably its own.

In this episode:
🔸 Developing IESSI from scratch
🔸 Building on-trade distribution from zero
🔸 Why 80% of revenue is B2B
🔸 How to choose the right distributors
🔸 Brand building in a new category

Link in bio.