Monthly Archives: January 2011

Though dry vermouth is still prized as an aperitif in Europe, the modern American is generally uninformed about this classic aromatized wine. This is largely due to bartenders that allow opened bottles to languish on a warm shelf and quickly oxidize. Many a drinker’s first and only experience with dry vermouth comes in the form of a classic martini that tastes like an alpine bunny took a dump in it. The truth is, when stored in a refrigerator after opening and consumed with purpose, vermouth can be both a quality aperitif and cocktail mixer.

Native to northwest Italy and southern France, vermouth is produced using herbs and other botanicals and then lightly fortified with unaged brandy. Though Antonio Benedetto Carpano was the first to market the aromatized wine he produced in Turin back in 1786, vermouth and its predecessors had been consumed for centuries before that.Typical flavorings include cardamom, cinnamon, marjoram and chamomile along with myriad other herbs, roots and barks. The botanical most associated with vermouth is its namesake, wormwood, otherwise known in Old High German as Wermud.

Both as an effort to find the most quality dry vermouth for our dear readers, as well as an excuse to party, Gourmet Underground assembled a faction of Detroit mixologists and habitual vermouth drinkers for a blind tasting of six brands that are locally available. And because we couldn’t leave it at that, we included two brands a bit more rare, one coveted by cocktail geeks across the country, the other produced only under a full harvest moon by naked virgins in a French alpine mountain stream — or something like that.

The tasters:

Creative mixologist and owner of Detroit Sugar House Bar, Dave Kwiatkowski is relentlessly curious about booze. Though he’s burly enough to crush your skull between his bicep and forearm he’d much rather hand feed premium kibble to his two-and-a-half pound Yorkshire terrier.

A disheveled wine academic with a hedonistic philosophy, Detroit Wine Truck principle Putnam Weekley is capable of eating tabbouleh with his bare hands while sipping a vintage Burgundy out of a Dixie cup and explicating on the soil type of a half hectare vineyard plot in the Pfalz.

Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company’s green coffee buyer and blender James Cadariu is as fussy about booze as he is coffee beans. He might lavish you with fine food and drink but no matter how good of a friend you are, if he catches you with a cup of caramel drizzled mocha latte, he will cut you with his contempt.

Gourmet Underground Detroit co-founder and talented webmaster Evan Hansen is a bona fide cocktail obsessive (among other things) and his home bar is the envy of all the neighborhood kids. On the surface, he appears to be a gravely serious dude but it was only recently that he stopped dying his hair purple.

Jarred Gild is wine monger and all-purpose gourmet consul at Western Market in Ferndale. Self-proclaimed “gentleman of leisure” he often drinks Cru Beaujolais from a Ball jar and travels with raw, naturally-raised Michigan beef. Do not be afraid if one day you find him frying something in your kitchen, he is generally harmless.

The brands appear in the order that we tasted them though the actual names were not revealed until all brands were tested. Samples were presented slightly chilled, in wine glasses, and poured in portions of approximately one ounce. The ambient humidity was perfect for tasting at 52%. A variety of hand-picked tasting music was playing softly in the background. I was wearing my favorite tasting socks — a sort of bluish-gray dyed wool blend. Everything was in place.

The vermouth:

Boissiere Extra Dry Vermouth, Italy, ~$12/liter

Boissiere has been my house brand vermouth since it showed up on the shelves at Holiday Market a few years ago. It’s versatile. I use it in cocktails, for cooking, and occasionally as an aperitif. Dave Kwiatkowski perceives it to have an initial wave of sweetness. It’s light, citrusy and floral with hints of rose petal and orange flower water. It has a mildly effervescent mouthfeel though it is not carbonated and finishes with just a hint of roasted nuts. Putnam Weekley guesses that it’s Noilly Prat.

Routin Vermouth, France, ~unavailable

A dark golden, Routin has an odd but compelling mix of flavors, cheese rind and old nuts, fresh peaches and apricots but also older fruit or fruit leather. It’s less herbal. James Cadariu mentions something about a similarity to sake. It’s liked by all but there is some question of how well it would work in cocktails given its intense flavor.

