FORTIFIED WINE - 2000

Very dark savoury aromas. Dark elderberry. More bramble than blackcurrant. Very dry and firm and dense. Dry but slides over the palate – even though the tannins are very compact it remains fluid. Leaves your mouth feeling clean even though it is so mouthfilling. JULIA HARDING MW

A style first made by the Greeks in the time of Hippocrates, and flavoured by the Italian herb of the same name Vermouth. Primitivo Quiles have made this wine since the 1920s. It's bottled at 15% alcohol, which is 3% natural from fermentation, and 12% of fortification. 9 degrees of potential alcohol are unfermented, realising 150g/l of residual sugar. The wine base is Moscatel, flavoured with aromatic natural herbs - wormwood, sage, fennel, ginger, cardamom, and clove. This version is called 'Rojo' as the use of the Arrope (cooked sweet must) gives the vermouth a reddish hue. The Arrope also contributes to the sweetness of the wine.

Bittersweet, soft and gently herbal with kola bitterness and perfume at back after a nice soft fruit winey middle. There's some fruit succulence, some tannin chew, and a textural progress from stony, through nutty to bitters. Great served straight up on tons of ice with citrus slices.

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This Vermouth has been made from a selection of casks of Monteagudo Amontillado Solera, which have been used as cuvee for the production of this Goyesco Ambar Vermouth.

After selecting the wine, we have combined it with various natural extracts picked by our Enologist in order to achieve a perfect balance in terms of colour, bouquet and taste. Some of these natural extracts are wormwood, gentian, bitter orange peel, sage and other aromatic plants that have been combined in the appropriate proportions to ensure a different character in our vermouth. All botanicals have been macerated separately to ensure an optimal extraction of flavours and scents.

Atamán is a traditional Barbadillo brand, which was once hugely popular, but got lost somewhere along the way. Thanks to Armando Guerra, Barbadillo’s ‘special projects’ guy, it has been rediscovered as a small batch production of Vermut (note, it’s not referred to as ‘Vermouth’ in Andalusia, but Vermut). It is made using a Manzanilla base, and blended with a small portion of incredibly concentrated old Vermouth and rare vinos quinados (Quinine wines), which have been ageing in the Barbadillo cellars for circa 50 years. Vinos quinados are typically bitter, aromatised aperitivos made from chinchona bark, the main source of Quinine, which became a wonder drug used to treat malaria, among other health dispositions, in the 18th century when it was introduced to Europe. Atamán Vermut is comprised of 20 different aromatics, locally sourced from Andalusia: quassia bark (amargo), absinth, rosemary, elderberry, and of course, the defining feature of Andalusia’s foodscape – the Seville orange.

Atamán sits up on a high pedestal as THE ultimate dirty-martini vermut. The bitter charm and savoury glory of artichoke and green olive brine balance superbly with the juxtaposing muscovado sugar, sweet Seville orange peel, and eucalyptus. This Vermut is complex, elegant, and, in its own spectacularly bitter way, loaded with charisma. By all means, pour it on ice with a citrus garnish – delicious! - but if you are going to choose one way to drink this Vermut – it is with olives and (lots of) gin!