Vermut La Trucha Cautiva

Overall impression

Vermut La Trucha Cautiva is the bottled vermouth of Enrique Ron Linde (Kike Ron) from Restaurante Bar Blanco in Cangas del Narcea (Asturias), alongside his brother Pepe Ron. The name pays tribute to La Trucha Cautiva, the gastronomic society that gathered the bar's customers in the 1950s; the Ron-Linde family has run the house since 1959 and the restaurant is a benchmark of contemporary Asturian cuisine. They bottle the house bar vermouth —their parents' recipe updated with new botanicals— on wine from Albillo, a neutral white grape that lets roots, herbs, flowers and spices speak through prolonged maceration, with no added colourants according to the winery. Intense yet approachable profile: greedy, enveloping entry, light and easy to drink, with a long finish where citrus and bitter notes emerge; it evokes old solera vermouths without replicating a formal solera system. Gran CINVE in the Vermouths category at the international CINVE 2026 competition.

Nose and palate

Medium-intensity amber-ruby colour, bright and clean: the hue comes from natural maceration on Albillo wine, with no added colourants. On the nose it is frank and mountain-like: dried roots and herbs —wormwood, liquorice— blend with wild flower, bitter orange peel and a gentle spiced background that evokes Asturian compuesta more than industrial red vermouth.

On the palate it hooks from the first sip with a greedy, semisweet passage that never cloys; the texture is light for its aromatic intensity. Mid-palate brings root bitterness —a consequence of resting unfiltered in contact with the botanicals— that balances the sweetness and opens into citrus and spice on a long, refreshing finish. It lacks the oxidative density of a solera vermouth or the wood of an aged Narcea barrica reference, but makes up for it with botanical clarity and an honest, drinkable house-bar personality.

How to serve it

Very cold as an Asturian aperitif: compuesta, gildas, house preserves (mussels in vermouth sauce, cockles, anchovies) and mountain cuisine. Also neat, on ice or in simple cocktails. Indicative price at the official Bar Blanco shop: €14.95 (75 cl). Available through specialist distribution and Asturian hospitality.

Production context

Made and bottled in Cangas del Narcea by Enrique Ron Linde at La Trucha Cautiva facilities (latruchacautiva.com). 75 cl, 15% vol. Artisan process of prolonged natural botanical maceration: according to the winery, the vermouth rests unfiltered in contact with the botanicals and is only filtered at the end, before bottling, which accentuates the characteristic bitter root aftertaste over the semisweet's greedy entry. The brand's website confirms the cellar rest and clarification scheme without thermal acceleration that would damage the base wine. The brand distributes to restaurants and specialist shops in Asturias and beyond. A project born from Bar Blanco customers' demand and the local Narcea tradition of compuesta and vermouth.