VERMOUTH

'Vermouth' is a wine, flavored with aromatic herbs and spices ("aromatized" in the trade) in recipes that are closely-guarded trade secrets. Vermouths are also sweetened as the flavor is very bitter without it. The inventor of vermouth, Antonio Benedetto Carpano from Turin, Italy, chose this name in 1786 because he was inspired by a German wine flavored with wormwood, a herb most famously used in distilling absinthe. The modern German word ''Wermut'' (''Wermuth'' in the spelling of Carpano's time) means both ''wormwood'' and ''vermouth''. The herbs were originally used to mask raw flavors of cheap wine, imparting a slightly medicinal "tonic" flavor.

Contents

Styles

Punt e mes

Storage

Best-selling

See also

Notes

Styles

There are three general styles of vermouth, in order from driest to sweetest: extra dry, bianco/white, and sweet/red. Sweet red vermouth is drunk as an apéritif, often straight up, as well as in mixed drinks like the Manhattan. Dry white vermouth, along with gin or vodka, is a key ingredient in the mixing of martinis. Red vermouths are sometimes referred to as Italian vermouths and white vermouths as French vermouths, although not all Italian vermouths are red and not all white vermouths are French.

Punt e mes

'Punt e mes' is an Italian vermouth. It is dark brown in color and has a bitter flavor. Punt e mes literally means "point and a half" in Piedmontese. It can be used as a substitute for regular rosso vermouth in such drinks as the Americano, Manhattan and Negroni. Punt e mes has a strong, distinctive flavor, half-way between regular rosso vermouth and Campari. Punt e mes is made by the Carpano family from Turin.

Storage

Dry Vermouth should be refrigerated and keeps for about 6 months. Other vermouths generally keep for about 1 year when stored in a cool dry place or refrigerated.^[1]

Best-selling

The best-selling vermouth brands exported internationally include:

★ Martini (Italy)

★ Cinzano (Italy)

★ Noilly Prat (France)

★ Distillerie Stock (Italy)

★ Dubonnet (France)

★ Bartissol (Italy)

★ Miró (Spain)

★ Yzaguirre (Spain)

See also

★ History of alcohol

Notes

1. See http://www.tonyaspler.com/pub/articleview.asp?id=906&s=16