Gotha Spiriti Nobili 'Dok '61 - Vermouth Operaio' Bologna

750ml bottle
18% abv

Dark, bitter, and saline.

Botanicals include chinotto peel, cinchona bark, rabarbaro, wormwood, star anise (essential oil), dandelion root, cherry pepper (pimento), and purified Adriatic seawater. Small addition of plum distillate for roundness.

95% Zibibbo, 5% Frappato, both sourced from Sicily. High acid, aromatic base.

Botanicals steeped and blended with the base wine, rested in stainless steel before bottling.

The Dok '61 is Gotha's rosso vermouth, the counterpart to the Drai Siderale dry vermouth. Where the Drai is built around salinity, citrus, and herbal precision, the Dok '61 is darker and more bitter, with rabarbaro and chinotto peel driving the profile alongside the Adriatic seawater that runs through the entire Gotha range. The name references a specific moment in Albanian history, 1961, when Chinese allies introduced a durable fabric called Dok used to manufacture uniforms for proletarian workers. Ergin dedicated the vermouth to the working class.

Gotha Spiriti Nobili was founded in Bologna by Ergin Allko, a bartender and bar proprietor who emigrated from Albania to Italy at 18 to study, and remained. The company is a partnership between Ergin, his brother Donald, and friends Umberto Menna and Riccardo Francesco de Campagnoli. The Adriatic seawater that appears across the range is the body of water that separates Albania and Italy, and functions both as a mineral seasoning and as a statement of Ergin's identity spanning both countries.