A Practical Guide to Vermouth: Styles, Storage and Serving

When I trained new bartenders, I used to open an old bottle of vermouth that had been left at room temperature for months next to a freshly opened one and ask them to taste both. Nobody ever needed a second explanation. Vermouth is wine, and it behaves like wine.

What vermouth is

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine. Producers start with wine, usually white, and add a neutral spirit or grape brandy to raise the alcohol to roughly 15 to 18 percent. They then flavor it with botanicals: herbs, roots, barks, spices and citrus peel. Sugar is added to varying degrees, and some styles get color from caramel.

The name comes from the German Wermut, wormwood, and in the European Union a product sold as vermouth must be flavored with plants from the Artemisia family, of which wormwood is the best known. Other common botanicals include gentian, cinchona bark, chamomile, orange peel, coriander, cloves, vanilla and cinnamon.

A little history

Wine flavored with herbs is ancient, but modern vermouth is usually dated to Turin in 1786, when Antonio Benedetto Carpano began selling a sweet, red, aromatized wine. Turin became the capital of sweet vermouth. Across the Alps, in the French region of Savoy and around Marseille, producers developed drier, paler styles. Noilly Prat was founded near Marseille in the early nineteenth century, and Chambéry, in Savoy, became known for delicate dry and blanc vermouths.

The main styles

• Sweet or red (rosso): the Italian style. Rich, spiced, often with vanilla and bitter orange. Essential for the Manhattan, the Negroni, the Hanky Panky and the Vieux Carré.
• Dry (extra dry): the French style. Pale, crisp, herbal and low in sugar. Essential for the dry martini.
• Blanc or bianco: clear, floral and sweeter than dry. Lovely on ice with soda.
• Others: ambrato (amber), rosé and many modern craft styles from Spain, the United States and elsewhere.

How to store it

This is the single most important thing in this article. Once opened, keep vermouth in the fridge. Oxygen and warmth make it taste flat, sour and stale within weeks. In the fridge, it stays in good shape for one to two months. Buy small bottles if you do not use much. Write the opening date on the label.

Unopened bottles keep for a long time, but they still do best somewhere cool and dark.

How to drink it

Vermouth is wonderful on its own. In Spain, la hora del vermut is a Sunday ritual: red vermouth on ice with an orange slice and an olive, a splash of soda and a plate of salty snacks. Our aperitif guide covers the French equivalents.

• On ice: 75 ml over ice with a twist of orange or lemon.
• Vermouth and soda: equal parts with plenty of ice.
• Vermouth and tonic: blanc or dry vermouth with tonic, a lighter alternative to gin and tonic.

Choosing for cocktails

Different sweet vermouths can change a Manhattan dramatically. Some are spicy and bitter, some soft and vanilla-rich. If you make a lot of stirred drinks, keep one sweet and one dry vermouth you like, and taste them on their own before mixing. Pair bold spirits with bold vermouths and delicate gins with lighter dry vermouths.

How vermouth is made, step by step

1. Base wine: usually a neutral white wine from grapes such as Trebbiano, Clairette or Piquepoul.
2. Botanicals: herbs, roots, barks and peels are macerated in alcohol or wine, or distilled, to extract flavor. Wormwood is essential; gentian, cinchona, citrus, chamomile and spices are common.
3. Fortification: neutral spirit or grape brandy raises the strength, usually to 15 to 18 percent.
4. Sweetening and color: sugar or grape must is added; caramel gives color to red styles.
5. Resting and filtering: the vermouth settles, is filtered and bottled. Some producers age it in wood.

Reading the label

Term	Meaning
Rosso, rouge, red, sweet	Sweet, spiced, usually colored with caramel.
Extra dry, sec, dry	Low sugar, pale, herbal and crisp.
Bianco, blanc	Clear or pale, sweeter than dry, floral.
Vermouth di Torino	A protected geographical indication for vermouth made in Piedmont under specific rules.
Vermouth de Chambéry	A historic French appellation from Savoy, known for delicate styles.

Noilly Prat and the open-air casks

Noilly Prat, in Marseillan on the Mediterranean coast, ages part of its base wine outdoors in casks for about a year, exposed to sun, wind and sea air, before blending. The process gives the vermouth a slightly oxidized, saline character that is very good in a dry martini. It is a nice reminder that vermouth is a wine with a place of origin, not just a mixer.

Common mistakes

• Room temperature storage. Refrigerate after opening. Always.
• Buying large bottles. Unless you drink a lot of it, half bottles stay fresh.
• Substituting styles. Dry and sweet vermouth are not interchangeable.
• Judging by one brand. Vermouths differ hugely. If you dislike one, try another.

Vermouth on its own

In Spain and Italy, drinking vermouth by itself is a social ritual. In Madrid and Barcelona, the "hora del vermut," usually before lunch at the weekend, means a glass of red vermouth on ice with an orange slice and an olive, served with potato chips, anchovies or canned seafood. In Turin, where modern vermouth was born in the late eighteenth century, cafés still serve it as an aperitif. Try it this way and you will understand why vermouth is far more than a mixer.

A good test of any vermouth is to taste it neat, chilled, before using it in a cocktail. If you would happily drink it on its own, it will make a better martini or Manhattan.

Quick reference

• Fridge after opening, always.
• Use within one to two months.
• Sweet for Manhattans and Negronis, dry for martinis.
• Try it alone, on ice, before you decide you do not like it.

Sources and further reading

• Vermouth (Wikipedia)
• Noilly Prat (Wikipedia)
• Difford's Guide