I love a good martini but I’ll be honest, I’ve never given much thought to one of the major ingredients… dry vermouth. The Art of the Drink blog has an article on the general idea of making vermouth and I wanted to give it a try. You will need a dry wine, herbs, and a liquor to pump up the alcohol content.
Vermouth was born a long time ago, arguably as far back as the fifth century B.C. The word comes from wermut, the German word for wormwood. Wormwood along with other herbs and alcohol where added to off wine to mask the flavor. Vermouth evolved with time and by the 1800’s French (dry) and Italians (sweet) where making incredibly drinkable brands like Martini & Rossi, now the largest producer. We see vermouth used in many drinks behind the bar but vermouth on the rocks and even the vermouth cocktail have almost slid out of sight.
Dry Vermouth Recipe:
1/2 teaspoon wormwood
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon gentian
1/4 teaspoon chamomile
1/4 teaspoon bitter orange
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon angelica root
1/8 teaspoon elderflower
1/8 teaspoon cinchona bark
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 whole clove
1 whole allspice
1 oz (30ml) sugar (about 4% of 750ml)
1 bottle dry Riesling (I used Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling)
Pour entire wine bottle into a pot and bring to boil. Boil uncovered and keep boiling for 3-5 minutes to oxidize and reduce by about 100ml. Remove from heat and add all ingredients, cover and let cool.
After an hour or so strain the solids and add about 2 oz of vodka, pour into a screw cap bottle and refrigerate for a day to fully infuse; then keep refrigerated for no more than about a month. I have done many versions since this one and will do many more. Use this recipe as a start point for your own house vermouth and let me know what you come up with.
Article By: Mark Sexauer
Filed under: Techniques
Did you add any alcohol back to the vermouth after boiling? Riesling is usually at about 12% and most dry vermouth is around 18%
I think that this will be one of the next things to try on my housemade list.
Thanks for posting the recipe.
Nice post!
I planned to make an attempt to make a genuine Apple Martini using gin, apple vermouth and lemon bitters.
The apple vermouth I wanted to do with cider [instead of wine], the usual botanicals and apple peel.
What would you say about the importance of wormwood, gentian and angelica [pretty hard to find in Dubai] – can you leave them out or substitute them, or are they a must?
I would go as far as to say that nothing is a must! First of all, your apple vermouth sounds great. As far as the wormwood and other herbs there are online sources like tenzing momo, but I would imagine that you could use tea. There are thousands of varieties of tea I’m sure you could use to add complexity. What about a black tea? What about a black tea with dried ginger? There are bitter tea blends out there. There are even smoky tea blends available. I’ve never been to Dubai (I’ve been to Kuwait and Iraq though….) but I hope that you could have accesses to a specialty tea shop. Again, you could check online for tea sources, this one has apple in it, and so does this one.
Cheers
Also remember that tea gets more bitter as you let it steep. Maybe a looooong steeping in a small batch of cider will give you nice bitterish base you could play around with? Then add your other herbs, apple peel and you’ll want just a little bit of sugar….