Mas Coutelou Kina Blanc

Jeff Coutelou is famous as a pioneer of natural wines in the Languedoc, but at heart he's a tinkerer, an experimenter, one of those guys who's always up to something. Not content to make world-class wine, he's come up with brandy, triple sec, port, gin (which he calls Djinn) and now these Chinato-style vermouths. Chinato comes from the Italian word for cinchona officinalis, a South American tree from which we get quinine. It's one of the many herbs--along with orange peel, gentian, and kola nuts--which he macerates in his home-made brandy and wine, before aging in a solera composed of Cognac and Armagnac barrels. It's full of honied orange marmalade, blood, and floral notes. Definitely dry with a gentle bitterness, serve chilled as an aperitif or use to add a zippy, electric edge to cocktails.