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BARTENDER'S
SPIRITS EXPLAINED, by George Delgado |
VERMOUTH
by George Delgado |
 In a lost, but not forgotten era of bartending, there was vermouth.
Before electric blenders, sour mix and generic liqueurs, there was
vermouth. Prior to Prohibition and the concoctions created to make
bathtub gin more potable, there was vermouth. This was an era where
if a barman wanted to use peaches in a drink, he would need to go to
a tree and reach for the peaches, not merely reach for the Peachtree
Schnapps. This was the time when vermouths and bitters were the modifiers of choice. This era has not been forgotten thanks to The
Martini and The Manhattan. These two cocktails carried the dry vermouth and the sweet vermouth, respectively through every fad,
phase, twist and turn in cocktail history. So what is vermouth? Where did it come from? How is it made?
There are four types, or classifications, of wines-still wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines and aromatized wines. Fortified
wines are wines that have been fortified or strengthened with the addition of a distilled spirit, usually brandy. This fortification
brings the alcohol level up into the 17% - 22% range. Some fortified
wines are Port, Sherry, and Madeira. Some aromatized wines include
Dubonnet (red & white), Lillet (red & white), Byrrh, Punt È
mes, St. RaphaÎl, Cynar and, of course, sweet and dry vermouth. Aromatized
wines are very often grouped in with fortified wines by virtue of the
wine also having been strengthened with a distillate, but that is where the similarities end. Aromatized refers to the botanicals and
aromatizing agents used in its production.
The word vermouth is derived from the German "wermut" meaning wormwood. Wormwood gained great notoriety as the vilified ingredient
in the outlawed Absinthe. Aside from this ingredient vermouth can
have anywhere from 30-50 ingredients macerated with the basic wine.
Some ingredients are quinine, ginger, rose petals, bark, hyssop, elder, juniper, citrus peels, coriander, nutmeg, chamomile and
gentian just to name a few. This steeping takes over a month; the
brandy is added just prior to the 2-4 years of oak aging. Then it
gets caramel for color consistency (red only); it gets sweetened, pasteurized, even frozen to remove tartrates, finally filtered and
bottled. You can see how vermouths are far removed from fortified
wines, and even further removed from wine, as we know it. But don't
expect me, or anyone else to be able to give you the exact recipe for
any of these vermouths; they have been highly guarded secrets since
way back when apothecaries used them as a medicine for malaria.
Antonio Carpano first produced sweet vermouth commercially around 1786 in Torino, Italy (Carpano Punt È
mes). Coincidentally, around 1800, Louis Noilly was producing drier vermouth in Lyon, France
(Noilly Prat). Today, both countries produce the red, sweet vermouth
and the white, dry vermouth. Many people to this day, however, order
"Italian" when they want sweet vermouth and "French" when they want
dry vermouth. These requests, usually from people visiting America,
remind me of others worth noting. When someone asks for a "Martini
over ice," it may not be our famous cocktail they're requesting, but
simply vermouth on the rocks. A "half & half" may not be the blend
of milk & cream, or a Harp & Guinness (aka black & tan), but a drink
of equal parts sweet & dry vermouth. Also keep in mind that Italy
produces a very popular sweet vermouth that is white, called Bianco.
These explanations would have been, needless to say, if we were bartending 100 years ago, during the time when vermouth and bitters
ruled the bar. Today, I know of two ways that we can experience the
subtle magic created by the use of vermouth & bitters. One is to
thumb through any bar book that was published between 1865 and 1940,
where you will clearly see how vestigial the Martini and Manhattan
truly are. The other is to visit the CAMPBELL APARTMENT at Grand Central Station in New York City. This historic cocktail lounge
welcomes every guest with a sign that reads COCKTAILS FROM ANOTHER
ERA...
Here is one of the many classics served at the Campbell Apartment:
DELMONICO
2 1/2 oz. Gin
1 oz. French Vermouth
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Orange Peel garnish
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