Vermouth

When I lived in Madrid twenty years ago, there was a nearby bar called Taberna de Angel Sierra colourfully tiled in the traditional Spanish manner which served vermouth on tap. I had the vermouth once, more to appreciate the culture than to enjoy the drink. I also remember other bars around the city serving vermouth, usually to old men sipping on a small glass in the morning. Like sherry, that gave me an image of vermouth as a romantic but old-fashioned beverage that no one young really drank any more.

Again rather like sherry, the image and quality of vermouth has changed. Producers across Spain are resurrecting old recipes, while the appreciation of Italian vermouth is undergoing a vibrant revival. In California and New York, wineries are making their own styles of vermouth. This has largely been driven by the cocktail movement where vermouth plays a key role. In turn, this has helped drinkers understand the pleasures of vermouth as an aperitif. And I’ve learnt that there are some extraordinary vermouths out there, at reasonable prices.

what is vermouth?

Vermouth is a wine that’s fortified and then aromatised with herbs, bark, spices, flowers, and other botanicals - the key ingredient being wormwood. In fact, the word vermouth comes from the French pronunciation of the German word for wormwood, Wermut (the Latin term for grand wormwood, artemisia absinthium, also gives it name to absinthe).

The development of vermouth was linked to the medicinal properties of wormwood and goes back to ancient Greece. Its modern genesis came from the fortified wines aromatised with wormwood in Germany in the sixteenth century, a practice which travelled to France and then Piemonte in what is now north-west Italy. Italian versions emerged using not just wormwood but other botanicals, which led to competitors in southern France making their own brands with their own unique recipes. Once these drinks made their way to England in the seventeenth century, the name vermouth had stuck.

By the turn of the nineteenth century, two styles of vermouth began to emerge - the Italian style, sweet and dark in appearance, and the French style, pale and “dry.” The first commercial sweet vermouth is credited as having been created in Turin by Antonio Benedetto Carpano in 1786. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the first dry vermouth was marketed by Joseph Noilly, still a leading vermouth producer - Noilly Prat is the classic vermouth in a Martini.

It was around this time that the use of vermouth went from medicinal to being consumed as an aperitif, served all day in Turin cafés. From being a fashionable aperitif, vermouth became a key ingredient in the even more fashionable cocktails which emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century. First of all, vermouth became the base of its own cocktail in the 1860s - chilled vermouth, a lemon twist, and the addition of bitters or maraschino. But it was the American cocktail scene which made vermouth a staple ingredient. Until the twentieth century, all vermouth imported into the States was sweet and Italian. We now know the Martini as dry, but one of its precursors was much sweeter. The Martinez was created in San Francisco in the 1850s, and used sweet vermouth and Old Tom Gin (a sweeter style of gin than London Dry). Likewise, the classic Manhattan, dating back to the 1870s, still contains sweet rather than dry vermouth.

By the 1950s, dry vermouth was widely available across the States and the Martini became extremely popular, which by this point was based around London Dry Gin, or, more controversially, vodka, and dry vermouth (although Noël Coward once quipped, “A perfect martini should be made by filling a glass with gin, then waving it in the general direction of Italy”).

how it’s made

Most vermouth starts as a low-alcohol, relatively neutral white wine (very unusually, it can be a red wine). Depending on the desired levels of sweetness, sugar syrup or grape must is added to the base wine. The wine is fortified to around 15-22% ABV with a neutral grape spirit, which helps draw the flavours out of the botanicals. Those flavours can be extracted by maceration, soaking the ingredients in the wine like tea leaves in hot water, or infusing them by holding them above the wine. The colour and sticky sweetness of a red vermouth usually comes from the addition of caramel before bottling. For all that, producers - especially the smaller ones - have their own recipe and unique way of making their vermouth.

styles

dry

Dry vermouth was first developed in the early nineteenth century in Provence, made popular by Noilly Prat who are still based in the seaside town of Marseillan. This trend moved to Chambéry in the French Alps, where a drier, lighter, and less oxidative style emerged. This was so popular, particularly in the US, that Noilly Prat have their own Chambéry-inspired Extra Dry Vermouth. Dry vermouths are not completely dry however - they can have up to 40g/L of residual sugar.

red or sweet

Carpano Antica Formula

Red or sweet vermouth is traditionally known as Vermouth di Torino, Martini & Rossi Rosso being the most famous example - although Cocchi is probably the most authentic of the widely available brands. A variant is Vermouth alla Vaniglia, which is red vermouth flavoured with vanilla. The most popular version of the latter on the market is Carpano Antica Formula, which was released in the 1990s based on an old recipe, although not the original one that Carpano released in the 1780s. Antica Formula, because of its extra sweetness and richness, is ideal in a Manhattan.

white

White vermouth was first commercially developed by Dolin in Chambéry on the French side of the Alps. This style is sweet and herbal, inspiring the development of Italian white vermouths in the early twentieth century which are bolder and spicier.

quinquina

This is a variation of vermouth which contains the Peruvian chinchona bark, giving it an extra bitterness. Chinchona is the main source for quinine, which is the flavour of tonic water and has anti-malarial qualities - which is how the gin and tonic emerged, but that’s another story.

americano

In addition to wormwood, americano’s main ingredient is gentian which adds bitterness to the drink (amer means bitter in Italian). Whether an Italian producer labels their drink vermouth or americano can be as much a marketing as a stylistic decision.

