NOTES OF INTEREST: Small batch, craft, infusion of botanicals, biodynamic viognier wine base. Made in the Yarra Valley by winemakers with an inquisitive sense of spirits...
Vermouth has a long and surreal history, on the fringes of apothecary, art and medicine.
This vermouth has small and exacting measures of botanicals, including wormwood, juniper, gentian, bay leaf, Cinchona bark, Seville orange, Meyer lemons, native limes, cumquats and orris root. Most of the botanicals were grown on our Yarra Valley Vineyards.
The medieval treatise ‘Causes & Cures’ recorded the beneficial and restorative powers of all known herbs and spices.
Certified Biodynamic Viognier grapes are hand-picked, whole bunched pressed and undergo a wild ferment in French puncheons and barriques. The wine is fermented to 14% alcohol. The botanicals are macerated separately in the fortifying spirit (a distillate of the mother wine, done with the help of friends at Four Pillars Distillery down the road) and the blended aromatic spirit is then used to fortify the mother wine to 17% alcohol.
The resulting vermouth is racked, coarse filtered and bottled with only a minimal amount of sulphur. Keep chilled and pour over ice with a sliver of orange and a twisted, fresh bay leaf, or as a versatile accompaniment to craft spirits and cocktails. The aromas are citrus and exotic spices, the palate tense and appetisingly bitter.