Vermouth is very much a bartender thing – the consumer is still unsure, so says Shaker UK’s head of training, Amit Sood.

High-profile Italian bartender and global ambassador for Martini, Giuseppe Gallo, bemoans the lack of knowledge about the vermouth category. He tells Drinks International: “It is the most undefined, unexplained category.”He points to classic cocktails such the Martini, Manhattan, Martinez and Negroni in which vermouth is a vital, integral ingredient. As anyone with a passing interest in cocktails will know, the make up of a classic dry Martini and how it came about is the subject of many discussions and arguments.

Author Somerset Maugham says “a Martini should be stirred not shaken”, while Ian Fleming had his James Bond requesting – horror of horrors – a vodka Martini and, famously, that it should be “shaken not stirred” (was there personal animosity between them?).

Ernest Hemingway wanted his gin to vermouth ratio 15:1 while US president Richard Nixon stipulated 7:1. Winston Churchill is said to have just stared at the vermouth bottle while sipping his chilled gin. Yet, despite seeming widespread ignorance about vermouth itself, Gallo and Philip Duff, the well-known Manhattan-based Irish-born beverage consultant, both believe that vermouth is hot. They did a presentation under the auspices of the Vermouth Institute at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. Gallo says: “It (the trend) started about two years ago but there has been a lot of interest in the past year to 18 months.”

Duff of Liquid Solutions is director of education for Tales of the Cocktail, owner of Door 74 Amsterdam (#15 in DI’s World’s 50 Best Bars 2013) and winner of World’s Best Presenter in the Spirited Awards 2012.

He says: “The Vermouth Institute is one of the most popular Powerpoint presentations I have ever uploaded to Slideshare.net. My PPTs were apparently in the top 4% of all Slideshare’s traffic for 2013. It’s been viewed almost 1,700 times since July.”

For those who wish to dig deep and understand chapter and verse about the history and production of vermouth, check out Philip Duff’s hour-plus synopsis  – I recommend it: slideshare.net/philipduff/the-vermouth-institute-tales-of-the-cocktail-2013 Also worth checking out is Gallo’s: giuseppegallo.co.uk/?p=676.

Duff says: “Vermouth is indeed the hottest of hot topics right now, driven by the trend for historically accurate mixology, its success with bartenders; and profits for the brand owner of the game-changing Carpano Antica Formula, the craft spirits boom and the cutting-edge trend for low-octane cocktails epitomised by the multiple award-winning NoMad hotel in New York, which has a great low-alcohol cocktail range,” he says.

“I firmly believe there has never been a better time to make, mix with, or drink vermouth. It’ll take about another seven to 10 years for this to hit the high street, by which I mean the sort of wholesale adoption of vermouth cocktails, but the most important groundwork has already been done,” adds Duff.

Vermouth continues to be significant in its traditional markets of Italy, France (the old kingdom of Savoy encompassing Chambery – an AOC for vermouth in France – and Turin is the home of vermouth) and Spain. But Gallo tells DI that Martini’s most important export market is Russia.

Well-known bartender and author Gary ‘Gaz’ Regan says: “Despite high volume in 2012 – 14,354 9-litre cases (IWSR) – the global vermouth category suffered on the main markets in the last decade from its old and dusty ‘aperitif’ image. 

“However, recently people tend to go back to the roots and we can notice a global trend on lower-alcohol beverage, on vintage products, people willing to consume less but better, hence opening the gate to a premium segment in the vermouth category. This segment drives this ancestral category into making a comeback on the markets, through classic cocktails and vintage aperitifs.

But Duff has a couple of concerns. Firstly, quality. “One disquieting development we have seen – and it’s just the same worry with modern craft spirits – is a ton of vermouths which are, to be frank, badly made. They might be locally produced and environmentally responsible and true to some (possibly apocryphal) historical tradition, but by any standard, they are poorly made. Hopefully, those will go away as the industry matures.”

The other concern is that it is obligatory for European vermouth producers to use wormwood (see panel) – after all, the word vermouth comes from the German word ‘Wermut’ (see/hear Duff and Gallo’s presentations). But that is not the case for US producer.

