St. Petroni Vermú Rojo

The first wine at the Itsy Bitsy Bodegas tasting at Devour Madrid, is in fact a vermouth not a wine. OK I know that technically as fermented grapes they are a type of wine, but not to me. I’ve never been keen on Vermouth. It’s an odd flavour. In fact there are only two out the many I’ve tried that I like. The St Petroni Vermú Rojo is one of them.

That may be because it is made from Albariño grapes, which I love. Given that Albariño is a white wine grape it seems odd that this is a red vermouth, though they do a white vermouth as well. It is infused with 29 different herbs and botanicals and the colour comes from soaking it in hibiscus rather than the more usual caramel so it has less sugar: 35g versus the more normal 100g.

It has a dark amber colour and the heavy typical vermouth scent of sweetness, dried fruit and spices, but over this a lovely smell of mountain herbs: rosemary and thyme.

These herbs come across in the taste, especially the rosemary, along with the dried fruit. Whilst this is sweeter than your average wine it is not overly sweet and is a very smooth drink. The herbs balance out the fruit nicely giving it a nice refreshing and lingering finish.