- Hey, Spain lovers. I adore vermouth. I've fallen in love
with vermouth in Spain. It's just a magical drink
wrapped in a wonderful tradition. But what is vermouth? What's in it? How is it served in Spain? How do you order it? What tapas do you eat it with? Stick with me in this
video, I'm gonna teach you how to drink vermouth like a Spaniard. (opera music) I am James Blick,
co-founder of Devour Tours and this channel is all
about me helping you experience Spain like a local, experience the country
I love like a local. Well, whenever friends
come to visit me in Madrid, we always take them for vermouth. My mother fell in love with vermouth when she came to visit and it's not just the drink, it's the whole ritual around
it, the social ritual. So I've come today to La Hora del Vermut. This is a bar in the ether neighborhood, a neighborhood that I love for tapas and they specialize in vermouth, which means they have
a massive range on tap and a massive range on the bottle. It's a perfect place to really
experience this tradition. Well, I've got my man here, Miguel, who is the vermouth expert and I am gonna order
four different vermouths to give you guys a full range and I'll do a little tasting of them. (speaking Spanish) It's so good. All over the world, nobody
really knows what vermouth is. They've heard about it. They've seen maybe the brand of martini, which is an international
brand of vermouth but, I know when I first had it, I had no idea what I was drinking. Is it a liquor? Is it a wine? Is it a spirit? Well, it's actually a wine. It's a fortified, aromatized,
colorized white wine. This is a white wine. They add caramel to it
and that adds sweetness and also color. It's also fortified. It has about 15% alcohol. It's also aromatized. Lots of different herbs
and botanicals are steeped in the drink to give it this
very kind of floral aero medic kind of flavor. Where does this drink come from? Originally from Italy in the 18th century, it was invented in Turin
in the 18th century and it came to Spain
with Italian immigrants coming to Barcelona in the
beginning of the 20th century and that's why Barcelona is
such a hot spot for vermouth in Spain, but when do we drink it? And this is a really critical thing because there's a thing
called La Hora del Vermut and it's what this bar is named after and that's a cultural concept that literally means vermouth time because there's a very
special moment of the day when you must drink vermouth and it is right now, about 1:30 or 2:00 and what that means is it's
the time you meet your friends before lunch and you sip vermouth. You would never have vermouth with lunch and I have a rule and it's
one vermouth before lunch is great, two vermouths
before lunch is even better. Three vermouths before lunch
and you will never make lunch. So, before we hit the
tapas, I'm gonna tell you about the different vermouths here because it's such a huge range nowadays. The ones on tap and, here's a tip, will generally be the simpler vermouths. And the ones in the bottle will be the more complex vermouths. This one is called Zarro,
which is a Madrid vermouth. Wow, when it hits the lips. So this is quite a bitter one. It's got a nice kind of kick to it. It's not overly herbal but
it's really refreshing. Perfect there with ice, lovely. We have this one, Lustau. Lustau is a very famous sherry bodega and I'm gonna bring this guy over. They've put this in a little sexier glass to reflect that it's a bit
more of an upmarket vermouth. So this is a vermouth
that is made and aged in sherry barrels by the Lustau winery and so you're gonna notice a little bit of sherry quality going on, right. Oh, yeah. There's a sherry called Amontillado which is a style of sherry
and this tastes like that and it's a wonderful
combination of the freshness and the bitterness of the first vermouth but with a sherry quality,
almost kind of nutty, dried nut quality to it of dried almonds and dried
fruits, really delicious. Especially if you're a sherry drinker. Over here, Petroni that
really shook up the market when it came out. Usually with vermouth, they make it with a really basic white wine grape but, in this one, they decide
to make it with Albariño, which is a really famous white wine grape from the northwest of Spain. Oh. It's really herbal, it's
got really kind of strong, kind of like thyme flavors to it so it's much more herbal
than, say, this one which is a little more neutral. I don't know if I'm gonna make lunch. (laughs) Very, very good. So this is from a very,
very famous winery, Martinez Lacuesta, which is a Rioja winery so this is a vermouth from
Rioja, the famous wine region. So this one, without any
orange, without any ice, just straight up because
it's got so much complexity that they don't really
wanna draw away from it with other flavors. Oh, that is really good. This one feels like it's
part vermouth, part red wine. This is a wonderful vermouth. I think I've found my
new favorite vermouth. It's like a spaceship or
something from outer space. When you're drinking
vermouth, one of the things that goes really well
and pairs really well is things that have been pickled. So, here, we have a pickled quail's egg, a black olive, a pickled red pepper, an anchovy, a pickled
pepper and a pickled green. Say that five times. It's like an explosion of vinegar. I love vinegar. And that vinegariness goes
perfectly with the sweetness of the vermouth. Stand by, give me a sec. Here, we've got two
pickled peppers wrapped in a salt-cured anchovy,
we've got a picked anchovy, another pepper, a red
pepper, it's out of control. I have here a can of
berberechos, of cockles. Canning has such a bad
reputation all over the world but, really, it is a wonderful process if you know how to use it well and, here in Spain, we
know how to can well. Oh, wow, that is amazing. It's like this mouthful of
ocean, like truly fresh seafood. You know, when you eat
seafood that's so fresh, it's like the water of the
ocean just washing over you, washing into your mouth. That's what this tastes like. Even the great chefs of Spain write about how some of their best food memories are sitting with friends and
just eating a wonderful can of cockles, for example. Look how fat these guys are. They're in an escabeche sauce, which is this delicious kind
of paprika and vinegary sauce, which is very classic to serve
mussels this way in Spain. So this is what you do. You combine the mussel
with the potato chip and it creates crunch and... Vermouth tapas, my God. Razor clams with edamame and artichokes and a romesco sauce. A romesco sauce is a Catalan sauce that is made with hazelnut and garlic. Níspero, which is a kumquat,
with a strong cheese from western Spain on top. We've got an olive tapenade
and a pickled, uh sorry, a salt-cured anchovy on top. Oh, yeah. The sweetness of the kumquat with the really pungentness
of the sheep's cheese. I'm going in again. Often I meet people who come to Spain and they're scared of
what I call the 'A word' which is anchovy. Please, one thing, if you
ever come to this country, and you've said in the
past, 'I hate anchovies' or you've thought that horrible thought, you have to come with an open mind because anchovies are a whole
different thing in Spain. Guys, have you ever tried vermouth? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Please tell me in the comments below. I love to hear from you
and I always respond. If you want to see more
videos of how we eat, drink, live and love in this wonderful country then subscribe for more tips. Otherwise, I'll see you
for a vermouth soon. Hasta luego, ciao.