A Voyage into Vermouth

You haven’t really learned something until you can teach it. I think that also extends to writing, which was one reason I started writing about wine: to learn. This deep dive into vermouth was a chance to learn and led to some unexpected places. It appeared in the June 2024 issue of Oregon Wine Press. Click HERE to see their online version.

It’s sweet and it’s bitter.

It’s a cocktail ingredient and it’s a stand-alone beverage.

It’s ancient and it’s trendy.

It’s an internationally mass-marketed product and a bespoke, local treasure.

It’s what’s in that dusty green bottle in the back of my liquor cabinet.

It’s vermouth.  And it’s growing in popularity.

Vermouth’s global market share is predicted to increase significantly in the coming years, according to a 360 Research report published last fall.  This is partly driven by the continuing interest in craft cocktails where it takes a role as an ingredient.  For many people seeking no- or low-alcohol options, a simple vermouth cocktail or spritz is a flavorful and refreshing pre-dinner aperitif.  Oregon has emerged as a center of vermouth innovation as producers offer an assortment of styles informed by tradition while inventively expanding the category.

I decided to learn more about what is in that dusty, green bottle.

Vermouth - what IS it?

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine.  Three basic elements make up its recipe: a base wine; a fortifying spirit; and a flavorful assemblage of botanicals and sweeteners that may include dried and fresh herbs, flowers, barks and spices.

The classic versions of France, Italy and Spain dictate the two common style categories.  Dry versions are lighter in color, although “white” vermouth can also be sweet.  “Red” versions are almost always sweetened, often by the addition of caramelized sugar that also colors the vermouth.  Formulations for both dry and sweet traditionally begin with a straightforward white wine.  Neutral grape spirits increase the alcohol by volume (abv) to around 17%.  The blend of botanicals chosen to add aromas and flavors is usually a closely held secret, although traditionalists would require the inclusion of wormwood (artemisia absinthium).  Wermut - the German version of the herb’s name - is thought to be a source of the very word ‘vermouth.’

This backdrop of the vermouth “canon” is just the beginning. While consistency is paramount for large, international brands, the many possible choices within each of vermouth’s three ingredients present producers with a blank canvas for their creativity - as Oregon’s vermouths demonstrate.

“The creativity and the formulation part became very captivating for me,” says Patrick Taylor, who makes vermouth under the Cana’s Feast and Hammer & Tongs labels.  His deeply-colored and flavorful Chinato D’Erbetti (for Cana’s Feast) is based on Nebbiolo, the Barolo grape of Italy’s Piemonte, and is inspired by traditional after-dinner versions from that region.  His enthusiasm for that project led him to create his own vermouth-centric Hammer & Tongs brand that offers two versions with packaging that playfully embraces the drink’s medicinal history.  L’Afrique is a rich, red rendition and Sac’Résine’s resinous sweetness places it somewhere between the two traditional styles.  Taylor contrasts making vermouth with winemaking in which “we have this beautiful synergy with Mother Nature, and we're working with what Mother Nature is giving us.” When making vermouth, however, he is “very hands-on and directing the final outcome.”

Vermouth - what WAS it?

People have infused various edible plants into fermented juice for millennia, prompting anthropologist Patrick McGovern to describe vermouth’s prototypes as the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages.  The murky 10,000-year history begins in China and the Middle East.  Archeological evidence also reveals the steeping of herbs into fermented beverages in Central and South America at about the same time.  As the Silk Routes (or Silk Road) brought exotic spices from the East to the West in the centuries leading to the Common Era, beverages more closely resembling modern vermouth evolved.

The use of herbs and spices (including wormwood) to make medicinal draughts was codified by the ancient Greeks shortly after the time of Jesus Christ.  In the centuries that followed, the citizens of the Greek and Roman empires drank aromatized wines for pleasure and as preventative medicine.  By the 16th century, alchemists and healers had cooked up a myriad of blends that were believed to aid in digestion and to ward off everything from skin rashes to the Black Plague.  Soon thereafter aromatized wine’s two tracks leading to the pharmacy and the banquet table began to diverge.

The global supply chain for spices developed sufficiently by the 18th century that Western aromatic wine recipes could contain more exotic ingredients at a greatly reduced cost.  Italian distiller Antonio Benedetto Carpano took advantage of this in creating what is regarded as the first commercially available vermouth (he called it ‘wermut’) at Turin in 1786.  His success spurred others to follow.  The ensuing years saw the emergence of European brands we still know today such as Cinzano and (in France) Noilly Prat.

Cocktail Culture

European vermouth arrived on America’s shores in the mid-19th century coinciding with a growing interest in cocktails - i.e., adult beverages beyond whiskey and ale.  Vermouth found its place in the straightforward vermouth cocktail (often a pour of straight vermouth with a dash of bitters, an olive or citrus twist) along with the martini and manhattan.  As in our own time, variations were abundant and are documented in the many cocktail books and bartender’s manuals published well into the 20th century.   

Before long, domestic production began – only to be cut short by Prohibition in the 1920s.  American production resumed after Repeal and was fueled by anti-European sentiment during World War II.  This led state-side producers to pursue a higher quality level that could take the place of Italian and French imports.

