What Is Vermouth?

Vermouth is an aromatized wine.  Aromatized wines are red, white or rosé still wines that are fortified with brandy and then flavored with botanicals.  In the wine and liquor industry "botanicals" refers to any combination of herbs, roots, seeds, fruits and flowers used to flavor a product.  The precise recipe for the botanicals in any particular vermouth is a well-protected industrial secret.

Vermouth originated as a result of two ancient practices--one creative and one practical.  Creative ancient alchemists found that the alcohol in wine preserved the medicinal properties of herbs and roots.  In this way they developed some of earth's first medicines that could be stored or transported.  But even before that, vintners who hadn't quite fine-tuned their craft were forced to be practical; they made their sour wines more palatable by the addition of some honey and wild herbs or whatever was plentiful and at hand.

Although vermouth's roots may lie with doctors and inferior wineries, centuries of careful blending and exacting experimentation have given us the fine vermouths that play a part in some of today's most popular cocktails.

Dry Vermouth

This style of vermouth is generally made from light, dry white wines that are usually aged for two to three years and then fortified and sweetened by the addition of mistelle (unfermented grape juice mixed with brandy).  The mixture is usually about 4:1 wine to mistelle.   The wine is then poured into huge tanks containing the producer's mixture of botanicals and left to soak up their flavors for about four weeks.  Some manufacturers heat this mixture to quicken the process and still others actually distill the mixture for almost immediate results.  The botanicals vary from one manufacturer to the next, but they can include exotic flavors as various as hyssop, clove, camomile, nutmeg, orange peel, coriander, juniper, calamus root, oregano, orris, mace, elderflowers, marjoram, centaury, gentian, sandalwood, sage and even rose petals.  The resultant wine is then carefully blended with basic wine untouched by the botanicals and more brandy is added.  The vermouth is then refrigerated to crystalize any tartrates, filtered to clarify it and the color is adjusted with caramel or a lighter vermouth.

Sweet Vermouth    

Even though its color is darker, white wine is also the base for sweet vermouth.  This type is produced in the same way as its drier counterpart but uses heavier, sweeter wines, more caramel for color, sugar to add sweetness and more quinine.  The quinine was first added to sweet vermouth as protection against malaria for European soldiers in the tropics. 

Bianco

This style of vermouth can be a little deceiving to the eye.  It is clear in color, like dry vermouth, yet has a medium-sweet flavor.

Aperitif Wines

Apéritif wines--Byrrh, Cynar, Dubonnet, Lillet, Punt é Mes and St. Raphaël, among them--also belong in the aromatized category.  They are produced in a similar fashion to vermouth, but most of them contain greater amounts of sugar and quinine and have distinctive flavors, each being a product unto itself.  Keep a good stock of these wines behind the bar, their popularity is on the rise.