Spanish vermouth

The production of Spanish vermouth was historically concentrated in Catalunya and the town of Reus (which is what I would have been drinking in Madrid twenty years ago). This is still the most important region, but vermouth has also traditionally been made in sherry country, and Lustau have revived that tradition (see below). Spanish vermouth is traditionally sweet and red, inspired by the Italian rather than the French style.

vermouths to try

There are plenty of big, recognisable vermouth brands which are easy to find and have always been widely available, but the exciting aspect in the revival of vermouth is the access to small producers and resurrected family recipes. Here are some of the vermouths I’ve enjoyed recently. Interestingly, they are all Italian and Spanish rather than French - the vermouth scene in the former two countries seems much more vibrant than in France.

Bèrto Apertiv dla Tradission White Vermouth ($17)

Finished the bottle before I had a chance to take a photo…

This vermouth from Piemonte is dangerously addictive. It’s made from a family recipe dating back to the 1930s by distiller Carlo Quaglia and chef Federico Ricatto (the name Bèrto is the nickname of the chef’s nephew Alberto). As is typical in the renaissance of vermouth, the aim was to recreate old styles of vermouth for a modern audience. This white vermouth is made from an Arneis, Cortese, Trebbiano, and Moscato must and aromatised with a myriad of botanicals - bitter orange, wormwood, gentian, cardamom, vanilla, coriander, mint, mace, hops, thyme, marjoram, lemon, cinnamon, clove, rhubarb, and angelica - at an ABV of 17% and with residual sugar of 140g/L. This will disappear in an evening. ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Bordiga Bianco di Torino ($30)

Bordiga have been making vermouth in Piemonte since 1888, so this is a traditional and authentic expression from a region so strongly associated with aromatised wines and spirits. Each botanical is infused individually in a neutral, high-alcohol spirit before being blended into the base wine. Botanicals include nutmeg, coriander, wormwood, and gentian flowers and roots. The latter two are picked by hand from the Piemonte mountains, the flowers in spring, the roots in autumn. The result is an extremely complex, balanced, and quite serious vermouth. ✪✪✪✪✪

Priorat Natur Vermouth ($26)

Priorat Natur Vermut

Catalunya is the home of Spanish vermouth, although Priorat Natur Vermut - created by Priorat producer Buil & Giné - is made a little differently. The grapes are Macabeo, Pedro Ximénez, and Garnacha Blanca, and the wine receives some skin contact before it is aromatised, which gives the colour an amber glow. Once again, the recipe is traditional - in this case, the botanicals are macerated for a year before being added to the base wine which is moved to a solera-like system of old barrels. This is a light, delicate, refreshing vermouth with a touch of bitterness from both the grape skins and the botanicals to balance the slight sweetness. ✪✪✪✪✪

Lustau Vermut Blanco ($24)

Lustau are one of the great sherry producers and they have resurrected old vermouth recipes to make both white and red versions. The white is based on a fino (which is why alcohol is 15%), and then sweetened to 144g/L with some moscatel sherry. The sherry is aromatised with chamomile, which gives intense aromatics, gentian root, wormwood, rosemary, and marjoram. Bitter and flavoursome, this is quite the treat either on its own or as a mixer with sparkling wine. ✪✪✪✪✪

Vermouth Mata Tinto Reserva ($16)

From a secret family recipe dating back a hundred years, this red vermouth is unusually made from the black grape Mencía, which is native to the local region Bierzo. It’s made in a “French” style, that’s to say drier than most Spanish vermouths and aged for 18 months to allow the botanicals to integrate fully before fortifying to 15% ABV. There is a plethora of botanicals used: plants such as wormwood, wall germander, blessed thistle, common centaury, hyssop, and clary sage; flowers such as cloves, dried hops, dried elderflowers, and saffron; fruits and seeds including star anise, bitter orange peel, cardamom, coriander, and vanilla; roots such as elecampane and gentian; and finally wood and barks including ceylon cinnamon, dried bark of croton, Peruvian bark, and bark of pomegranate. It’s no wonder vermouths are so complex but it takes care to create a balance between bitterness, sweetness, richness, and oiliness. ✪✪✪✪

classic cocktails

Martini

The Martini is the classic cocktail and one of the easiest to make - and therefore one of the easiest to play around with. The original Martini was equal parts London Dry Gin and Noilly Prat dry vermouth, creating a sweeter Martini than found today - the history of the Martini is of it getting drier to the point that there is a “naked Martini,” which is essentially chilled gin. Whether to stir or shake is a talking point, but shaking is an aggressive act which affects the delicate balance between gin, vermouth, and ice. W. Somerset Maugham eloquently made the case for stirring the Martini: “Martinis should always be stirred, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of each other.” The nature of a Martini depends on the amount of vermouth used - the less vermouth, the drier the Martini is going to be.

Negroni

The history of the Negroni is traced back to Florence around 1920 when Count Camillo Negroni ordered an American cocktail - which is gin, sweet vermouth, and soda water - but with the soda water replaced with Campari. It has now become one of the classic cocktails, although I find the Campari a little too bitter and tart. An alternative called Dirty Dick’s Downfall is to replace the Campari with a touch of Punt e Mes - as with any great cocktail the simple base is very easy to play around with.

Manhattan

The story goes that the Manhattan was created for Lady Randolph Churchill in 1874 at the Manhattan Club in New York. It was originally made with rye whiskey, and if you want to maintain the classically American character of a Manhattan it probably still should be, although any type of whiskey can be used. As this was created in the late nineteenth century, the vermouth is sweet although there are variations with dry vermouth. The quality and style of the whiskey of course imparts a huge amount of the cocktail’s flavour, but this should be balanced and smoothed out by the vermouth.

French Kiss

This combination of equal parts dry and sweet vermouth is the perfect nightcap and very easy to make - simply pour over ice and drink.