ET,
Gran Classico is my favorite amaro. The two amaros I currently have are Gran Classico and Cynar. Both are great, and Averna is really solid as well. You won't go wrong w/ any of them, but they are all pretty different.
Averna IIRC is like a little more balanced Fernet. So it's pretty sweet and syrupy and thick, w/ a pretty prominent bitter herbal characteristic.
I just poured myself some Cynar and Gran Classico to give more accurate descriptions of those. I found a special shot glass for the Gran Classico in honor of 2p2.
OK, so the Gran Classico, the herbal component is way less than most amaros. It has a bitterness reminiscent of Campari, but I find Campari kind of extreme and also sort of sickly sweet. This is like a little less sweet and a little less bitter, just overall more balanced. And it has fruity element to it. So like a bitter orange taste w/ a whole bunch of other herbal notes around it. Love this stuff and it works well w/ so many different spirits.
The Cynar is much more like the Averna/Fernet type herbal flavor, but it's also more balanced IMO. I'd def choose Cynar over Averna. This has a little more herbal/vegetal type bitterness to it, and like the Gran Classico is one of the more balanced amaros IMO - it doesn't have that cloying sweetness that turns me off in some.
So, yeah, I love the Gran Classico, but it's a bit of a different flavor profile than a lot of other amaros. I guess it's prob amari actually, but whatever.
Here's a visual comparison of the two featuring a sweet old-school PartyPoker shot glass: