Dive into Peruvian Vermouth | Traveling and Living in Peru

In 2020, amid the silence of the pandemic, two friends embarked on a bold adventure: to create a truly Peruvian vermouth. Using local wine as a base and botanicals from every corner of the country, they planted the seeds of a project that, five years later, has grown into an award-winning brand ready to take on the world.

After a trip abroad, drinking a lot of Vermouth, friends Aldo Silva and Carlos Muro asked themselves, “What if we create our own?” That dream materialized in their garage. After sourcing over 30 different botanicals and selecting the right wine, they created and then perfected their product, a process that took two and a half years. While Carlos is the master blender, Aldo has the marketing soul; both are involved in each step of the process, but each one shines at their best.

But first things first — what exactly is Vermouth? 

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine infused with herbs, roots, and spices that first appeared in 18th-century Turin, Italy. What began as a medicinal tonic soon became a fashionable apéritif, and today it’s essential to classics like the Negroni, Manhattan, and martini. The most traditional styles are sweet Vermouth (rosso): rich, herbal, and slightly bitter, and dry Vermouth: crisp and refreshing. But the category has expanded to include bianco/blanc (sweet white), extra-dry, amber, and even rosé, making it a versatile drink to enjoy on its own, over ice, or mixed into your favorite cocktail.

Flavor of the land

Like the 18th-century Italian pioneer, Avelino utilizes local botanicals sourced and fairly traded with local producers, enabling them to improve their quality of life. Some of these botanicals are aniseed, mint, camomile, vanilla, cardamom, and fig leaves. The base is local wine from the Ica Valley, grounding each sip in Peruvian soil.

In 2022, they decided to participate in their first competition, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, earning a bronze medal, and in the 2022 Vermouth Awards, in which they won a gold medal as the sweet Vermouth and Best of Class, essentially, the best sweet Vermouth in the world that year.

With that original push, they continued innovating, exploring flavors, and creating new formulas; some never saw the light of day, while others are now part of their portfolio. First was a rosé, using wine from quebranta grapes, and a new set of 21 botanicals. Then, a reserve, a special blend of 25 different botanicals aged on a first-use French oak barrel. 

A tour inside the bottle

A few years later, growth led them to move their factory from their garage to a new location in Chilca. This larger space used to be a pisco distillery that included its own copper pot (not in use at present), steel tanks, and thousands of bottles containing herbs, barks, and fruits, which they would open to visitors once a month.

The factory is located at the Fundo Colorado, a pomegranate, pecan, and macadamia factory in Chilca, a one-hour drive south of Lima, so on a Saturday morning, you will get in the van, join a crew, visit the farm first, and then get into a sensory experience where you can try each botanical by itself. “It is like making a perfume, you can make as many combinations as you want.

The day ends with a tasting: neat, on the rocks, and in cocktails, often paired with pop-up dining to complete the experience.

IN THE KNOW: If you want to reserve this day trip, you can contact them via Instagram or via WhatsApp.

Inside every bottle lies more than fortified wine. It holds territory, tradition, passion, and pride, a liquid story of Peru.