It is a liqueur of marasca cherries (a sour cherry variety exclusively cultivated by Luxardo) – another version of cherry brandy. It is obtained by the infusion of marasca juice. Luxardo cherry liqueur was renamed with the curious name of Sangue Morlacco (Morlacco blood) by the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio in 1919, at the time of the Fiume military expedition, due to its dark red colour (the word Morlacco derives from the name of a proud people of the Dalmatian hinterland who defended the borders of the Republic of Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries).