The ultimate guide to Vermouth with an Italian wine expert!

Jeff Porter here, host of Sip Trip. We are in Red Hook, Columbia Waterfront, part of Brooklyn today, in front of my favorite restaurant in New York City, Popina, on this gorgeous day to learn, taste, drink vermouth. Along with that, we have a lot of different snacks that you'd find in kind of the countries where vermouth is from. We're gonna put it all together and see how it goes. Let's do this. So vermouth. Now, most people are thinking, Jeff, why are you talking about vermouth? It's just used in cocktails. It's used extensively in cocktails, but vermouth has a huge and storied history. Dates back to 1250 BC. So there's records that show in China in 1250 BC to like 1000 BC, they were making fortified wines for medicinal purposes, and then adding herbs and roots and barks to cure stomach aches, colds, all sorts of things. Then it kind of migrated west and there's records in India, also in BC, and in Greece, we actually see the first recorded use of wormwood, where the word vermouth is derived from vermouth, which is, I said it more like an Italian, it's vermouth, which is German for wormwood. So fast forward through, you know, the Roman Empire, medieval times, then we get to the 1700s. So 1786, a guy named Antonio Benedetto Carpano starts, he's a wine merchant, and he starts to put out his own vermouth and people go ape for it. The royal court in Turin, so he's based in Torino, so northwestern Italy in Piedmont, they start sucking it up. And all the royals, this is before Twitter and everything, they start talking to each other and shipping each other the vermouth. And they're like, holy ----, what is this? This is amazing. And they're just drinking it straight. In France, Joseph Nolly starts tinkering between 1800 and 1813 on a recipe to make a dry blanc vermouth. And today in the world, vermouth's really come back on. So like here, right here, this is from Spain. This is a producer named Partita Cruz, which they make really, really beautiful wines and also this amazing sipping vermouth. And so we're gonna talk about, you know, what each one tastes like. You've got some that are sweet, some that are super, super dry, some that are kind of in between, and how you can use them just on the rocks, which when you're in Spain and Italy and in France, you can do, you can cook with it. It's one of the most versatile and fun beverages there are in the market today. So let's try some out. In Italy and Spain and France, when you go out after work and you sit in the cafe or you sit outside, when you order a drink, they bring you a lot of these snacks. Some of the most common in all the countries I've been to are, you know, classic potato chips, nuts, olives. A lot of times you can order, obviously in Italy we've got prosciutto. This is various cheeses. Here at Popina, again, being kind of Italy meets the South, one of my favorite things, pimento cheese. It's a cheese spread with these like kind of potato rolls. And then most importantly, tinned and canned fish, which it's so interesting, I think, with having the vermouth and canned fish, you're kind of thinking, you know, you're hearkening back to an old bygone era, which is true, but I'm hoping that people will start to experience vermouth. It's a great way to just have it on its rocks. So we're gonna try a few different ones. So the first one I'm gonna try, I'm gonna do on the rocks. So I got my rocks here. Let's do the classic. This is the extra dry Noli Prat. Now, most people are thinking, oh man, that's what you'd only use for vermouth. But I'm telling you, if you want a really nice refreshing drink, especially in summertime, there is nothing better than vermouth. I'll show you kind of what I like to do first. I wanna just try it because I actually have never tried Noli Prat by itself, but let's try it. So they tend to be kind of semi or non-aromatic grapes. You have this kind of neutral grape in some, and some, if you use Moscato or Moscato like in Piedmont, be very aromatic. But then you have the herbs steeped into it, root, bark, flowers. This has kind of, it smells like kind of gentian, kind of bitter herb agents, floral, almost chamomile-like. It's very light, fresh on the palate. You get that kind of gentian, chamomile, floral note. It's very, very soft. One thing that I also like to do, get a Y peeler, little zest of lemon goes a long way. Squeeze some of the oils in here, twist. When it's hot outside, this is one of the most refreshing drinks you'll have. This is great. I can't wait to also try this in a martini, but I'm really into it. Now we're gonna try three different styles from France. So this is Dolan. Dolan comes from the Chambray region of France, which is super cool, because in 1932, when France did these wine laws all across France, where we got the AOCs of Burgundy and Bordeaux, and then the Grands Crus and the Premier Crus, and all the things that we talk about in wine today when we say the Arbois or the Girard or Sauvignard, Chambray got its own AOC specifically for Vermouth. Here's, this is the extra dry. So we got the green label. Again, this is one of my favorites, this and a big cube of ice and twist of lemon. It's a little less aromatic than the Noli Prat, but still has kind of that quinine, or not quinine, it still has that gentian, chamomile, kind of that white flower thing, very kind of herbal too, kind of grassy plain. I didn't put any citrus in here, but there's a really pretty citrus note as well. Let's try the Blanc. It's more kind of like green herb on the nose, much more viscous because there's sugar in this, sweet, plush. What this would be great with, hit it some ice, little soda water, spritz of lemon, grab a hunk of, we got Parmesan here. The saltiness of these with this is where this marriage happens in aperitivo time. It's supposed to stimulate your digestive system. I usually don't have problem with stimulating my digestive system, I'm usually hungry all the time. Last but not least, Bollen Rouge. This you're getting more kind of like bark, cinnamon. That's really delicious. It's light. It's actually, I find this, the middle one, the Blanc to be the sweetest and the most viscous. I think also hitting this, the Rouge, with a little orange would be a good call. I'm going to try this. I'm going to reach across, grab some prosciutto. I have a hankering that the prosciutto and the flavors, kind of that barky cinnamon is going to work really well. It's great too. Because again, the saltiness of the prosciutto cuts down on the sweetness or balances out. All three great vermouths, highly recommend them. It's important that if you're keeping a home cellar, vermouth is part of it. So we're going to stay with tradition. In Italy right now, we are in the renaissance of vermouth making. Vermouth is popping up all over the place in some really delicious, amazing vermouths from across the board. Obviously you've probably heard of Martini Rossi. You've heard of Carpano, some of the bigger houses, but every, even little wineries are getting in on the action. Recently Pio Cesare, one of the most historical estates, produces a Torino style vermouth in different parts of Piedmont. There's another producer that I really love called Bordiga. In Sicily, they have vermouth. It's gone crazy. Why? Because it's delicious. It's lower in alcohol than a cocktail. It's really, really refreshing when you just sit back and enjoy it. So we're going to try the Carpano Bianco, which interestingly enough was discontinued and then brought back in the past few years. I haven't tried it since it first came out. So, well, not when it first first came out, when it was reintroduced, because I'm not a thousand years old. Also great about a lot of vermouths is they come in 375, so half bottles. It allows you just to keep it and use it a little quicker because with big bottles, it can go bad after a while. But again, remember, once you open it up, keep it in the fridge. They last about a month overall until quality starts to degrade a little bit. Again, because they're aromatized with the bark and the herbs and the flowers, and they have a little more alcohol added to them. So this is the Carpano Bianco. It's got this really interesting kind of darker yellow color to it. Chamomile, kind of yellow flowers. It's really pretty. It's got this yin and yang of sweet and bitter. The sweetness, obviously, coming from the sugar and the grapes. The bitter coming from the herbs and the spices that they're using. Feels like there's a little vanilla in this as well. That's delicious. Throw that on the rocks. You'll be psyched. It's really, really good. Okay, the historic one. This is the vermouth that set them all free. Delicious. It set us on a path to the kind of righteousness within the modern vermouth movement. What's really interesting too is there's a richness, a sweetness, and there's only three people alive on the planet at any given time that know the recipe. So they keep it locked up. No one knows exactly what's in it, but we know that there's some Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla. There's cinnamon. People speculate, but there's a lot of ingredients in this and only three people. And when one passes away, they pass that knowledge on to another person. It's very, very secret and they've kept that way for a long, long time. Right off the bat, you get the vanilla kind of clove, like baking spices, almost like potpourri Christmas kind of spices. It's viscous. What I love about it, on the nose, you get this fresh, pretty, those Christmas spices. And then on the palate, these bittering agents kind of really balance that