![]() Vya Vermouth Aperitif Sweet – California’s Quady Winery makes this cola-brown vermouth, which deserves to come out of the shadow of the company’s more well-known dry vermouths. Tighter on the finish, the bitterness tends to overpower spirits in a cocktail, Manhattan or otherwise. It’s best on its own as a lower abv version of a classic amaro liqueur, though it’s plumped up with fruity notes of fresh berries and plums that make it a delight to sip on. Distinctly more bitter than its sibling, di Torino, thanks to a “double infusion of cinchona,” which technically makes this a Chinato style vermouth. A / $25 Ĭocchi Dopo Teatro Vermouth Amaro – Brick red, and known as an “evening vermouth” presumably because of its amaro-like character. It’s really quite beautiful with whiskey, which coaxes out stronger, sultry chocolate notes. Expressive and pungent, it’s clearly an amaro-like sibling that drinks beautifully on its own - albeit with an overly citrus-heavy back end. Bracingly bittersweet with an immediate rush of cherry, cola, and coffee bean, this amaro-like vermouth has a stronger wine character that becomes increasingly evident as it builds toward the finish. A / $18 (375ml) Īlessio Vermouth di Torino – Described as a “very typical” style of the “pre-cocktail” era, made with an extreme attention to historical detail. The licorice-whip bitterness grows more assertive as it develops in the glass, with a lightly pruny element helping to sweeten up the finish. This is a classic expression of vermouth, quite citrusy up front, along with notes of cola, tea leaf, and rhubarb. A+ / $15 (375ml) Ĭarpano Antica Formula Vermouth – Perhaps the most iconic of sweet vermouth brands, and rightfully so. It pairs almost absurdly beautifully with whiskey, and I found it to be a solid foil in a Negroni, too. Notes of chocolate and a punch of strawberry build on the immersive, almost soulful finish - which melds its almost pruny sweetness perfectly with its bittering, spicier elements. A beautiful, bittersweet vermouth that blends citrus peel, anise, and classic gentian notes into a rounded, pleasing whole. ![]() So, without further ado, it’s time to get our vermouth on!Ĭocchi Vermouth di Torino – A ruddy shade of brown. (The top products were all tasted blind in a final round to confirm the ratings.) I also organized the list to rank the products from best to worst - though, in all honesty - none of these wines were at all “bad.” Learning from the dry vermouth roundup, I chose to give each vermouth a single grade based on its overall quality and versatility, reflecting the total character and experience of the product. Where appropriate, I mixed some of the vermouths into other cocktails, which you’ll see in the specific writeups. (Note: Keep it in the fridge.)įor this roundup, I tasted all of the below vermouths on their own - chilled, but without ice - and in a Manhattan. Of course, sweet vermouth is a key ingredient in many essential cocktails, including the Manhattan, the boulevardier, and the negroni, and any respectable home bar needs to have a bottle on hand at all times. If you visit Spain, you’ll find that sweet vermouth on the rocks is a national obsession on the level with gin and tonic, with all manner of artisanal vermouths available to sip with your tapas. Sweet vermouth is generally more versatile than dry vermouth, namely because it is and widely enjoyed on its own (usually on the rocks) as an aperitif. In the reviews below, if a vermouth is not produced in Italy, its country/region of origin is noted. These vermouths are at least made in Italy, though as with dry vermouth, sweet vermouth is now produced all over the world. With all that said, the most iconic expression of sweet vermouth is Vermouth di Torino, which implies that it is made in Italy’s Turin region, but which (as vermouth101 will tell you) is rarely the case. If you really want to take a deep dive into this, I highly recommend checking out the site - but for the purpose of this roundup, we’re casting a fairly wide net into anything that can reasonably be used as as a sweet vermouth-like ingredient in cocktails, or consumed solo. With over a dozen categories of aromatized wines, this can get quite dizzyingly complex. ![]() This is complicated further by the existence of other aromatized wines which fall into other categories such as quinquina and americano, which are defined by their bittering agents. That definition has become clouded over the years, and many modern vermouths do not contain real wormwood in them. Like dry vermouth, sweet vermouth was historically defined and categorized by its inclusion of wormwood in the recipe. Well, here am I again, facing a phalanx of sweet vermouth bottles that is even larger: 25 in total. I swore off doing a monster roundup like this last time I did a big vermouth writeup - with 16 dry vermouths taste-tested and reviewed.
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