After the war, cocktail recipes trended drier - stronger, with less vermouth - leading to vermouth’s demotion to an anonymous mixer rather than something to be savored on its own.  But the current interest in craft cocktails harkens back to the pre-prohibition cocktail recipes that relied on flavorful vermouths.  According to Adam Ford’s book, “Vermouth: A Spirited Revival, with 40 Modern Cocktails,” the martini and the manhattan both originally called for two parts vermouth to one part gin or whiskey.  And so modern bartenders and mixologists are giving vermouth more attention as they craft their bartop creations.

Oregon Vermouths

Tasting Oregon-made vermouths and meeting the people who create them renewed my appreciation for the freedom of expression found in much of America’s wine culture.  Experimentation abounds alongside an awareness of “old world” archetypes.

Interrobang crafts dry and sweet vermouths using local wine and organic ingredients in styles inspired by traditional European recipes.  Sweet Vermouth No. 47 takes a German style as its point of departure and includes wormwood along with more than ten other botanicals.  Its aromas range from minerals and pine to leather and herbs and it tastes like dried fruits and caramel.  Tart acidity balances its moderate sweetness.  White Vermouth No. 73 is based on a recipe from Southern France with aromas of white flowers and clean linen and tastes like spearmint, anise, dill and so much more.  These are both delicious by themselves but would also elevate a cocktail.  Their website explains the brand’s name: “Interrobang is a nonstandard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point:” (‽)  It is a “mark above.”

Over several bottles of vermouth opened to taste at my kitchen table, David Patte remembered growing up in France where the adults in his life would enjoy aperitifs of vermouth or Lillet before dinner.  His two Sun Break vermouths embrace the Pacific Northwest using a base wine of Oregon Pinot Noir and fortified with brandy also made from Oregon’s most famous variety.  His Rosé Vermouth is the drier version and uses a blend of 17 botanicals.  It is pale salmon in color with spicy aromas and flavors of clove, herbs and pine.  Sun Break’s Red Vermouth is sweeter and fuller-bodied with flavors of cinnamon, roses, candied fruits and baking spices.  Its recipe of 20 botanicals includes wormwood.  Defying simple descriptions, these complex flavors deserve to be savored on their own.

Winemaker Graham Merkel and I met in a busy Portland coffee shop on a rainy afternoon. Having spent time in Italy while growing up, he makes vermouths inspired by his heritage, his past work as a bartender and his love of experimenting with flavors while cooking.  His Buona Notte brand is an Italian-centric winery in the Columbia Gorge where he crafts vermouth alongside unexpected wines (for Oregon) like Sangiovese and Dolcetto. His Tramonto is a demi-sweet vermouth based on Pinot Grigio, fortified with local grape brandy and sweetened with honey from the Mount Hood area.  The base wine is made as a skin-contact “orange wine” and aromatized with more orange-colored ingredients like turmeric, orange peel and chamomile - among others.  Barrel aging is accomplished using a solera system: In the first year, half the wine is bottled, and the other half is returned to the barrels.  The following year those barrels are refreshed with new wine, spirits and botanicals and half of that product is bottled.  “You're getting some of every vintage in there,” Merkel said, “plus adding the fresh every year.”

In a room that resembles a cross between a commercial kitchen and a science lab, I met two cider makers and two bartenders who make vermouth together.  Jasper Smith and Ella MacCallion, of Son of Man Cider, forged a partnership with Jessica Baesler and Graham Files over drinks at the latters’ Someday Bar in Portland.  Our meeting place was Smith Teamaker’s Portland production facility and tasting room.  Assisting was Smith’s product development staff: Sara Kaufman, Donovan Eilert and Anthony Frey.  The blending team explored a couple dozen infusions – alone and in combination, steeped in water and in spirits – to enliven this year’s Son of Man x Someday Summer Vermouth.  Tempranillo sourced from Washington’s Underwood Mountain area is this vermouth’s base wine, joined by apple brandy (befitting a cidery) and local honey.  Son of Man and Someday partner to offer two limited-production vermouths each year: the currently available Summer Vermouth and also Harvest Vermouth.    

Like the Cana’s Feast chinato described above, Iris Vineyard’s Città delle Essenze could be considered “vermouth adjacent.”  Using a wine-based formula that includes spirits and an herbal blend featuring bitter orange peel, the goal was an Oregon dessert wine that pays homage to amaro, the bitter Italian spirit (Campari is the most famous label).  Iris’s Aaron Lieberman freezes Pinot Gris juice to concentrate its sugar.  After a cold ferment, herbal flavors are added and the wine is fortified with spirits.  Città delle Essenze takes its place alongside wine-based “gin” and “bourbon” in Iris’ tasting room in downtown Springfield where you can discover lower alcohol cocktails mixed with wine-based “spirits.”

Creativity in a Glass

The warmer months are a great time to discover for yourself a refreshing spritz of Oregon vermouth with sparkling water, tonic water or sparkling wine.  Or add one of these flavorful local vermouths to your next martini or negroni.  Let the creative spirit of Oregon’s vermouth makers find its way into your own glass this summer.  The possibilities are endless.

List of Oregon Vermouth Producers

Buona Notte

Cana’s Feast

Color Collector

Hammer & Tongs

Harris Bridge

Interrobang

Kelley Fox

McMenamins

Ransom

Someday/Son of Man

Sun Break