Guerra Rojo Vermouth

Based in Bierzo, Guerra produced this Vermouth from 1879 until the 1960s, and has now resurrected and relaunched the product from a century-old recipe. It’s blended from local grapes, red Mencia and white Godello, and shows a profile that sits stylistically between classic vermouth and amaro (bitters), with a strong artichoke-like flavour on the palate, mixed with more vermouth-like cinnamon and other Christmas cake spices. Despite the sugar clearly in the mix, the finish comes across as rather dry and tonic thanks to that strong (and pleasant) bitter stream of flavour running from start to finish. Great complexity overall. I can see this starring in both pre-dinner cocktails, as well as solo on ice, or even after after dinner neat as a gentle, low-alcohol digestif. Score – 91. (John Szabo, MS, winealign.com, May 2021)