Vermouth (also spelled vermouth or vermouth) is not a recent drink.
If we are strict, already in classical Greece the doctor and philosopher Hippocrates (460 BC) macerated some flowers and herbs in wine,
a drink that in the Middle Ages was called Hippocratic wine
and was used to relieve stomach pain and improve stomach pain. Health.
Although in truth, the maceration hardly served to mask the bad taste of cheap wine ...
As we know it today, vermouth (a name that comes from the German term wermut, which means absinthe, one of its main ingredients) comes from Italy, where it was first popularized -by the work of the Turin winemaker Antonio Benedetto Carpano- and industrialized. -thanks to the brothers Luigi and Giuseppe Cora-, to spread throughout the rest of Europe.
It arrived in Spain at the end of the 19th century from the hand of the Italian producer Augustus Perucchi, who produced this drink for the first time in our country, a mixture of wine, mistelas, herbs, plants and roots, in Barcelona.
However, the honor of making a purely Spanish vermouth is disputed by two brands: on the one hand,
Yzaguirre
in Reus (in 1884);
on the other, it is said that the
Melquíades Sáenz
winery
, in Huelva, was preparing its famous orange wine even before (the recipe dates back to 1870).
There is no unanimity ...
BE REBORN
In our country, this ancient drink has always been associated at aperitif time, with the aluminum bars of (almost) centuries-old taverns where it was served with or without a siphon in the company of a tapa of olives. Although for some time, perhaps due to the beer boom, the public forgot a bit about its existence ... the truth is that the expression "vermouth hour" was never lost and has always been associated with a social event. "Vermouth is not a fad, it is a tradition," says Carlos Muñecas (CEO of Bodegas Sanviver y Vermut Zarro). "That is why it remains in time and returns when the generational change occurs. Young people grow and their palates mature and then they begin to venerate that drink that until that moment seemed old to them."
In addition, in recent years, numerous newly minted labels have joined the classic references.
In this way, houses such as the aforementioned Yzaguirre (Reus) or Martínez Lacuesta (La Rioja) coexist with Jerez vermouths (Lustau or La Copa de González Byass), made with grapes from Penedés (El Bandarra) or in Tarragona (Casa Mariol) , from Madrid (Zarro), from Castellón (Sunday), from the Ribera del Duero (Gulf), Galicians (Nordesia, Petroni) ... The list could be endless, almost as long as the aperitif time can be extended.
The great vermouth bars of Spain
Having a good vermouth is something that can be done almost in any bar in Spain.
But there are specialized directions in which this drink has become a religion.
These are the essentials.
El Bandarra, from Penedés (8.50 euros).
Wineries houses
.
Avda. Ciudad de Barcelona, 23 (Madrid).
Quimet and Quimet
.
Poeta Cabanyes, 25 (Barcelona).
Mountain House.
Josep Benlliure, 69 (Valencia).
Arima.
Ponzano, 51 (Madrid).
Vizcaíno House.
Fair, 27 (Seville).
The Pretty.
San Ildefonso, 7 (Alicante).
The Ardosa.
Colón, 13 (Madrid).
Senyor Vermouth.
Provença, 85 (Barcelona).
Vermutería Martínez.
Galera, 33-35 (La Coruña).
Trencalós.
Vallespir, 73 (Barcelona).
The vermouth museum of Reus
.
Vallroquetes, 7 (Reus, Tarragona).
The Fabulous.
Slovakia, 7 (Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña).
The Commissary.
Belén, 5 and Echegaray, 16 (Madrid).
The Violet.
Vallehermoso, 62 (Madrid).
Puigmartí bar
.
Pugmartí, 12 (Barcelona).
The Vermuda.
Robí, 32 (Barcelona).
The Galaica.
Raíña, 18 (Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña).
Bombs, lizards and rockets.
Sierra Vieja, 61-Villa de Vallecas Market (Madrid).
Casa Montaña, a classic in Valencia.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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