Jarred Gild finally shows up about 40 minutes late. Because of his tardiness we were forced to buy the bottle of Noilly Prat that he was charged to bring but we don’t give him too hard of a time, mainly because he’s carrying a bunch of bottles of wine for post-tasting drinking. A discussion about how to drink vermouth ensues. Jarred admits that at one point he was drinking a couple bottles a week with ice and a slice of lemon or orange. James cracks that the appropriate vessel for Jarred would be a Ball jar or tiki cup. We find this funny because it’s true.

Vya Extra Dry Vermouth, California, ~$28/750ml

Vya pours even darker than Routin. Evan Hansen makes the inevitable visual comparison to a urine sample and the not-so-inevitable aroma comparison to honeyed, ripe bananas with a plastic finish. There are shouts of root beer syrup, sun-dried tomatoes, sage and molasses. Dave Kwiatkowski admits that he always thought dry vermouth would taste like this if you gulped it straight from a wine glass. It gets mixed final opinions and later, when the brand is revealed we all agree that we likely wouldn’t pay the higher price for this brand.

Dolin Dry Vermouth de Chambery, France, $18/750ml (mail order)

The most disappointing of the grouping, Dolin gets called out for boozy and perfume-like aromas. It’s clear that at this point in the tasting it is the least favorite. It has more herbs and twigs on the nose, a cleaner finish and less depth than the previous brands.

Jarred Gild feels that it has an aura of cleaning product about it and then waxes poetical on the interconnectedness of Gourmet Underground Detroit that somehow leads to a discussion about crushed velvet suits. Putnam Weekley guesses that it’s Noilly Prat.

Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth, Italy, ~$7/750ml

Congruent with a sweet vermouth tasting held years ago at the old Cloverleaf in Southfield, this “benchmark” brand is universally disliked. It is called astringent with aromas of ammonia and turpentine and artificial peach. James Cadariu conjures sawdust, asparagus pee and frozen green peas. Everyone is forced to rinse their glass out with water after this sample.

Stock Extra Dry Vermouth, Italy, ~$7/750ml

Mixed reviews for Stock. Though there is a simple balance between citrus and herbs it is quite shallow. Some just plainly do not like it. Putnam Weekley calls it clear, fresh and corporate and then, naturally, guesses that it’s Noilly Prat. At this point in the tasting it is apparent that most people aren’t spitting.

Cinzano Dry Vermouth, Italy, ~$8/750ml

Cinzano is floral, medicinal, furry, not as tart as the majority that we have tasted so far. There’s ginger ale on the nose and a slight hint of wet dog behind it. No one loves it but we all find a pleasant aroma of rosemary.

Dave Kwiatkowski thinks it smells like fish and then ponders the validity of vermouth tasting and possible palate fatigue. “Would we like this more if it were served first?” he asks. Ah, the mysteries of the universe. Anyway, what good is a blog if we can’t pretend to be experts?

Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth, France, ~$9/750ml

You can tell that the quality of vermouth has improved by the amount of chatter that ensues upon our final sample. There is more intensity here, more minerality. Though it smells slighty hot there is also cinnamon and citrus pith. And this brand frankly just drinks easier than the previous five. Putnam Weekley does not guess that it’s Noilly Prat.

For a final measure we mixed four of the vermouth brands into a classic martini with Beefeater gin at a ratio of two parts gin to one part vermouth. There was no negligible difference in quality when these vermouths were mixed with the harder booze. Not surprisingly, shitty vermouth is still shitty vermouth even with some gin added. This leads us to presume that the folks who claim that Martini & Rossi is THE vermouth to make a classic martini are, at the very least, lacking both taste and imagination.

Boissiere, Routin and Noilly Prat were found to be the favorites of most of the tasters, though it is expressed that any one may fair better or worse when mixed into more complicated drinks. The only real surprise came at the expense of Dolin. I can only assume that it is because of its relative rarity, somewhat higher price, and the fact that it is part of the well-regarded Haus Alpenz catalog, that it shows up on the list of many cocktail cognoscenti.

Our recommendation for locally available dry vermouth is Noilly Prat and Boissiere. They are quite different so try them both and find the one that works best for your purposes. As always, keep an open mind about these and any other drinks. As new brands come into the market and old brands are reformulated, you never know what might surprise you.