Bordiga Vermouth Extra Dry

Pairs with: Fresh local oysters, briny green olives, delicate white fish crudo, or a classic shrimp cocktail

Good for: Lounging at a sophisticated, dimly lit classic cocktail bar, or acting as the ultimate, indispensable crisp backbone for a bone-dry martini night

Cocktails: A pristine Dry Martini, a classic Bamboo, a complex Turf Club, or an elegant Gibson (with a cocktail onion)

I am from: Cuneo (Piedmont Region), Italy

The Story: Established in 1888 by passionate herbalist Pietro Bordiga in the Alpine city of Cuneo, this brilliantly crisp spirit is the undisputed global benchmark for authentic, historic Piedmontese aromatized wines. The Piedmont region is legendary because it holds Italy's most prestigious vermouth heritage and the rugged, botanical-rich terrain of the Occitan Alps. Disregarding modern, industrialized production methods that rely on mass-produced commercial extracts and artificial drying agents, Bordiga completely shatters the commercial template by still using Pietro's original 19th-century recipes. The true magic lies in the ingredients: local master foragers hand-harvest wild Alpine herbs—including the essential Artemisia absinthium (wormwood), bitter orange peel, cardamom, and gentian—directly from the surrounding high-altitude mountains. These pristine, uncompromised botanicals are individually macerated in premium alcohol for up to 50 days before being expertly blended with a high-quality base of traditional Italian white wines. Kept deliberately, exceptionally low in residual sugar, it captures a masterful harmony of uncompromised Alpine wilderness and old-world, bone-dry Italian winemaking.

Why You'll Love Me: It balances a remarkably bright, crisp minerality with an incredibly seductive, dry and complex herbaceous edge. Standing out from overly oxidized or synthetically flavored commercial dry vermouths by retaining a genuinely structural, historic backbone of true Alpine bitterness, it bursts from the glass with lively aromas of wild mountain scrub, tart lemon rind, fresh white flowers, and a hint of crushed coriander. On the palate, it delivers a beautiful, silky light body that is instantly cut by a laser-beam core of sharp citrus, savory saline minerality, and warming wormwood spice. It gracefully sweeps into a long, complex finish defined by a mouthwatering clean minerality, a touch of gentle green grape acidity, and a signature hint of crisp, lingering botanical dryness.