Vermouth: Sweet, Dry and Blanc

Vermouth is wine fortified with extra alcohol and flavoured with herbs, spices, roots and peels. The name comes from the German Wermut, wormwood, and in the EU a vermouth must actually contain wormwood to be called vermouth. Alcohol content is usually between 15 and 18% ABV.

Because the base is wine, vermouth behaves like wine once the bottle is open. It oxidises and loses aroma, more slowly than a table wine but much faster than a spirit. That is the most important thing to know about vermouth, and it comes up again further down.

The sweet red style, often labelled rosso, comes from Turin in Italy. Antonio Benedetto Carpano is usually credited with creating modern vermouth there in the 1780s. The colour usually comes from caramel rather than red wine, and the taste is sweet, spiced and lightly bitter, with notes of vanilla, orange peel and dried fruit.

Sweet vermouth is the base of the Manhattan, Negroni, Americano and Boulevardier.

The dry style is associated with France and Noilly Prat from Marseillan. It is pale, fresh and herbal with little sugar, and is meant to give a drink structure and aroma rather than sweetness.

Dry vermouth is what makes a Martini a Martini. The amount sets the style: lots of vermouth makes a wet Martini, little makes a dry one. It is also used in the Bamboo, where it is mixed with fino sherry.

Blanc, or bianco, is a white vermouth that is sweet rather than dry. It is softer and more floral than red vermouth and works in drinks where you want sweetness without the dark spice, such as the El Presidente, or with tonic as a simple aperitif. Dolin from Chambéry in the French Alps is a well-known example.

There are also rosé and amber ambrato versions, and closely related aromatised wines such as Lillet Blanc. Lillet is not a vermouth but is used in similar ways, for example in a Vesper.

A simple rule of thumb: dark spirits and bitter aperitifs go with sweet vermouth, clear spirits in stirred drinks go with dry.

Sweet: Manhattan, Negroni, Americano, Boulevardier, Adonis. Dry: Martini, Bamboo, Gibson. Blanc: El Presidente and vermouth with tonic.

Do not swap styles one for one. A Manhattan with dry vermouth is a different drink, and a Martini with sweet vermouth becomes something quite different from what the recipe intends.

Opened vermouth belongs in the fridge. It is at its best for about the first month and usable for two to three months. At room temperature it goes flat within a few weeks.

Buy half bottles if you do not mix often. If a bottle has been open a long time, taste it neat. If it tastes flat or sour it is time for a new one, and the difference in the drink is bigger than you would think.