From non-alcoholic vermouth to gin that changes color, the new products presented at the first edition of the Capitoline event dedicated to spirits and mixing
Two days of tastings, tastings, cocktails, master classes and presentations. In summary, these were the contents of Rome Bar Show, but only by visiting it could its importance really be appreciated. Thousands of bartenders and beverage experts (almost ten thousand admissions according to the organizers) flocked from all over the world, hundreds of labels offered for tasting, dozens of new items ready to conquer the counters. Among these, we selected five proposals that struck us for their singularity.
Belsazar, the non-alcoholic vermouth made in Berlin
Among the Piedmontese vermouth, which claims its birthright, and French vermouth, few know that there is also German wermut. Belsazar declares itself "based in Berlin, rooted in Baden", meaning that it has the company in the German capital, but concretely distills its products with the collaboration of the Schladerer House Distillery, a historic plant located in the center of the Black Forest in the Baden-Württemberg region . Four main references (rosé, dry, white and red), to which the latest gem has just been added: the non-alcoholic vermouth, which we tasted as a preview, waiting for it to be presented in Germany. The fact that he is German circumvents the stringent Italian rule of the disciplinary which fixes the bar of alcohol at a minimum of 14.5 ° and gives the possibility to this company of spirits whose products are distributed by Diageo to propose the alcohol free version. Use? Both in mixing and in purity, perhaps for an aperitif without the alcohol test anxiety.
Amaro Venti, the Italian bitter
Before even reading the payoff "the Italian bitter", this definition came to us spontaneously when listening to the description: the first bitter not linked to a single region, but composed of twenty botanicals, one for each region of Italy. Twenty, then the name, like botanicals and like the regions of Italy. As the creators explain, the intention was to find the right balance between the sweetest products typical of Southern Italy and the most bittering characteristic of the North. In a historical moment in which bitters are experiencing a great wave of rediscovery. Olive tree from Liguria, juniper from Tuscany, gentian from Abruzzo, orange from Sicily, just to name a few. The result is a liquor of good complexity that we bet to see soon on the bottles.
Jack Daniel's rye
Apparently the Jack Daniel's is certainly not a novelty, but those who understand a little about whiskey will find it strange to see the word Rye (rye) next to this famous label. Yes, after 150 years the most famous Tennessee Whiskey has decided to indulge in the luxury of offering the public a new recipe, with its rye version, which distorts the percentages of the three ingredients already contained in the classic. 70% rye, 18% wheat and 12% barley malt is the balance from which this new recipe starts, created by the current master distiller Jeff Arnet. The first new blend for 150 years!
Sake Black, dark and Italian
Already hearing about an Italian sake makes your ears stand up, then you can see that it's black disrupts practically all the previous information acquired on the subject, according to which the transparency of the product is an indication of purity and quality. The Japanese will forgive us, but in fact even if we do not have a millenary history of rice distillation, rice paddies in Italy are not lacking and are quite peculiar. In particular those of the Vercelli area, the kingdom of the mondine, where among others a particular variety of black integral rice is produced, Penelope produced by Gli Aironi, which is the basis of this sake. The production process also changes, with the use of beer yeasts (a tribute to the historic Piedmontese brewers of the early 20th century) to start fermentation, and an addition of botanical herbs to flavor the infusion, including the classic artemisia and achillea, as a tribute in this case to the Piedmontese liqueur tradition of vermouth. In short, if we look at the disciplinary, perhaps sake has only the name (and indeed the taste), but there are several poetic licenses that do not make the product less interesting, but perhaps enrich it, making it more "homegrown".
Noon, the gin that changes color
Already seeing a blue gin makes you think of a concoction, then seeing that when in contact with tonic water it turns from blue to amethyst purple to a kind of rose (depending on how much tonic you put on), it will certainly upset even more purists. Yet it is nothing more than a small-medium chemical reaction, produced by reacting the anthocyanins of the Butterfly flower of Thailand with the bubbles of the tonic. This gin at the end is a very pleasant London Dry with ten botanicals, with a typically Italian flavor. In the first distillation in alembic the first nine botanicals are infused, including Florentine giaggiolo, bitter almonds, orange and lemons from Sicily, juniper harvested on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, in the second cold passage is added the Thai Butterfly flower which gives the characteristic gin color. And the magic is done.
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