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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Twins Alex and Albert Virgili have drawn on their family’s wine expertise to develop El Bandarra Al Fresco which is a blend of local Grenache wines and natural Mediterranean botanicals including liquorice, mint, rose and citrus. It is cherry red in colour with ABV of 14.5%. Susan: Fab. Now I always end by asking my guests the same question: If you could have any drink anywhere right now, where would that be? 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. Alex: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They never get drunk. They always stay in this perfect level. We have a word in Spanish – it’s called piripi. When you feel you are a piripi – it’s this moment when you’re not drunk, but you’re you have this feeling. The grannies are the best.

Alex: Okay. My name is Alex Virgili and I’m from Barcelona. I was born in a family-owned winery in Barcelona province. I have a twin brother, I’m three minutes older than he. We are the young crowd of a winery.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. You add some caramel which gives the color and the sweetness. We use a white wine, not red wine. We have 500-liter barrels at the winery with all vermouth. We use the Solera system. We refresh old vermouth with new vermouth and it has a lot of density. This vermouth, we call it the Elixir of Bandarra. We add some Elixir to each bottle of Bandarra. What it gives is a touch of the old vermouth. That’s how we make it. I have to say that also the tonic water means something to me. Like many of my friends, the first person that introduced me to tonic water was my grandma, because they drink a lot of tonic, so that’s where Al Fresco comes from. I think we should hear more and listen more to our grannies because they are amazing. I think it’s a universal concept – the respect and the energy of our grannies or grandmas. The wine balances the botanical profile and sweetness of the bitter, bringing dryness and effervescence to the mix.

A new vermouth created by two brothers in Barcelona to challenge “the uptight nature of the drinks business” is being launched in the UK. So, what we do with this wine is we make a maceration with wormwood to get the bitterness, but we also use different citrus, like grapefruit, bitter orange and different red fruits as well. So, more fruit, more than the ones that we use for El Bandarra vermouth. For Al Fresco, instead of caramel, we use nectar of must or the juice from the grapes for that touch of sweetness. We add a touch of must to give the sweetness. Alex: So, imagine when my grandparents started in 1962, basically they bought a winery and they started selling bulk wine. At that point, the wine consumption in Spain was so high. It was around 70 liters per person per year of consumption, which now is less than 20. That’s the reality.Susan: Now, you say that your family had a winery. Were they making vermouth? What kind of wines were they making? We realize also that there are some other spirit brands, or Aperitivo brands that appeal to women maybe. You don’t see that in Spain. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, in Spain, we have the macho Espanol, and they don’t drink vermouth, maybe they drink beer. What we realize is the Al Fresco has a perfect gender split, like 50/50. It’s very important for us to target as many people as possible. Alex: Yeah, at some point, we thought maybe we should add some more sweetness, but it has a good, really perfect balance between bitterness and sweetness. Maybe it’s a touch dry, but it’s not as dry as or more bitter as others, it’s a soft vermouth. It’s very soft. That’s what we did. We maintained the recipe. At that point, there was no branding. It was only in barrels. No branding. Susan: How were they drinking it? In the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties? Now, is it pretty much the same? I’m talking traditional vermouth drinking. It follows the success of their first three vermouths under the name of El Bandarra – Spanish for “the rogue”: Vermut Red, Vermut White and Vermut Rosé.

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.” Susan: Oh, that sounds divine. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for being on the show and, hopefully, I’ll see you in Formentera. Alex: We have an obsession for this. Now we are working on a campaign for Al Fresco, our new aperitive. In our new campaign, we will talk about our grannies, our abuela’s.For a properly English Spritz, snag a bottle of Sipello and get mixing. This brand, based in the Surrey Hills, makes its liquid with rhubarb sourced from UK farms, gooseberry, cinchona, elderflower and more, in a process inspired by the art of perfume making. SPRITZ IT