By Steve Dinneen
A short drive inland from Barcelona, the town of Vilafranca is famous for its castells, or human towers. In a tradition dating back to at least the eighteenth century, the townsfolk have gathered to construct these fleshy monuments, grouping together and standing on one another’s shoulders to create highly choreographed and architecturally impressive pyramids of people.
The base of a tower can contain hundreds of individuals, and the largest castells can consist of nine or ten tiers, with women and small children making up the topmost levels. The Castellers de Vilafranca, identified by their green shirts and known as “els verds”, are the most successful team in the history of the Concurs de Castells de Tarragona, a biennial competition for castellers from across the whole of Catalonia.
While human towers’ origins are religious and allegorical, the values they embody today are summarised in the castellers’ motto, “Força, equilibri, valor i seny” – strength, balance, courage, and common sense.
Vilafranca is also famous as the county town of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia; the centre of production for cava sparkling wine. But one local winery, Casa Berger, is doing something different. Founded in 1878, the family business – currently run by twins Alex and Albert Virgili – is forging a new path by modernising vermouth.
First for the basics: vermouths are wines that are macerated with flowers, herbs, fruits, or spices and fortified with distilled spirits, then sweetened, for a bracingly bitter and complex flavour. The name comes from “wermutkraut”, the German for wormwood, which is one of the key botanicals used in their production.
In 2014, the Virgili brothers recognised the resurgence in interest in vermouth, and sensing an opening in the market they created El Bandarra – the rogue – “to bring joy and good vibes to the aperitif world”.
The family winery already produced a classic red vermouth, which was relaunched as El Bandarra Rojo. It is made with a base of white wine macerated for a month with more than 50 botanicals, including wormwood, orange peel, cloves, cinnamon, and juniper, before the addition of caramel for colour and sweetness. Rojo’s secret ingredient is a small quantity of “Elixir Bandarra”; vintage vermouth aged in oak barrels. The classic Catalan serve for Rojo is with ice, a slice of orange, and green olives.
Two new varieties were developed, following a similar production process to the Rojo. El Bandarra Blanco, is a very sweet white vermouth, made with Xarel-lo and White Grenache grapes, flavoured with over 50 botanicals, most notably vanilla. El Bandarra Rosé, meanwhile, is lighter, made with Grenache and 20 botanicals including red fruits and hibiscus flowers.
In 2016 they joined forces with the similarly entrepreneurial Arambazzi brothers, founders of wine company Vintae, to form Democratic Wines. This new venture gave the Virgilis a platform to launch and market their expanding portfolio, and while new products have been added, El Bandarra has cemented its position as the flagship brand.
The vermouth’s bright, attractive swing-tip bottles recall bygone days when the windows of tapas bars were painted to display the names of the plates on offer, and the eye-catching design has apparently made El Bandarra Marks & Spencer’s “most stolen bottle”. Equally alluring is El Bandarra’s new Barcelona HQ, located inside a renovated fire station, complete with fireman’s pole and a fire truck, which has been refitted to respond to ‘vermouth emergencies’.
The three El Bandarra vermouths have now been joined by a fourth, El Bandarra Al Fresco – “the taste of Barcelona in a bottle”. Served as a spritz, it is perfect for “La Hora del Vermut” or “the hour of vermouth’’, the name given to a leisurely afternoon drinking the stuff.
Having spent some time at the winery where it’s all made, I can safely say that, like the construction of human towers, making vermouth requires strength, balance, courage, and common sense.
• Visit shop.elbandarra.com
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