The word “vermouth” comes from the term “wormwood”, wormwood is a botanical which lies at the very foundation of vermouth.

The scientific name for wormwood is Artemisia vulgaris but wormwood is also known as Absinthium, Green ginger, Madderwort and a favourite: Mugwort. It is a bitter herb which has been accredited with many health benefits. It is said to help with digestion, to fight bacteria and fungus and to help ease pain caused by inflammation. However as we have mentioned before, even though spirits have a long history of being used medically, if you are after wormwood for its medicinal properties, you will be better off steeping it to a nice cup of tea.

Wormwood can contain an element that has been the subject of many discussions: Thujone. Thujone is a compound that can be found in wormwood which can cause hallucinations. In the past, many people who consumed drinks with wormwood have reported hallucinations or erratic behaviour. Due to this, all wormwood based drinks such as vermouth and absinth were banned in some countries. In the Netherlands vermouth was never banned, but absinth (which is also made with wormwood) was banned in 1909. However this ban was lifted in 2004. Don’t be afraid to go tripping though, because commercially packaged vermouth will never have a high enough concentration of thujone to show you any dancing pink elephants. 

Vermouth is a fortified wine. To be called vermouth in Europe, the spirit has to contain a botanical from the artemisa family such as wormwood. From the wine used in the spirit, 75% has to be up to European Wine Legislation and the ABV of the finished product must be between 14.5% and 22% ABV.

A common misconception is that white vermouth is made from white grapes, and red vermouth from red grapes. In reality nearly all vermouth use white grapes. The colour on red or rose vermouth comes from added red wine, caramel colouring or botanicals. 

So, you take the wine, add sugar or “mistelle”. Mistelle is sweet grape juice that is not completely fermented yet, the process is stopped by adding alcohol to it. In addition you also add your botanical blend (including an artemisa) and use alcohol to crank up the ABV. This could be a neutral grape spirit but the use of alcohol made from other base ingredients such as sugar beets is also allowed. So other common botanicals used in addition to the artemisia are different citrus fruits, clove, juniper, chamomile and vanilla.

You can divide vermouth in different categories. The main categories are by flavour/colour so Sweet vermouth also called red or rosso. Dry vermouth, and Blanc or Bianco. Each with its own flavour profile. Rosso is generally rich, sweet, herbaceous and spiced, Dry is also generally herbaceous  but more floral, dry and generally Blanc also has floral qualities, but it is also sweet, citrusy and tart. 

Another way of distinguishing vermouth is per country. 

In Italian vermouth you can distinguish vermouth rosso, vermouth di torino, vermouth all vaniglia, vermouth con bitter, vermouth chinato, and vermouth bianco. 

The French divide their vermouth between Marseilles and Chambery and in Spain they speak of Vermut de Reus or Vermut de Jerez. Because there is a lot more to say about these interesting types of vermouth, we would like to dive further into style and history per country in later videos.

In recent years, vermouth has been predicted to be “the next big thing” multiple times, however popularity does not seem to have skyrocketed yet. What might have been more noticeable is that the negroni has been trending; more and more bars carry it on their menu, including bars that only do pre-mix or draft cocktails because the cocktail stores well and lends itself for prepping.This way a bigger audience can be reached with the cocktail, and hopefully get more acquainted with the ingredients in it, including vermouth.