sugar out and that sweetness. Some tin fish with this. And I'm gonna go, this is one of my favorite things in the world. Smoked mussels, has a little spice to it, which I'm hoping will kind of compliment the sweetness there. Maybe not the best pairing. I was forcing it. I want it to be better than it was. The bittering agent is actually making this more bitter. That's interesting. There's, you know, sometimes with shellfish, you can kind of pick out some of the metallic notes to it. This is actually bringing all those metallic notes on it. Almost like kind of tasting like the shell. I think maybe, now going back to this, like the Nali Prat, the Blancs would be really good with the shellfish, but we'll try that next. So we're gonna try the Partida Cruz Vermouth. So this is a red vermouth. In the majority of the vermouths I've had, actually not the majority, all of the vermouths that I've personally had in Spain have been of the red style of vermouth. I imagine there's white styles, but this is just kind of what I've had from various producers when I'm there. This is very wine forward, as opposed to the rest of them where they're much more herb forward, flower forward. The herbal and aromatized like ingredients that go into this are very present, but I'm getting kind of what the wines taste like knowing they're red wines. I can, you know, see that semblance. You get that red fruit. You can feel the tannins of the wine. This is really delicious. Holy moly. I've never had it before. I've been holding onto this bottle for a long time. I'm super excited to try it. Now this will be interesting because obviously pimento you find in Spain. So the spices and then this crazy cheese spread that we all, some of us love in the South. This is one of my favorite dishes here at Popina. That with a pair of Tevo time. Perfect. That's tasty. The wine, the vermouth is pulling out some of the spice, not overbearing, but you're feeling it, which I really dig. Being in New York, I wanted to try New York vermouth. This is Little City vermouth. This is made up in the Finger Lakes. So all the products, so the grapes, the distillate used to fortify the wine and all the herbs that are used in both of these are from the state of New York. So this is batch 15, 17.5% alcohol again. So this is like the realm that you're living in. 16, 18% depending on it, but usually around that is kind of where you are alcohol wise. So this is their dry vermouth. Let's try this one. Can you got this kind of yellow hue to it? Oh, it smells kind of like rosemary. Rosemary and thyme, really pretty, very, very aromatic. I don't know what's in this, but I definitely think rosemary. You get that kind of, you eat rosemary, you get that bitter green note. Is it's bright. It almost tastes like the color green. It's tasty. I think this on the rocks with a little soda water, you'll be super pumped. That's really good. Next is the red. So this is the sweet. This is like a hodgepodge of spices. It kind of reminds me of like garam masala almost and its spice component. That's delicious. Bravo to little city vermouth. You find them. These are rocking my world right now. This is definitely going in the bar at home. It's this fine balance between bitter, sweet, the alcohol. I think the key thing, this goes with all wines in general or drinks in general, is that balance. How does it feel on your palate? Texturally, aromatically, when you smell it as it goes down. Wow. I love having new discoveries and I love trying things new. So this is really, really cool. Awesome. So that is us tasting all these vermouths. You've Nolly Prat, super dry through the Dolan, the Italian. You've got the traditional red sweet, the Bianco, which is slightly sweet, our Spanish, our American. Try it, drink it on its own and don't forget to have a lot of nibbles while you're doing it because that's gonna make everything that much better. Cheers. So I'd be remiss if I didn't actually make cocktails out of vermouth. Now I'm not a bartender. I have worked with a lot of bartenders. I read a lot of books about cocktails because I'm a nerd about history. But what we're gonna do today is make some of the more traditional vermouth focused cocktails. So we've got, we're gonna do a classic martini. We're gonna do a Negroni and we're gonna do a Manhattan. Now, when cocktails first came on the scene in the middle 1800s, vermouth played a much heavier role than it does today. But in a lot of bars, when you go to them, you're now seeing kind of those ratios come back. And a lot of times they were 50-50. So we're gonna start out with my favorite version of the martini, which is the 50-50. And what I mean by 50-50, it's 50% vermouth, 50% gin. We're using Plymouth London Dry Gin. And then we're gonna use the Dolan Dry Vermouth. First thing you have to do always is fill your