Susan: My grandmother was the one to teach me to drink one spirit only because then I wouldn’t get a hangover. She also was the first person to introduce me to the caipirinha. So, I had a grandmother who liked her drink and yes, and she saw, I liked my drink. And so, she would teach me these things.

Founded by twins Alex and Albert Virgili, the duo merge their experience with the wine industry to create a lineage of innovative wine-based aperitivo that speak to the free-flowing culture of Barcelona. Balancing the bittersweet with Mediterranean botanicals, El Bandarra ensure there is a drink to suit every tastebud — all whilst keeping the energy high and the good times great. Alex: So it would be a El Bandarra Al Fresco and tonic for sure. And I would say, Formentera, it’s a little Island, close to Ibiza. Very, very cute and very small, it’s a paradise. That’s what I would and where I would drink

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My grandparents used to sell bulk wine in barrels, in little bodegas and bars. I’m talking about the Sixties all over Catalonia and in Spain, and that’s our origin. I’m pretty obsessed with exporting the success of the Aperitivo to the US, to the UK, and other markets. Susan: Okay. Yes, we like our crazy ideas they’re going to work. Right. Where did you start? What was your thinking and how long did it take to get the first thing in the bottle that you liked? El Bandarra Vermouth is made from high-quality Macabeo and Xarel·lo grapes, native to the region. Once these grapes are transformed into wine, they are aged in wooden barrels and later macerated with a careful blend of botanicals, including wormwood, orange, and elderflower, among others. This intricate process provides the drink with its distinct flavour and aromatic profile. Twins Alex and Albert Virgili have drawn on their family’s wine expertise to develop El Bandarra Al Fresco which is a blend of local Grenache wines and natural Mediterranean botanicals including liquorice, mint, rose and citrus. It is cherry red in colour with ABV of 14.5%.

And it was a bit hard. We listed the Rojo in, I would say 40 different accounts in the UK, but the Brit consumer didn’t understand. Then we tried, as I told you, with the rosé with tonic and it didn’t work. And we said, okay, let’s launch Al Fresco. Susan: Fab. Now I always end by asking my guests the same question: If you could have any drink anywhere right now, where would that be? Fill a wine glass with ice and add the El Bandarra Al Fresco and Cava. Top up with soda, lightly stir and garnish with a slice of grapefruit. Sipello El Bandarra Vermouth stands as a testament to Spain's rich history of vermouth production. Crafted by the Virgili brothers, Albert and Alex, the brand showcases the traditions of their Catalan homeland.Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. We created a few, very successful white wines before Bandarra. One which was called El Xitxarel·lo, which means a young, stupid guy in Catalan. While we are Catalan, we are very proud to be Catalan, our idiom is full of insults and swear words. It’s a very rich language in terms of insults. At the point when we launched, two years before launching El Bandarra, we launched this white wine, which has 67 insults on the screen-printed label. If they would drink another gin and tonic or some other drinks you would say, “Oh, this guy. or this mummy is getting drunk.” But since they are drinking vermouth, then it is socially accepted. It’s a nice way to meet friends and share some food before lunch. So that’s the moment – it’s called La Hora del Vermut.

The whole point of the aperitivo is to work up an appetite for a bangin’ meal with a drink that’s big on bitter notes - and the Spritz is ALL about bitterness, since it’s typically made with liqueurs or vermouths that get their bitter complexity from botanicals.

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Perennially popular across Europe for centuries, many household names – including Campari and Aperol – continue to use the same sacred recipes, but there’s also a new wave of producers who have set out to shake up the status quo. How to drink apéritifs With a modern, vibrant bottle design, the new El Bandarra Al Fresco is recommended for a simple serve of one part Al Fresco and two parts tonic water over ice, garnished with an orange slice.

Alex: For the first three years was Rojo. We launched the brand in 2014, then after two years of seeding the brand, we drove the brand from regional to national in Spain. That was when we started having more distribution and more clients. Some clients asked us why didn’t make a white. So, we thought, “Okay, let’s make a white.” When we bottled the Blanco, at some point, we thought that maybe we put in too much vanilla. We thought it smelled too much of vanilla or we tired different botanicals. Adding an olive – with the saltiness of the olive, amazing how it tastes and when you eat the olive with this vermouth taste, it’s like making love. It’s good. It’s great. The vermouths are made with grapes from the Virgili Bros vineyard at Casa Berger, near Barcelona in the Alt Penedès, which has been in continuous operation since 1878 and was bought by the Virgili family in 1962. They made vermouths for decades by the barrel for small local wine shops but launched their own brand with El Bandarra in 2014.

Susan: Oh, that sounds divine. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you for being on the show and, hopefully, I’ll see you in Formentera. El Bandarra Vermut Red is made with Macabeo and Xarel·lo grapes plus more than 50 extracts of herbs, flowers and spices such as cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, liquorice, aniseed, camomile, rosemary, bay leaf, hops and bitter orange – rested in oak barrels before bottling at 15% ABV. Suddenly a group of wild hipsters, they started drinking vermouth in some bars in Barcelona. And this is when we said, “Well, this is great.” We asked our father, “Dad, do we make vermouth at the winery?” We didn’t even know. He said, “Are you an idiot? Of course, we’ve been doing vermouth for several years?”