Vermouth De Muller Reserva

De Muller was founded in Tarragona, Catalonia, in 1851 and has held the title of Purveyor to the Spanish Royal Household since 1904, its coat of arms still carried on the labels. The winery is known for both its altar wines and its vermouths, and the Reserva is the most elegant of the three in the range, made to traditional house recipes. The Catalan vermouth method starts from a base of local wine, fortified and steeped with wormwood and a range of Mediterranean herbs, roots and spices that give the aromatic and bitter backbone of the style. What sets the Reserva apart is a longer period of ageing in oak, which through slow oxygen exchange softens the wine and develops the roasted, nutty and chocolatey notes that mark it out, while caramelised must adds sweetness and depth of colour. The nose is sweet, with tannic, woody notes and raisined fruit. The palate keeps that sweetness and adds roasted nuts, cocoa and coffee, finishing balsamic, long and persistent. Serve over ice with orange as an aperitif, or neat at cool cellar temperature as a digestif. The cocoa and coffee depth also makes it a partner for dark chocolate and caramel puddings.