From Castagna winery in Victoria comes Castagna Classic Dry Vermouth.
With the recent renaissance in gin, particularly with Australian craft producers, the vermouth category is making a comeback in Sydney bars. One such early adapter is Castagna Classic Dry Vermouth.
The winery is located in Beechworth high in in the foothills of the Australian Alps and enjoys a Mediterranean climate with hot days and cool nights during the growing season. The winery employs biodynamic principles where the land is farmed biodynamically, the vines are pruned by hand and the fruit is hand-picked.
Castagna Classic Dry Vermouth (17% ABV) is made from 100% estate-grown grapes with a base of Castagna Shiraz Rosé that has been infused with over 30 botanicals. Everything that goes into the vermouth is grown on the vineyard, including the botanicals.
In the glass, the vermouth pours cloudy with a dark copper hue. On the nose, delicate aromas of spice, red fruit, citrus and wood notes abound. The palate starts with savoury notes of cinnamon, cloves and spice and progresses to herbal and wood notes. The body is light to medium and ends dry with pronounced herbal and oak notes.
Although it’s called a dry vermouth, it lends itself to a wet style of gin Martini but makes for easy sipping, neat and chilled, garnished with an orange peel.
This article was originally published on June 5, 2015 on our sister website Gourmantic.
