Vermouth Is the Star of This Spanish Basque Country Cocktail

“You’re not drinking your vermouth right,” says Ander, the bartender and waiter at Bar Sport, which sits near the center of San Sebastian’s bustling Old Town in Spain’s Basque Country. He takes a glass, fills it with ice and then pours in a small amount of Campari and gin, gives the concoction a stir, and then pours in some traditional Spanish rojo vermouth, filling the glass three quarters of the way up. “This is Vermut Preparado,” he says.

Those who have spent time in Spain might not recognize this as the traditional way to enjoy vermouth. And certainly not those who have spent time sipping the aromatized wine in Barcelona, the vermuteria capital of Spain. However, this is how it is enjoyed in Basque Country. 

The Catalonia region, in the northeast, remains Spain’s go-to destination for vermouth, and continues to produce many of its best known bottlings, such as Yzaguirre and Miró. But like many other aspects of Spanish culture, the Basques have put their own unique spin on the beverage.

Vermut Preparado (also known as a Marianito) is seemingly made differently at every establishment you visit from Bilbao to San Sebastian. Some venues filter out the gin and Campari, some add bitters, or a splash of Curaçao, or fruit juice, while some use Italian vermouth, garnish it with olives and a slice of orange (like the traditional, straightforward Barcelona pour), while others leave it plain. 

Accompanying the various recipes are the varied stories about the drink’s origin.

The most famous of these involves a local waiter who enjoyed mixing his vermouth with gin and Campari. He fell in love with the daughter of a man named Mariano and when she turned him down, they began to call his drink a “Marianito” in jest. According to popular legend, the name stuck. 

Others believe that the name is simply a portmanteau of Cinzano and Martini, two of the world’s most popular vermouths. However, according to the The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, Spanish vermouth “dates to at least the late nineteenth century.” 

The origins of the drink are clearly muddled. Despite its long and storied history, there seems to be no reference to either Vermut Preparado or the Marianito until 1989. Obviously, its history stretches back further and, according to research, the cocktail seems to have found itself first bouncing between Cuba, Barcelona, and Madrid at some point in the 1920s.

Whatever its backstory or recipe, three ingredients remain in every Vermut Preparado: rojo vermouth, gin, and Campari. 

“[When] gin and Campari meet, an alchemy of bitter and floral botanicals intertwine,” says Olivia Cerio, Campari Group’s Italian spirits portfolio ambassador. “The complexity of that pairing when combined with the full-bodied sweetness of the rosso vermouth creates a perfectly balanced and intriguing result. Each ingredient shines in its own way.”

The combination of these three ingredients make the drink similar to a vermouth-heavy Negroni, yet there’s some debate whether it’s an aperitif, thanks to the addition of gin. Still, the service time in Basque country seems to lean towards, “Drink this whenever you want.” And whether you’re strolling through the narrow streets of San Sebastian’s Old Town or across one of Bilbao’s stone-filled squares, you’ll find a large number of locals and tourists enjoying the drink.

At Txintxirri in Bilbao — home to what some consider the best tortilla de patatas in all of Spain — the Vermut Preparado keeps guests coming once things shift from morning to the evening crowd. Manu Urra, the restaurant’s founder, who uses Lustau as his vermouth, says that when he opened Txintxirri, his goal was to keep it focused on being a local space, which meant that serving both a tortilla de patatas and a Vermut Preparado was a necessity. That desire to keep things “simple and humble” remains today, even as the space has become one of the most beloved in the regional capital. 

“There are many ways to offer this cocktail,” says Cerio. “My personal favorite serve is simple: rosso vermouth chilled, served on the rocks, and garnished with an orange peel and an olive.” She adds that her mix includes a half ounce of both London Dry gin and Campari. 

Our favorite recipe switches out the Italian rosso vermouth for a Spanish rojo from Reus, specifically Yzaguirre.

The best part of the Vermouth Preparado is how it speaks of place and yet removes itself from time. Enjoyed most frequently in the ancient squares of northern Spain, nothing in the drink actually comes from the region that made it famous. Yet, it’s only there, atop those time-polished stones, that the cocktail can be truly appreciated as you stare through cities barely changed.