Like most Americans, vermouth has never been a big favorite for me.
Sure, it’s an essential ingredient in a classic Negroni cocktail. But drink it straight up? No, thanks. Typically, it is either too sweet or too bitter or both at the same time.
Part of the great fun with wine, however, is making discoveries that change your opinions. Such is the case for me after discovering an incredibly special vermouth called Partida Creus “MUZ” Vermouth Natural, produced by Massimo Marchiori and Antonella Gerosa from their winery near Barcelona, Spain.
A 1-liter bottle goes for around $40 nationally according to www.wine-searcher.com. Also available in Pittsburgh at Solera Wine Co. in Lawrenceville.
A bit pricey? Perhaps.
But trust me, once you start sharing this well-chilled vermouth on a warm evening, the first bottle will empty quickly and you’ll be reaching for another to share. As with all Partida Creus’ wines, it is singularly delicious and refreshing.
Building a great vermouth
Architects by training, Marchiori and Gerosa grew up in Piedmont in Northwest Italy. Coming from families with agricultural roots, the partners bonded over a deep connection to and love for the land. Marchiori’s maternal great-uncle, who was a professional winemaker in Piedmont’s Monferrato subregion, influenced him greatly.
“In those days, all the wines we made were natural. We only used organic products in the vineyards,” Marchiori recalls in a documentary made by filmmaker Vincent Staropoli for Partida Creus’ American importer, Selections de la Viña.
In the 1990s, the couple moved to Barcelona in Spain’s Catalonia region to work as architects in the city’s vibrant urban real estate market. Yet, the slower agricultural life still beckoned.
So, in 2000, Marchiori and Gerosa bought a small farm about 40 minutes south of Barcelona in the Penedès, an area best known for its sparkling wines. The farm featured olive and almond trees scattered among the Mediterranean scrub of aromatic wild herbs. The couple’s goal was to produce organic foods for themselves.
As they began clearing tangled scrub and trees to grow vegetables, they discovered overgrown grapevines — indigenous local varieties such as the red-skinned Garrut (a close relation to Mourvèdre) and Sumoll, a drought-resistant, black-skinned grape that had fallen practically into extinction on international markets. Only the numerous wild boars on the property had an interest in the grapes at the time.
Marchiori and Gerosa resolved to reuse the sorry and neglected vines to begin making wines for their own enjoyment. As for boars, Marchiori reached a détente by providing organic feed to distract them from the grapes. When one grows large enough, Marchiori harvests it for pork.
As they enjoyed both the pork and homemade wines, Marchiori and Gerosa committed to go further with the wines.
“We decided only to make wines with local varieties, and we started buying parcels of old grapevines that others had practically abandoned in favor of more popular international varieties,” Marchiori recalls. “Local grape varieties have been linked with this place for centuries. They offer the best expression of this place.”
One thing led to another, and they found other folks enjoyed their preferred style of wines, too. Eventually they left their city jobs and founded Partida Creus to sell the wines commercially in 2007, finding a small, but intensely loyal international following.
“The most important thing is to feel what you do, and then do it with love,” says Marchiori, who has no formal winemaking background other than learning from his uncle.
“We try to capture the differences of each vintage. Every year we start from the beginning. As the season goes along, I begin to make the wines in my head, especially for the blended wines.”
Vivid freshness, pure fruit flavors, and lovely balance are the hallmarks of all Partida Creus’ wines. Their wines see minimal intervention during winemaking. They ferment the fruit with indigenous yeasts on the skins and do not use additives to manipulate the flavors and colors.
They neither fine nor filter the wines before bottling. And to let the fruit’s natural aromas and flavors shine, since 2013, they have not added extra sulfites to their final bottled wines.
In short, Partida Creus’ offer wine made as naturally as possible. They are meant to be enjoyed and shared with gusto with food, which Marchiori and Gerosa do quite readily in Vincent Staropoli’s documentary.
Very much like wine
Partida Creus “MUZ” Vermouth Natural embodies the artisan vermouth traditions of Northwest Italy, where Marchiori and Gerosa grew up. Having a vermouth as an “aperitivo” to whet the appetite is quite common throughout the region.
Since the pair did not find traditional vermouth to their liking in their adopted land of Catalonia, they decided to make their own. Their recipe is simple — start with excellent base wines, organically produced. Marchiori blends one barrel of older red wine, a barrel of young red wine and a barrel of slightly oxidized white wine.
Separately, he macerates a secret blend of wild herbs with neutral spirits alcohol for two months. The herbs come from a friend back in Piedmont, Italy, where creating herbal blends for vermouth is a high art. Following the maceration process, the liquor is combined with the base blended wines. A small amount of sugar completes the concoction.
The result, as I discovered one afternoon at Solera Wine Co., is an aromatic, delicious and refreshing vermouth with a perfect balance of refined bitterness and subtle sweetness. The first sip of “MUZ” invites another, and so on and so forth.
As Selections de la Viña owner Álvaro de la Viña, a native Spaniard, says, “’MUZ’ Vermouth has a very vinous quality.”
In other words, it tastes very much like delicious wine rather than an overly bitter or cloying sweet commercial vermouth.
“We love Partida Creus ‘MUZ’ Vermouth as an easy drinking aperitif on the rocks,” says Solera co-owner Aaron Gottesman. “We try to buy all the inventory available because our customers almost always love it and want to grab a bottle to take home.”
“The first time we tried MUZ with our friend, chef Jamilka Borges [co-owner of Lilith in Shadyside], we had a fun time and finished the bottle. Maybe too much fun,” recalls sommelier Tyler Borne, also co-owner at Solera Wine Co. “It is a perfect warm weather drink for relaxed, casual enjoyment.”
Solera Wine Co. carries several of Partida Creus’ other delicious wines as well. Apteka Bottle Shop in Bloomfield also offers a selection.
Cheers!