Vermouth La Madre Negre

Vermouth La Madre is made at Batea, in the Terra Alta zone of Tarragona in Catalonia, a brand that sets out to rework the classic red vermouth template. La Madre Negre is built on a wine base fortified to 15 percent and aromatised by maceration with herbs, spices and botanicals, with wormwood providing the bitter spine that gives vermouth its name. Sugar sets the sweet red style, while the maceration draws out both the perfumed aromatics and the bittering phenolics that frame the palate. The colour is a deep cherry red. The nose pairs bright citrus with a floral lavender note and red fruit. The palate is sweet and botanical, carrying cherry and red berries, orange peel and liquorice, before a bitter herbal finish. Serve well chilled over ice with an orange or lemon twist, or build it into a negroni or americano where its bitterness and red fruit hold their own.