Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Get to know vermouth: Your cocktail will thank you
Gordon Kendall
Gordon Kendall's column, "Good Libations," runs monthly in Extra. He welcomes readers' questions and comments about wine, beer or spirits.
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A dusty bottle lurks in the shadows of almost every liquor cabinet, forgotten perhaps since the days of the Carter administration. It is rarely utilized but is kept on hand in case a guest drops by and requests a martini or a manhattan. It's vermouth, but who knows what it is? A wine, liqueur or spirit?
Vermouth has long been available in a white (dry) or a red (sweet) version, and Cinzano has recently introduced a rose.
White vermouth is a fortified wine composed of white wine with clear grape brandy added to boost the alcohol content to approximately 18 percent. The concoction is infused with a closely guarded secret recipe of flowers, fruit peels, seeds, botanicals and herbs that usually include cardamom, cinnamon, marjoram and chamomile. Up to 30 ingredients may be used. A fresh bottle smells like a cool, green forest floor in the springtime.
Red vermouth has a bittersweet flavor and derives its cordovan color from the addition of caramelized sugar.
Wine has been seasoned with aromatic herbs since the days of ancient Greece. Hippocrates used wine infused with the herb wormwood as a tonic and a cure for intestinal worms.
In 1786, Antonio Benedetto Carpano began producing vermouth in Turin, Italy. The name derives from the old German word for wormwood, Wermud.
In 1813 Joseph Noilly began producing dry vermouth made from Clairette and Picpoul grapes in the Languedoc region of France. In 1855, Noilly's son, Louis, joined forces with his brother-in-law, Claudius Prat, to create the now-famous, well-respected label Noilly Prat. The Italian firm Martini and Rossi is the world's largest producer of vermouth today.
When vermouth was introduced, it was served as a cocktail, straight and chilled with a twisted lemon peel.
Vermouth became a key ingredient in the popular martini. The origin of the martini is shrouded in the mists of history, but early martinis were fundamentally different from what is shaken or stirred today.
One fable is that the martini evolved from a drink known as the Martinez, created about 1862. The recipe for this libation called for four parts sweet red vermouth, one part gin and a cherry. The predominant gin back then was Old Tom, a much sweeter style than today's London Dry.
Another tale is that in 1911, a bartender named Martini di Arma di Taggia concocted a drink at New York's Knickerbocker Hotel composed of 50 percent gin, 50 percent Noilly Prat white vermouth and a dash of orange bitters. The drink was shaken with ice and strained into a chilled glass. Innovative patrons began adding olives to this popular drink. Some bartenders are reprising this variation today as a "Fifty-Fifty."
These popular recipes called for copious portions of vermouth resulting in tremendous sales for the beverage. Over time, the proportion of vermouth in drinks diminished as the dry style became fashionable.
Winston Churchill famously stated that he merely looked at a bottle of vermouth or toward France as he mingled his gin with ice. Some say a ray of sunlight should shine through a bottle of vermouth in front of a gin bottle.
Some purists specify that their superdry martini be mixed with no vermouth. At that point, it ceases to be a "mixed" drink. Cutting-edge bartenders today are mixing wet martinis with more vermouth.
Because vermouth is fortified, an open bottle will not sour, but it can become stale after a few weeks. Some mixologists recommend refrigerating opened bottles to maintain freshness, or buying half bottles.
One way to consume vermouth before it oxidizes is to cook with it. Vermouth is great for deglazing the pan after searing meats. My wife, Pam, has a great clam spaghetti recipe (printed at left) that she makes on weeknights and calls for vermouth. The aromatic qualities of the wine make the whole kitchen smell great.
So get a fresh bottle of vermouth and try a wet martini composed of four parts gin to one part vermouth. Don't worry about being labeled an uncool social outcast. It is a mixed drink, after all.
Gordon Kendall's column runs monthly in Extra.
