Atamán Original Vermut

Atamán is a vermouth, not a sherry, though it comes from a sherry house and is built on manzanilla. Bodegas Barbadillo registered the brand in January 1943. The house says it does not know why Manuel Barbadillo chose the name. The label shows a bearded man in a tall fur hat, whom Barbadillo describes as a general of the Cossack armies.

The base is mostly manzanilla, the wine Sanlúcar de Barrameda ages under flor. Barbadillo draws it from two historic cellars in the town's Barrio Alto, Angioletti and El Toro. El Toro is the first winery the family bought, in 1821, so the vermouth starts where the house itself started.

The present recipe looks back to old stock. Barbadillo says Atamán is inspired by the quinquina wines and old vermouths that sat in its bodegas for decades. Skurnik, its US importer, tells it as a discovery: the house found tonic wines of unknown age and recipe in its cellars and asked its winemaker, Montserrat Molina, to work out a new vermouth from them.

By the house's account, wormwood, quassia, bitter orange, rosemary and elderberry lead the botanicals. An old name, a new recipe, and a base wine that could come from nowhere but Sanlúcar.