El Bandarra Al Fresco - Barcelona Aperitivo, Drink with Tonic or as a Spritz, Bittersweet, Alternative to Pink Gin, Notes of Grapefruit and Mediterranean Botanicals - 1 Litre Bottle, 14% ABV

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Alex: Hipsters are doing the same. How it’s made is with white wine and it’s a fortified wine with a different number of botanicals. Wormwood gives it bitterness. It’s one of the key ingredients. We also use cinnamon, clove, bitter orange, and over 50 botanicals. It’s 45% ABV. Virgili Bros has a mission to “challenge the uptight nature of the drinks business by creating original and enjoyable concepts” such as its El Bandarra Vermut range. Susan: I love that it’s called the “Hour of Vermouth. It seems to last all afternoon, even though it’s technically one hour. So, when you went to your family, your dad and mom and said, “Do we make vermouth?” What was in your head? What did you want to create and how did you go about creating it? The taste of Barcelona in a bottle. Al Fresco is El Bandarra’s long drink, perfect to extend the good times with friends. Susan: Okay. Yes, we like our crazy ideas they’re going to work. Right. Where did you start? What was your thinking and how long did it take to get the first thing in the bottle that you liked?

Alex: I mean, first of all, Spain is a first producer in the world for olives. It’s the main producer and, I mean, we love olives and I have to say that I’m pretty much of an addict. Once I start eating olives, then I can’t stop. Maybe the Blanco or the Rosé we’ll put over ice with a slice of orange and we add an olive as well. It’s great because, as an aperitif, you have this perfect balance between the sweetness and bitterness of El Bandarra If they would drink another gin and tonic or some other drinks you would say, “Oh, this guy. or this mummy is getting drunk.” But since they are drinking vermouth, then it is socially accepted. It’s a nice way to meet friends and share some food before lunch. So that’s the moment – it’s called La Hora del Vermut. Alex: Yeah. Yeah. If you come to Barcelona or Madrid or any city all over Spain. It’s very typical. You will get this perfect serve with an olive, but it’s better if you ask for two olives. Always better than one. Alex: For the first three years was Rojo. We launched the brand in 2014, then after two years of seeding the brand, we drove the brand from regional to national in Spain. That was when we started having more distribution and more clients. Some clients asked us why didn’t make a white. So, we thought, “Okay, let’s make a white.” When we bottled the Blanco, at some point, we thought that maybe we put in too much vanilla. We thought it smelled too much of vanilla or we tired different botanicals.

A Spritz is simply made,” says Luca Missaglia, Italian bartending legend and the managing partner of aperitivo brand Amaro Santoni. “You make a Spritz with the heart. You make it how you feel, you know?” Made to be mixed with tonic, Al Fresco is soft, bittersweet, with notes of Mediterranean botanicals, a touch of grapefruit and drops of Barcelona-by-the-beach. It’s amazing how in many export markets and many in the UK, they understand perfectly the aperitif category. They love Barcelona and our energy as a brand. And it’s doing really well, even with the COVID restrictions. I mean, I haven’t met anyone that doesn’t like Al Fresco, so it’s great. We add some alcohol at the vermouth house for 15% of alcohol volume. And at that moment, we add the sweetness. The traditional method is adding a little bit of caramel and the old vermouths in Spain do it. It’s the traditional way to do it. An aperitivo cannot be without anything to eat,” he says. “At the same time as you're drinking, you eat the olives. I think that really completes the whole experience.”

That’s how we do it. It’s not fortified because we don’t add alcohol. The 14.5% of alcohol volume comes from the wine. I am so proud because we created Al Fresco to be mixed with tonic. It was not easy. I mean, when you will have the idea and then you start sampling and tasting, it’s hard work of course, although you are always drinking, but it’s a hard work.El Bandarra Vermouth stands as a testament to Spain's rich history of vermouth production. Crafted by the Virgili brothers, Albert and Alex, the brand showcases the traditions of their Catalan homeland. Fill a wine glass with ice and add the Amaro Santoni and Prosecco. Lightly stir, then garnish with two green olives. Savoia

Lively and refreshing in equal measure, Aker is made with rosé wine from Chapel Down, raspberry eau-de-vie from Capreolus, and a line-up of British botanicals. Think strawberries and cream in a glass, shot through with fresh herbs to temper the sweetness. Muddle a 50ml measure with mint and strawberries before topping with English sparkling wine and a dash of soda for a summer spritz. Perennially popular across Europe for centuries, many household names – including Campari and Aperol – continue to use the same sacred recipes, but there’s also a new wave of producers who have set out to shake up the status quo. How to drink apéritifs El Bandarra Vermouth is made from high-quality Macabeo and Xarel·lo grapes, native to the region. Once these grapes are transformed into wine, they are aged in wooden barrels and later macerated with a careful blend of botanicals, including wormwood, orange, and elderflower, among others. This intricate process provides the drink with its distinct flavour and aromatic profile.Susan: What was the flavor profile? Did you have an idea, or did you want to make it taste like something specific that you had before? It’s a business that has decreased a lot. During the Seventies, Eighties, the bulk wine business was huge. It was a lot of liters and nowadays there are beers and other drinks, but not wine. That’s our origin. Alex: We launch Al Fresco in July 2020. So, we were in the middle of a pandemic. We thought, okay. But I have to say that even from all from our learnings, mainly in the UK market, we tried to push the serve as how we drink it in Barcelona or in Madrid or all over Spain. The vermouths are made with grapes from the Virgili Bros vineyard at Casa Berger, near Barcelona in the Alt Penedès, which has been in continuous operation since 1878 and was bought by the Virgili family in 1962. They made vermouths for decades by the barrel for small local wine shops but launched their own brand with El Bandarra in 2014. Wanna get really wild? Spike your Spritz with a fun, flavoured liqueur or cordial. The team at British aperitivo brand Sipello like to use an elderflower liqueur in their Spritz (see their recipe below), but you can add anything with complementary flavours: coffee, fruit-based and floral liqueurs are all fair game. GO FOR THE GARNISH