Bordiga Rosso di Torino Vermouth 750ml

Bordiga was founded in 1888 by Pietro Bordiga, a bartender and herbalist working in Torino during the city's golden age of cafe culture, where his vermouth recipe first won favor with local bars before he began producing it commercially. He set up his distillery an hour south in Cuneo, close to the Occitan Alps where his wild botanicals grew, and the company remains family-run there today, with his great-grandson, also named Pietro, still living above the original building and its historic pot still.

The rosso is built on a base of Piedmontese white wines, including Moscato, Cortese, and Trebbiano, along with Nebbiolo, which supplies the red color naturally rather than through caramel or additives. Around twenty-five botanicals go into the blend, many hand-picked in the Occitan Alps and individually infused in wheat spirit before being combined, among them wormwood, dittany, elderflower, cinchona bark, gentian root, orange peel, cardamom, and saffron. It is bottled at eighteen percent alcohol.

Amber-red in the glass, it opens with spiced aromas of poached pear, pink grapefruit, and orange peel, backed by a faint biscuit note. The palate is vinous and lighter-bodied than most Torino-style rossos, moving from an initial sweetness into a long, gently tannic bitterness with hints of cinnamon and cola. Sip it over ice with an orange twist, build it into an Americano, or serve alongside dark chocolate or spiced roasted nuts.