Vermouth
Vermouth is a fortified wine, available in various red and white varieties (made from the respective type of wine). You will also find sweet and dry vermouths, amber vermouth, and rosé vermouth on the market. Vermouth is fortified with a neutral spirit and then flavored with various botanicals, herbs, and spices, notably the wormwood plant which is also used in absinthe. Some brands add the ingredients to the spirt and redistill it before adding the wine, others add the ingredients to the wine first, and othersstill add them to the blended wine and spirit. Some sugar or other sweetener is typically the final addition. The drink originated in Turin in the second half of the 18th century and this part of northern Italy is still its stronghold. The second-biggest consumer of vermouth is France, but it is also made and enjoyed elsewhere including the U.S. and UK. In Italy and Spain, vermouth is commonly drunk as an aperitif, although the rest of the world knows it primarily as an ingredient in classic cocktails such as the Negroni, Martini, Vesper, and Manhattan.
Top Vermouth Posts:
How Long Does Vermouth Last?
Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth
Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth – New Recipe 2009
Carpano’s Antica Formula vermouth is the first lady of aromatic wines. In a world where most vermouth runs under $10 for a bottle and is tossed out during clean-up from last night’s party, the $30 or more you’ll pay for a liter of Antica Formula indicates at least someone thinks pretty highly of it. The heritage…
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Drinkhacker pal Duggan McDonnell — of Encanto Pisco fame — is up to some new tricks. His latest project: Jardesca, a lightly fortified, aromatic wine. Esseentially part of the vermouth/Lillet category, Jardesca is a blend of sweet and dry wines plus a double-distilled eau de vie that is infused with 10 different botanicals. The big…
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Vermouth is a beverage on the return, and Anchor Distilling has joined forces with old Maurin (you’ve seen the iconic green devil posters at better French cafes in your neighborhood) to recreate the vermouths once made by Auguste Maurin, back in 1884. The two companies adapted Maurin’s traditional recipe for these new vermouths, which are…
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Ladies and gentlemen, we now have a new kind of vermouth to contend with. Joining Dry, Sweet, and the rarely-seen Bianco, Martini & Rossi has launched another expression: Rosato. Rosato falls somewhere between the red and white spectrum — indeed it’s a blend of red and white wines, plus a lot of spice. The pink…
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People agonize over what brand gin or vodka to use in their martini, but precious little thought tends to go into the selection of vermouth. Today I’ve done something most would deem unthinkable: Drink vermouth straight. Why? Because Noilly Prat, the French maker of one of the world’s best-selling brands of vermouth, is changing its…
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Sure, I’m familiar with Dubonnet. You see it on every bar shelf, without question. It’s almost always full and it’s sitting next to the equally dusty bottle of Punt e Mes and the half-empty bottle of Galliano. Old school, but obviously a requirement for the bar. Anything that’s been around this long deserves a spot…
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The charms of Lillet Blanc have been adequately covered in this blog. But there’s another Lillet — Lillet Rouge — which is considerably harder to find even though it’s been on the market since 1962. There’s not a lot of mystery to what Lillet Rouge is: As the name implies, it’s pretty much the same…
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In 1953, Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale, and had James Bond invent his own drink, which he called the Vesper, after a character in the book. The drink made a new appearance in the previous Bond movie of the same name, with Daniel Craig rapid-firing the recipe to a waiter so quickly I’m amazed he…
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Yes, even I have to fight the urge not to say it as “lillette” (hard T) instead of leelay, as it is in proper French. Lillet is an aromatic wine from the Bordeaux region in France; though not always marketed as such, Lillet is essentially a vermouth and can be substituted for dry vermouth in…
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