VERMUT CULTURE
La hora del vermut
The hour before lunch, and how to bring it home.
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The hour before lunch
Where I grew up, Sunday has a fixed point. Around midday, before lunch, someone fills the glasses with ice, cuts an orange and opens a tin. That is la hora del vermut, the vermut hour.
It is not really about the drink. It is the hour when the family arrives and friends meet in the plaza, when nobody is in a hurry and the table fills with small things to pick at. In my family, a day with a vermut was a day worth celebrating.
You do not need to be in Spain for it. You need a bottle, ice, something salty, and people you like.
What vermut is
Vermut is how we say vermouth in Spain. It is the same drink: wine, strengthened with a little spirit, lightly sweetened, and infused with herbs, roots, spices and citrus peel. The one plant every vermouth must have is wormwood. It gives the bitterness, and the name: Wermut is the German word for wormwood.
The modern recipe comes from Turin, at the end of the 1700s. In the 1800s it reached Spain and took root in my part of the country, around Reus, near Tarragona. By the early 1900s the town had dozens of vermouth houses.
Spanish vermut is usually a little sweeter and softer than Italian vermouth. It is made to be drunk on its own, over ice.
How to serve it
- Take a short glass and fill it with ice.
- Pour about 60 ml of vermut, cold from the fridge.
- Add a slice of orange and an olive. With a blanco, a slice of lemon works too.
- For a longer drink, add a splash of soda water. In Spain it comes from a sifón, the soda siphon that sits on the bar.
That is all. No shaker and no recipe. Once a bottle is open, keep it in the fridge. More in Questions & Answers.
What goes on the table
A vermut never comes alone. The rule is salty, simple and small: olives stuffed with anchovy, potato chips, a tin of mussels in escabeche, cockles or clams. Open the tins at the table and eat with a toothpick.
One habit to copy: spoon the escabeche from the mussels over the chips.
The styles
Not all vermut is red. These are the styles in our range.
- Rojo. The classic: dark, sweet and gently bitter, with caramel, orange peel and spice. The place to start: Padró & Co. Rojo Clásico or Myrrha Rojo.
- Blanco. Pale, floral and citrusy, and a little lighter. Try Myrrha Blanco.
- Negre. Dark, herbal and deep, coloured with green walnuts. It is Casa Mariol's own recipe.
- Amargo. For people who like bitter. Padró & Co. Rojo Amargo waits two years in chestnut casks.
- Reserva. Rested in wood for a year or more. Rounder, and made for sipping slowly. Try Padró & Co. Reserva Especial or Blanco Reserva.
- With fruit, or dry. La Madre makes a white with a note of green apple, a rosé with a note of strawberry, and a dry one made for tonic and cocktails.
When
The classic hour is before lunch, at the weekend. But vermut does not keep to one hour any more. It turns up again at tardeo, the late-afternoon habit of drinks and tapas that runs into the evening. Any hour works, as long as nobody is rushing.
Start here
New to vermut? Start with a rojo, a blanco and something for the table.
