A Guide To The Best Vermouth Bars In Barcelona

Vermouth is Barcelona's favourite drink — and these bars are the best places to raise a glass in this vibrant Spanish city.

By Jason Wilson Published on Dec 05, 2023, 03:00 PM

A Guide To The Best Vermouth Bars In Barcelona — The exterior of Bar Electricitat; a glass of vermouth at Morro Fi, a popular bar in Barcelona | Image Credit: Coke Bartrina

It was early evening in Barcelona — that wonderful time in Spain when work is over, but the sun is out, and dinner is still a few hours away. I lounged outside a bar called Morro Fi, drinking vermouth over ice and nibbling olives, potato chips, and conservas, those tinned fish that are such a delicacy in Iberia.

Morro Fi is sleek and modern, with a minimalist interior and an equally minimalist menu. “We only serve vermouth, beer, and snacks,” owner Marcel Fernandez said. “As a kid, I went out with my parents after church for a vermouth, before going to lunch with the family. So, I haven’t been very creative. It’s the same menu a vermutería would have served when I was a kid.”

The best Vermouth bars in Barcelona

An afternoon at Cala del Vermut; vermouth on draft at Cala del Vermut | Image Credit: Coke Bartrina

The hora del vermut, “vermouth hour,” is a sacred time of day in Barcelona. Originally, it meant sometime around noon or 1 pm, when you had a vermouth and a snack to tide you over until lunch. But these days, the vermouth hour can be any time before a meal, though it usually means day drinking. “We don’t like to be open late at night,” Fernandez said.

Morro Fi operates in a narrow space that was a wineshop from the 1950s until 2010, when Fernandez first opened, after covering the city’s bar scene as a blogger. “This is the perfect bar for me, a contemporary place that hasn’t invented anything,” he said. “I don’t know if this bar would work if you put it in the US”

Vermouth is an aromatised wine, infused with botanicals, herbs, spices, and fruits, that clocks in at around 17 percent alcohol by volume. The ingredients vary but generally include quinine, wormwood, citrus peel, vanilla, gentian root, thyme, ginger, and baking spices. “Producers will say, ‘Ah, our vermouth has thirty or sixty or one million herbs,’ ” said Fernandez, who created his own house vermouth for Morro Fi. “Ours has ten ingredients,” he said, “but they’re secret.”

“Spanish vermouth is not something you spend your time thinking about how complex it is, or how sophisticated you are,” Monti said.”

The historic roots of vermouth lie in Turin, Italy, where the aperitivo became a staple in the late 18th century. By the mid to late 19th century, it was being exported all over the world. Barcelona, in that era, had the largest community of Italian immigrants in Spain, and the local importer of Martini vermouth built a bar that was decorated, in part, by legendary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.

“That’s when vermouth became the drink of choice for Catalans,” François Monti, a Spain-based drinks writer and author of El Gran Libro del Vermut, told me. Catalonia is now the center of vermouth production in Spain, home to brands including Casa Mariol, Yzaguirre, and Timbal, which can all be found in the US.

One night, I met my friend Lucy Garcia — a Barcelona-based film producer who worked with Anthony Bourdain when he shot in Spain — at Cala del Vermut, near the city’s old Gothic cathedral. There we ate a fantastic tortilla, patatas bravas, and pan con tomate with our vermouth, which was poured from a barrel on the bar. “Fer el vermut (literally ‘to do the vermouth’) was a ritual all around Catalonia but almost disappeared in Barcelona, pretty much around the same time people stopped going to Mass,” Garcia said. “It was basically an old man’s drink until about ten years ago.” That’s when a new generation of trendsetters — like Fernandez — ushered in a vermouth rebirth. At Cala del Vermut that evening, I was surprised to see there were no old men, but rather a good-looking, smartly dressed young crowd.

Spanish vermouth has quite a different taste than its Italian cousin. For one thing, it’s not as bitter, but more citrusy and fresh. And it’s meant to be consumed not in cocktails, but on the rocks, with food. “Spanish vermouth is not something you spend your time thinking about how complex it is, or how sophisticated you are,” Monti said.

In Barcelona, my favourite vermuterías have less to do with the quality of the vermouth, and more with the general feeling, a vibe. When I asked Garcia which was her favourite vermouth bar in Barcelona, she chuckled. “I love the one in front of my apartment.”

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Where to drink Vermouth in Barcelona

Morro Fi

One of the places that kicked off the Vermont Renaissance in Barcelona. It has several outposts; the most centrally located is in the L’Eixample neighbourhood.

Senyor Vermut