The Washington State Bartenders Guild hosted a vermouth tasting this last weekend. It was a great opportunity to focus on vermouth and its importance in cocktails. I have an affinity for vermouth and brought my homemade dry and sweet versions to see how they stacked up. Vermouth has lost some market value in the last decades but is seeing a much anticipated return with brands like Vya and Dolin. We were lucky enough to have Paul Clarke bring a bottle of Noilly Ambre which is not available in this country and scored on some Carpano Antica along with all the usual vermouth suspects.
Without getting into every brand that was there (I think 25 or so) I’ll share what vermouths made me want to run out of the room with the bottle it was so good!
Dolin, a vermouth imported by the famous Eric Seed from Haus Alpenz was a show stealer. I loved the Blanc out of the three which would be perfect just on its own. I’m going to be searching for cocktails using the Blanc so I can showcase this when it’s available for purchase in a month or so.
Vya, what can I say, Vya is a great vermouth to show what vermouth can be. The sweet is amazing on the rocks and is a “bold-forward” vermouth great for “bold-forward” cocktails. Like finding the right gin to use in a Negroni, experimenting with vermouth is essential to a world-class cocktail.
Noilly Ambre, this vermouth is only available in Marseillan, France. This is the pinnacle of balance, subtle flavors and I almost would not mix this vermouth because it is perfect on its own (okay, I would).
Carpano Antica, this was the first commercial vermouth and its creator, Antonio Carpano is credited with starting the vermouth phenomenon in the late 1700’s. This has a definite wormwood taste on the nose, turning into a bright spicy herbiness and ending with a complex wormwood backend. The Carpano made me realize how little wormwood came out in most other vermouths which is ironic because the word vermouth comes from the German word, Wermut, which means wormwood.
All in all it was nice to taste a full array of vermouths and have a better understanding of which ones I’d like to use in a certain drink. We also had access to Zane’s bar that we used to experiment with the Martini and the Manhattan using different vermouths. If you can get your hands on Dolin, get it, it will be available in Washington, through Vinum Distributing by late April 09. It’s exciting to see bars offering three, four, five or more different vermouths and that the same amount of energy goes into picking the right vermouth bottle as it does picking the right spirit. Prost!
By: Mark Sexauer
Filed under: Articles
