At Rey Fernando, two basic thermos are selected for vermouth: a 10-year-old Amontillado and a 10-year-old Pedro Ximenez. The dry Amontillado, made from 100% palomino grapes, is nicely supplemented with the sweet PX. The quality of those sherries is such that both can be sold perfectly in bottles. The herbs used for the vermut include wormwood, gentian, coriander, angelica root, sage and orange peel. That wormwood, or in German wermut, to which the drink owes its name, is one of the characteristic, bitter taste components of vermouth. In addition to these six botanicals, there are a handful of others, of course secret. Because every vermouth maker has his own recipe.
The blend of sherry wines and botanicals rests for about six months after the merger, after which the vermouth is bottled. The unique thing about the sherry vermut is that the wine no longer needs to be strengthened, as happened with Italian and French vermouth. The sherry has already been strengthened!
The taste of this vermut is very pronounced. Less suitable for a starting vermouth drinker, but very interesting and very interesting for the sherry enthusiast. Especially the herbs stand out, but also the silky texture.