Bordiga - Vermouth 'Excelsior' - Piemonte, IT

Unlike the rest of Bordiga’s recipes, this is a recent addition - still a traditional take on red vermouth, but bottled as a Riserva, and totally different than their entry level rosso. The composition of the base wine is 35% Barolo which must be aged 18 months in cask and 36 months overall before release. The rest is made of a combination of local Cortese and Moscato. As with all of their vermouths, all infusions are done separately and take between 20-50 days. They are then blended with the wine, and the result is aged in cask again at the distillery for several months (until the master distiller approves it for release). Herbs include wormwood, gentian achillea erba rotta (part of the sunflower family) and pure vanilla bean. Intense and weighty, slightly tanninc, with dried cherry and spice notes. Adds complexity and depth to any cocktail but also enjoyable on its own. --- At the end of the nineteenth century Pietro Bordiga owned a famous bar in Turin. He decided to use his knowlege of botanical flavorings and the extraction of essential oils to open a distillery, and he decided to locate it in a city near the mountains where the wild plants used to make amaro and other spirits grew. He chose the city of Cuneo, a little over an hour south of Turin and close to the Occitan Alps. The climate here, influenced the mountains and by proximity to the ocean just over the Alps, creates herbs that are particularly rich in essential oils and aromas. The distillery used to be in the historic heart of Cuneo, and was then moved to the road just outside town leading to the mountains, where it is now. At the heart of the building is the ancient copper pot-still that dates from 1888. Bordiga make all of their own infusions, and many of the wild plants they use, such as gentian, juniper and chamomile, are still gathered in the Alps nearby. They produce Vermouth, including the classic Vermouth di Torino; Gin; and a number of Amaros (herbal liqueurs with a balance towards bitterness). Vermouth is an 'aromaticized wine,' a wine that has been infused with herbs and blended with a proportion of alcohol. The word ‘vermouth’ is a corruption of the German word (‘wermut’) for the bitter herb wormwood (Artemisia Absinthium), which is still part of the botanical base of vermouth, although regulated by the US government. The original classic areas for the production of vermouth were in Chambéry in France, and in Piedmont, south of Turin, both part of the historic duchy of Savoy.

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The Bordiga distillery was founded in 1888 by Pietro Bordiga, a passionate bartender and herbalist, who was living in the northern Italian city of Torino (Turin) at the foot of the Alps. Torino was, and still is home to a thriving cafe and theater culture and is also the birthplace of Vermouth di Torino. Using his knowledge of local botanicals and the extraction of essential oils, Pietro created a recipe for vermouth that is still used today. His vermouth was greatly appreciated and requested by bartenders and cafes throughout Torino, which led him to begin producing Vermouth commercially and opening the Bordiga Distillery. He decided to locate his distillery in the small charming town of Cuneo where his family originated. Cuneo offered him a strategic position a little over an hour south of Torino, where he would deliver his goods, and also close to the *Occitan Alps, where he was sourcing his wild botanicals. The climate here, influenced both by the mountains and by proximity to the Mediterranean sea, creates herbs that are particularly rich in essential oils and aromas. The distillery used to be in the historic heart of Cuneo, and was then moved to the road just outside town leading to the mountains, where it is now. At the heart of the building is the ancient copper pot-still that dates from 1888. Bordiga has continually produced their collection of vermouths, including the classic Vermouth di Torino; gin; and a number of herbal liqueurs and amari since 1888 using the original recipes (and the original recipe books!) developed by Pietro Bordiga. Unlike most of their commercial counterparts, they continue to make all their own infusions, and most of the wild plants they use, such as gentian, juniper, and chamomile, are still gathered in the Alps nearby. When Pietro established the distillery he befriended and employed local ‘mountaineers’ whose livelihood for generations was based on foraging herbs. These relationships endured and over one hundred and twenty years later local mountaineers still pick the herbs for the Bordiga distillery. They know the intricacies of the seasons and terrain and hike to over 10,000 feet to pick each botanical at the time when the essential oils are the highest, resulting in the most flavorful infusions. While most of the botanicals used by Bordiga are handpicked in the Occitan Alps, not all botanicals are locally foraged. Some do not grow in Italy such as rabarbaro (Chinese rhubarb root), an important and traditional ingredient that was introduced to Italy through the spice trade and came through the local port of Genoa. Bordiga does all their own botanical infusions and each botanical is infused separately. This is an important marker of quality - each botanical benefits from being macerated in alcohol at different degrees and for different lengths of time - and changes depending on the characteristics of each year’s crop. Some herbs are infused fresh and some dry. The resulting infusions are kept in a cellar under the distillery which includes an impressive library of botanical infusions that are used in varying quantities throughout their range of products. We find the Bordiga products to be entirely traditional while also fitting squarely into the modern cocktail culture. Vermouth is still a standout in their lineup, and over the years they expanded into other traditional Italian spirits like gin, apertivi and amari. The products have an affinity for each other as you might expect - a Bordiga Negroni or Bordiga Last Word, for example, represent a synchronicity quite different from versions composed of spirits from different producers. *‘Occitan’ is a language that originated in the Languedoc region of southwest France, and is still spoken in some of the isolated mountain valleys to the west of Cuneo, on the border with Provence.