Worlds Top 10 Best High-End Luxury Vermouth Brands
VERMOUTH is an aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various botanicals (roots, barks, flowers, seeds, herbs, and spices) and sometimes colored.
The modern versions of the beverage were first produced in the mid to late 18th century in Turin, Italy. While vermouth was traditionally used for medicinal purposes, its true claim to fame is as an apéritif, with fashionable cafés in Turin serving it to guests around the clock. However, in the late 19th century it became popular with bartenders as a key ingredient in many classic cocktails that have survived to date, such as the Martini, the Manhattan, the Rob Roy, and the Negroni. In addition to being consumed as an apéritif or cocktail ingredient, vermouth is sometimes used as an alternative white wine in cooking.
Historically, there have been two main types of vermouth: sweet and dry. Responding to demand and competition, vermouth manufacturers have created additional styles, including extra-dry white, sweet white (blanc or bianco), red, amber (ambre or rosso), and rosé.
Vermouth is produced by starting with a base of a neutral grape wine or unfermented wine must. Each manufacturer adds additional alcohol and a proprietary mixture of dry ingredients, consisting of aromatic herbs, roots, and barks, to the base wine, base wine plus spirit, or spirit only - which may be redistilled before adding to the wine or unfermented wine must. After the wine is aromatized and fortified, the vermouth is sweetened with either cane sugar or caramelized sugar, depending on the style.
Italian and French companies produce most of the vermouth consumed throughout the world, although Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom are also noteworthy producers.
Vermouth News, Reviews & Resources
- Carpano Antica Formula - since 1786. Carpano Antica Formula stands out from all the other vermouths thanks to its unique bouquet and its unmistakable vanilla notes.
- CINZANO - "Authentic Italian Tradition since 1757." Cinzano vermouths date back to 1757 and the Turin herbal shop of two brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano, who created a new "vermouth rosso" (red vermouth) using "aromatic plants from the Italian Alps in a [still-secret] recipe combining 35 ingredients (including marjoram, thyme, and yarrow)". What became known as the "vermouth of Turin" proved popular with the bourgeoisie of Turin and, later, Casanova. It comes in four versions.
- Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino - since 1891. "Vermouth di Torino is a collective heritage of Piedmont, which sees in the royal Savoy court as first big promoter of a product which, mainly starting from the late XVIII century, generated a flourishing industry which led Piedmont to become the Kingdom of Vermouth."
- DOLIN - since 1815. "The famed Vermouth de Chambéry, the original touch of mixologists."
- GANCIA - since 1850. "Drink beauty." Rosso, Bianco and Extra Dry vermouth.
- Mancino rosso vermouth - since 2011. Infused with 38 botanicals, 10 of which are used for Amaro, and natural spirit on Trebbiano di Romagna wine base. Dark Imperial Amaranth red with a glint of caramel. A grand anatomy. Vanilla, Rhubarb, Juniper, toasted wood, Myrrh, Chiretta, Christmas spices (Cloves, Cinnamon bark, dried Orange). Remarkably balanced with a bittersweet medicinal root finish. 16% Vol. Perfect for Negroni and Manhattan.
- MARTINI - since 1863. The brand may have given the American martini vermouth and gin cocktail its name (an early recipe for which is known from 1888), though other speculations on the cocktail's etymology exist.
- NOILLY PRAT - since 1813. Based in southern France. "White" Noilly Prat is the archetype of dry, straw-coloured French vermouth. Noilly Prat now makes Red and Ambre vermouths as well, introduced in the 1960s and 1980s, but they are less widely known. Noilly Prat Dry is 18% alcohol by volume.
- PadrÓ & Co. Rojo ClÁsico - since 1886. "Our Padró & Co. Rojo Clásico is a tribute to the vermouth which was sold originally from wine cellars or enjoyed religiously every Sunday at noon. We want to evoke those herby and slightly medicinal aromas which can transport you back, even now, to the atmosphere inside those local bars and cafés."
- PUNT E MES - since 1870. "[One] point and a half") is an Italian vermouth. It is dark brown in color and has a bitter flavor. According to its producer, the name refers to the flavor being characterized as half a "point" of bitterness and one "point" of sweetness. Punt e Mes has a strong, distinctive flavor, half-way between regular rosso vermouth and Campari.
- Quady VYA Sweet - since 1979. "Vya Sweet is a blend including Tinta Roriz, Orange Muscat and dry white wine. It is hand infused at Quady Winery with a selection of over seventeen herbs and spices."
- Ransom Dry Vermouth - since 1997. "Ransom vermouth harkens back to the flourishing cocktail culture of the Belle Époque, when joie de vivre filled the air and vermouth made the evolutionary leap from charlatan snake oil and disguised refuse to distinguished mainstay of the era’s most popular drinks - the Martinez, the Martini, the Marguerite, and across the pond, the Manhattan. As a revival in the mixing of these classic cocktails encouraged us to bring such endangered spirits as Old Tom Gin back into production, we yearned for an aperitif with the aromatic complexity and grace to complement our spirits. So began the era of vermouth at Ransom."
- Sacred English Amber Vermouth - since 2009. World's Best Vermouth - World Drinks Awards 2019. Delicate, floral & with a distinct note of Spanish Sweet Orange, this vermouth is now recognised as the closest equivalent to the legendary Kina Lillet in the Vesper Martini (immortalised by Ian Fleming in Casino Royale, 1953).
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