Mancino rosso amaranto vermouth review

After over 20 years in hospitality, Giancarlo Mancino has gained a worldwide reputation for his work in the cocktail industry. As well as his aperitifs range, he produces glassware and consults globally at high end bars and restaurants.

To make a critically acclaimed vermouth you need to put in the legwork and you need to know your herbs and spices.

Giancarlo was not about to just slap his name on a bottle of vermouth and hope his reputation would take him to an easy win, instead he went on a world tour assessing which herbs, spices and flowers would win a place in his new range of aperitifs.

Following four years of research, Giancarlo had a list of 40 botanicals that had been cherry picked for use in his alchemy. This particular expression includes 38 of this list.

The botanicals are ground at a family owned mill in Piedmont. This is followed by a 30 day extraction process. Once thoroughly macerated, the herbs are mixed and melted with 30% ABV sugar beet and 12% ABV Trabianno white wine.

The mixture is then cooled, filtered for a week and matured for 6 months in Inox tanks. After all of this, only 800 bottles a year are filled and labelled, stoppered with handmade corks.

The 40 herbs selected by Mancino are eclectic and demonstrate his knowledge of, and commitment to, the purposes of vermouth. He draws together a gang of medicinal herbs, enchanting flowers and sumptuous fruits to pull off an aromatic and bittersweet appetite-stimulating aperitif.

The list includes calamus (a root commonly used in gastric medicine), lemongrass, mint, English rhubarb, nettle, dog rose (Ireland’s most common wild rose, used in a number of traditional medicines), coriander and blood orange.

Vermouth requires the use of wormwood and Mancino have opted for three wormwoods, including Roman absinthe.

This particular Mancino expression has a bouquet of gentle flowers, blossoming with cloves and alluring cinnamon.

The palate introduces blood orange alongside the reappearance of cinnamon, this sweetness is matched by the sophisticated meddling of medicinal herbs, the nettle and wormwoods taking centre stage.

This is an impressively complex vermouth that is testament to Mancino’s years of experience in the hospitality industry.

Serving suggestion

The blood orange-forward sweetness of this vermouth makes it well suited to a classic negroni. The matching citrus flavours are a treat and the gin works in a sumptuous tandem with the mixed medicinal notes of the vermouth.

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This review was last updated in March 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.