Opinions about Martini Rosso
Main advantage:
Its flavor, which comes from a secret mixture of botanical ingredients from Italian lands, with mugwort as a herbal base and the sweet wines used to make it.
Main disadvantage:
For users looking for “homemade” vermouths, the flavor of the Martini Rosso can be somewhat generic, since it is the base of many artisanal vermouths.
Verdict: 9.7/10
It is a classic vermouth, with a spicy and balanced flavor, slightly bittersweet, and a very pleasant and easily recognizable aroma, which pairs very well with all kinds of appetizers such as olives, cheese or chips.
Main Features Explained
Elaboration
Rosso martinis have been made in the traditional way for 150 years. To this day, the original recipe from 1863 by Luigi Rossi, founder of the brand, is still used. Although the recipe is secret, the opinions of the expert tasters point out that it is a selection of regional and exotic herbs, with hints of natural caramel.
The botanical mixture, together with a base of aromatic and sweet wines from the Italian Piedmont area, is treated using the traditional production method, called “macerato a la girata tarda”, which consists of turning and letting the mixture of wines rest and botanicals slowly, and with it all the characteristic richness and flavor of the Martini Rosso is extracted.
Recipe
The original Martini Rosso recipe is more complex than you might think at first. First of all, white wines from Trebbiano and Cataratto are used as a base. To this base are added 42 botanical elements including seeds, roots, leaves, herbs, branches and flowers. The recipe itself is secret, however, it is known that mugwort, an aromatic herb from the Italian area of Pessione, is the most important ingredient in its preparation, since it gives it that characteristic purple hue.
Although a large part of the ingredients of the Martini Rosso are from the area, there are other more exotic ones such as the skin of bitter oranges from Murcia, which gives it that very personal citrus touch that makes it the best martini, or the cassia wood, which contains one of the most bitter molecules known to man.
Price
Martini Rosso is a cheap vermouth and widely available, so you can find it at a very good price, either online or in any supermarket or commercial area. Its price makes it a very attractive product, since it has a higher quality than other generic or private label vermouths and, in addition, you have the guarantee of the martini brand, which is a benchmark in the production of vermouth, and an icon of Italian culture.
In addition, being an affordable product, you can use it for cocktails and also for cooking, where it is highly appreciated as an ingredient for all kinds of dishes and sauces.
