Sweet red vermouth

Vermouth rouge

What it is

Antonio Benedetto Carpano is credited with the first sweet vermouth, made in Turin in 1786 by sweetening and spicing a white wine for a court that found wormwood tonics too austere. The German root of the name — Wermut, wormwood — survives even though the modern bottle leans on cinchona bark, vanilla and burnt-sugar caramel for its bitterness and its colour.

In the kitchen

Add it at the start of a braise and let it reduce with the stock; poured over a finished sauce it tastes raw and medicinal. Once open it oxidises like any wine — refrigerate and finish it within a month.

Goes with

Beef cheek Orange Juniper berry Bay leaf Dark chocolate Shallot

Same species

Absinthe Dry vermouth Génépi Mugwort Tarragon Wormwood

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