Duff says: “It’s a complex debate that goes deeper than you think: taste-wise you can argue you can make a vermouth taste bitter without using wormwood – but is it then ‘true’ vermouth? “Other factors muddy the waters, such as the fact that many of the new US vermouth brands are from tiny start-up companies which lack the funds for wormwood safety-testing, a US requirement that can cost $10,000. 

“Rather than choose sides, I think the industry needs a fair-minded working group to sort this out. Imagine the outrage if European gins didn’t have to contain juniper, but American-made ones did,” says Duff.

Now for what bartenders say. Asked about the importance of vermouth to bartenders, Regan replies: “Where would a great Martini be without vermouth? Vermouth benefits from a double culture: the aperitif culture, mainly located in southern Europe where vermouth is enjoyed neat on ice, and the cocktail culture established in North America, Europe and Asia.

“Fitting the innovative and growing premium segment, La Quintinye Vermouth Royal offers a highly qualitative and distinctive liquid for both aperitif drinkers and classic cocktail lovers across the globe,” he says.

Specialist approach

“Innovation is key to undust the category and therefore the premium segment emerges with crafted and qualitative products in markets such as the UK, US, Spain, France, Germany and Singapore. In Spain for instance, Vermuterias are opening through the country, offering a wide selection of vermouth to customers and educating them of the variants between brands. 

“Cocktail bars and lounges are reinventing classic cocktails such as the Martini, Manhattan, Martinez or Negroni, where vermouth is a must among the few ingredients mixed together,” says Regan

Thomas Huhn, chef de bar of Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel, Switzerland, says: “Vermouth is for me a very important ingredient. It’s getting more and more popular and the choice of brands is amazing. As I started with my bartender career 14 years ago I used only the big brands in business – Martini and Cinzano – and these were the only available brands in Germany at this point.

“Over the years I have changed my mind and today I have a mix of local producers or brands with a long tradition and a traditional recipe for historical cocktails,” says Huhn.

“We have products from a small producer, Matter Luginbühl – a little bit more expensive but a higher quality and a nice story behind them.

“When I started I had a lot of fancy drinks on the menu but I used vermouth only for Martinis and Manhattans. Today we search for the classic recipes which give us the inspiration, the story and a huge playground to make our own twists,” he says.

“Trends come and go – I have now been seven years in Basel as bar manager and I made a lot of changes in my portfolio, but the tradition is still alive such as with Noilly Prat and Carpano,” says Huhn.

As to his favourite brands, Shaker’s Sood says: “Noilly is a good standard, versatile dry vermouth, Dolin is a good ‘underdog’ for pouring dry vermouth. I am a big fan of the Cocchi vermouth di Torino Cocchi Americano. I like Antica Formula, but it is very expensive and not affordable for bars that charge less than £10 a drink.”

Duff says: “To me, a good vermouth should offer a realistic representation of its base wine and be equally good for drinking straight as for mixing cocktails. I think we’ve moved on from using cheap base wines and concentrating on botanicals – just like in food and cocktails, quality and provenance is all. New brands such as EWG’s La Quintinye Vermouth Royal range and Martini’s Gran Lusso are leading the way in this, and several of the US brands such as Ransom (a rare US vermouth containing wormwood) and Imbue have a similar ingredient-driven philosophy, which I applaud.

“I can best illustrate my thoughts on the is-vermouth-old-fashioned-for-drinking-straight with an anecdote. During a panel discussion as part of the Vermouth Institute, an American audience member (who herself makes vermouth) asked one of those questions-which-is-really-a-statement along the lines of: “Why don’t Americans drink vermouth straight, or over ice, like Italians, French or Spanish?” I recall my own reply being something along the lines of: “Well, the chicken wings are shit in France,” by which I mean each country has valid drinking cultures. It becomes pathetic when we treat culture as a dressing-up box. 

“Let the Mediterranean types drink vermouth on terraces while flirting with each others’ wives – us barbarian Anglo-Saxons can suck it down in fancy Manhattans and Martinis, or possibly Martini-and-lemonade-ice-and-a-slice-please. More important than either of those trends is that vermouth is being made, sold and drunk with more care and attention than in the past 50 years, and that’s only a good thing,” says Duff.