cocktail glass full of ice because with a martini specifically, we want it cold. So I'm gonna fill my mixing glass all the way with ice. I'm gonna make a four ounce martini, pretty big one. One thing that I like about the 50-50 drinks is the vermouth is lower in alcohol. So it's not like doing a shot of gin or vodka. It's a little more complex in its flavor profile. I like London Dry Gin. I specifically like Plymouth because there's a really good balance of juniper to other botanicals within it. And then Dolan, two ounces as well. And then, sorry, James Bond, I do stirred, not shaken. James Bond doesn't care what I think. So part of the stirring process is for the dilution of the ice to give it a little water to dilute it a bit. So you dump out your ice and here we go. And then instead of olives for this, I really like the lemon. So do a twist of lemon, get the oils of the lemon in. Inside, you can see them kind of sit on the surface. I like to squeeze it out good. Go around and see those beautiful lemon oils. Drop it in. There is your 50-50 vermouth centric. It's a great martini. Big difference again. It's not so alcohol forward. You get the botanicals of both the gin and the vermouth. It's really well balanced. Such a beautiful drink. Please go revisit this. You'll be the hit of the parties. So one of the most classic of all vermouth-based cocktails is the Negroni. So legend has it that the Negroni was invented in 1919 in Cafe Giacosa in Florence. Count Negroni would always come and have an Americano. An Americano was vermouth and Campari and soda water or vermouth and Campari and water, depending on what was happening then, without the gin. But he wanted something stronger. So the bartender added gin, and voila, the Negroni was born. So again, first up, I'm gonna fill my, you do it in a rocks glass. I'm gonna fill my rocks glass full of ice because I want it cold. Then I'm gonna fill my mixing glass full of ice. And again, these cocktails are super easy. This is one, one, one. So it's a third, third, third of each for the cocktail. So I'm gonna make, should we do a six ounce or a three ounce? Let's do a six ounce. Okay, so Carpano Antico, two ounces. Boom. I know you're like, Jeff, are you an old man? I love Beefeater. This is a great gin. Don't knock it. This is the classic. This is the real deal. You want that juniperiness. You want the real gin flavor, not rose or any of the other kind of botanicals. Gin should be junipery for this. And then Carpano, which is a bitter made in Italy. Again, this is a stirred cocktail, a little dilution. I'm gonna stir it around. Have a good time. We're talking. Hey, Count Negroni, what's going on? You having fun? Oh, you heard about Carpano Antico? It's delicious. Get a little dilution here. So this is a rock string. I'm gonna dump this out because it's already diluted. I'm gonna get some more rocks. Fill it up. We got some leftover for the crew. So for this, orange peel. Here we go. Get some of the orange oils in there. Twist. Boom. The Negroni. Arguably one of the greatest cocktails ever created. That's delicious. I've had a lot of practice on these. Third cocktail is another classic, another vermouth-forward drink, the Manhattan. Now, most people do it two-thirds rye, two-thirds bourbon, and one-third vermouth. The original recipe calls for rye and vermouth 50-50. So that's what we're gonna do today. When you do it with something like Carpano Antico that has a lot of flavor and a lot of richness and sweetness, you need to have a high-proof rye. And so we're using the Rittenhouse rye today. So again, first things first, let's hit our mixing glass with ice. We're gonna do a little bit of ice in our rocks glass. So again, super easy. We're gonna make a four-ounce drink. Carpano Antico, two ounces. Rittenhouse, two ounces. Or whatever rye you're using. So again, we mix. So before I add the Angostura bitters, which is just a few dashes, I like to mix it up a little bit. I actually add it after I pour it in. Okay, we mixed it. Now, a lot of times people do Manhattan's Up. I like them on the rocks. It's a strong drink. And then last but not least, this is really important. These are Luxardo cherries. So these come from Italy. They're in this really thick syrup. I do three plus a little syrup. Stir that in a little bit. It's delicious. Tastes like Christmas cherries. Then I hit it with a little Angostura. Again, this is my recipe. This is what I like. Hopefully you try it at home and you like it as well. There we go. That is a big cocktail. Cheers. I love vermouth. I hope after watching this, you may be more interested in it and then you become to love it like I do. But it's part of my life. It's part of my drinking regime. It's always in my bar. And I hope that you put it in your bar as well. I'm Jeff Porter, host of Sip Trip. See you soon.