A gift to a good friend, it was written for years on the red label of Bermet by the Filipec family from Samobor. This message is no longer on the new label and bottle introduced at the end of April, but this fine and flavored wine is still best enjoyed in good company.
– “The new garment holds the original product. The base wine has mostly Frankovka and Portugieser, with some older local red sorts. The main additive is wormwood, with some carob, dried figs and other Mediterranean fruits. The added sugar is prepared separately, but that part is a secret” – Antun Filipec described the drink being sold for several centuries as medicine for stomach problems.
They considered it medicine due to the wormwood, from which it gets the name. Bermet is a twisted German word wermut, meaning wormwood.
The new, wide bottle replacing the classic Bordeaux is reminiscent of the one used in pharmacies a century or two ago.
– “That wasn’t the idea. I wanted my Bermet to become recognizable and stand out between regular wines in regular wine bottles” – continued Filipec who changed even the way the family name is written, changing it to Philipecz.
– “I was working on my thesis at the Faculty of Agronomy on Bermet and spent a lot of time examining old documents. So I came across a list of tanners from the beginning of the 19th century, my family’s main occupation up to WW II, and there it said Phillipecz. I liked it, partly because the Illirians wrote in a similar way. Their paper was call Danicza Horvatzka, Slavonzka y Dalmatinzka” – says Antun whose family has been making Bermet for seven generations. A long time in itself, for sale for the last 70 years. This anniversary was celebrated with a springtime mingling in the backyard of their home in Samobor. Most liked the new garment, but most importantly liked that the content stayed the same.
Original article in Croatian here.