‘Hot’ launches

To support Duff, Gallo and Regan’s claim that vermouth is ‘hot’ there are two launches in a sector not renowned for product innovation and development.

Firstly, EWG Spirits & Wine launched last month (January) in London. EWG says La Quintinye Vermouth Royal was “born in the heart of the vineyards of Charente, France, and made using the finest ingredients including Pineau des Charentes” and takes its name from Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinye, botanist to Louis XIV, the Sun King. Born in 1623 in the Charente region, he was commissioned in the early 1660s to create the Kitchen Gardens at the Palace of Versailles. 

While the wine base of La Quintinye Extra-Dry and Blanc uses white Pineau des Charentes, La Quintinye Rouge blends red Pineau des Charentes, providing the amber hue. The Pineau des Charentes provides fullness and intensity through its aromas, which are balanced with the bitterness of the plants. 

The ‘aromatic palette’ is said to comprise a base of 12 plants and spices shared by the three products. Each is then completed by a specific selection. In total, 28 plants and spices compose La Quintinye Rouge, 18 make the Blanc variety and 27 are used in La Quintinye Extra Dry. 

Mancino vermouth from bartender and founder Giancarlo Mancino is described as an ‘artisanal vermouth’. There are three core vermouths in the range – a Secco, Bianco Ambrato, Rosso Amaranto – and a Vecchio, a year-old aged version of the Rosso Ameranto, available in small quantities.

Mancino says the recipes are made from a selection of up to 40 botanicals which he sourced over four years of research and travel in India, Thailand, Vietnam, England and Italy. 

The botanicals are ground in a traditional mill that has been in use since the 1930s. The extracts are then steeped in 30% abv sugar beet spirit before being added to a 12% abv Trebbiano di Romagna wine base. After a week-long filtration process, the liquid is said to spend six months resting in stainless steel until the vermouth is ready for bottling in small batches.

From the shape of the bottle to the image of the town surrounded by King Vittorio Emanuele gold coins pictured on the label, Mancino Vermouth takes inspiration from Mancino’s home town of Pignola in southern Italy.

Where does he hope to sell his vermouth? Mancino says: “For sure Asia and America are growing fast but Europe remains in first in the list.”

“Spain, Italy and Argentina remain the main countries where vermouths have been drinking straight for the past 100 years and there are places where you can go to drink vermouths only.

“Dry/Secco is very popular in the Martinis and a few more classic cocktails. The Bianco is used as an aperitif in southern Europe and also in some cocktails, and the Rosso is massive because we use it in at least 65% of the top classic cocktails recipes,” says Mancino.

We mustn’t forget Martini’s Gran Lusso which was launched to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary.

Meaning ‘grand luxury’ in Italian, it is a single-batch vermouth which apparently has been eight years in the making and is limited to 150,000 bottles worldwide.

Master herbalist Ivano Tonutti and master blender Giuseppe Musso have used Barbera red wine from the Piedmont region of northern Italy and Trebbiano white wine from neighboring Emilia-Romagna.

Gran Lusso is said to combine two extracts. The first was inspired by an historical vermouth recipe. This new extract was made with Moscato must from Canelli Italy, which had been aged for a year in wood barrels. The second is the company’s ‘great secret’. The recreation of a 1904 recipe, known as ‘extract 94’, it is the first botanical extract to rest in small demijohns for eight years.

The ‘master artisans’ are said to have created a new method of extracting the character of the botanicals. Their ambition was to create an original, ‘sweet-bitter’ taste that would add to the character of the blend.

Gaz Regan concludes: “Vermouth was the late 19th-century game changer that altered the face of mixology over a century ago, and continues to be the most important ingredient in the cocktail bartender’s bag of tricks. 

“Without it we wouldn’t know the heavenly delights of the Martini, the Manhattan, or the Negroni. Vermouth is the one ingredient, common in so many fabulous drinks, that doesn’t scream for attention, but it’s integral to achieve balance in so many classic drinks, and so many new creations, too.”