Mancino Vermouth – Rosso Amaranto

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

Made with an infu­sion of 38 dif­fer­ent botan­i­cals, from herbs, to roots, to peels, it is a rud­dy ama­ranth red with flash­es of caramel when held up to the light. Its aro­mas are savory, mesquite and dried oregano mixed with a touch of black­ber­ry and a tiny saline hit. This for­ti­fied wine is beau­ti­ful­ly sweet and has a bal­anced taste — chock full of Christ­mas spices like cin­na­mon and dried orange and clove, plus juniper, vanil­la, and toast­ed wood — fin­ished with the sig­na­ture amaro smoke and bitterness.

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

This sweet ver­mouth is per­fect in two well-known clas­sic cock­tails: the vin­tage Negroni and the indomitable Man­hat­tan. For a Negroni, mix in a near-even 25ml of gin and Cam­pari bit­ters each, about 50ml of this ver­mouth, and stir it up with a dash or two of orange and grape­fruit bit­ters. Strain over ice in a rock glass, add a twist of orange, and enjoy. To make a Man­hat­tan, we rec­om­mend rye whiskey — 70ml or so, to taste — with about 40ml of ver­mouth. Stir in a dash or two of Angos­tu­ra bit­ters and ice, then strain into a chilled coupe. It’s the per­fect gentleman’s drink, and one that will put even the ladies in a New York state of mind.

TI AMO, AMARO

The unmis­tak­able amari liquors of Italy, princes among bit­ter­sweet diges­tifs, are dif­fi­cult to clas­si­fy. They fol­low the typ­i­cal con­struc­tion for bit­ters: an alco­hol base, a fla­vor­ing as a top­per, with the bit­ter­ing ele­ment sand­wiched in between. As many as six­ty dif­fer­ing botan­i­cals go into fla­vor­ing an amaro — but it’s the notable use of worm­wood that gave Gian­car­lo Man­ci­no the inspi­ra­tion to use this liqueur as inspi­ra­tion for his Rosso Amaro Vermouth.

Storage Instructions

Store your unopened bot­tle of ver­mouth in a dark, cool pantry, ide­al­ly between 15 to 18°C. Unopened bot­tles can last up to 4 years. Once the bot­tle has been opened, you can store it in the fridge with its orig­i­nal stop­per. Cold slows down oxi­da­tion reac­tions, keep­ing your bot­tle as fresh as pos­si­ble for up to one month.