Vermouth at 240: how to buy, store and pour Turin's aperitivo
Turin's favourite aperitivo turns 240 this year. Which bottle to buy, why it belongs in the fridge, and four easy ways to pour it on an autumn evening.
In 1786 Antonio Benedetto Carpano began selling a wine flavoured with herbs and spices in Turin, and the city has been drinking it before dinner ever since. This year vermouth di Torino turns 240. I think that is a fine excuse to find the bottle hiding at the back of your cupboard. If it has been open since last Christmas, we need to talk.
Vermouth is wine first. At least three quarters of what is in the bottle is wine, which is then sweetened, fortified with a little spirit and flavoured with herbs, roots, bark and citrus peel. The one botanical it must have is wormwood, Artemisia, which gives it the name (Wermut in German) and its bitter backbone. Vermouth di Torino has its own protected geographical status, and its wormwood has to come from Piedmont.
In Milan, where I grew up, vermouth was what my nonno drank before Sunday lunch: a short glass, one ice cube, a twist of orange. No fuss, no shaker. That is still the best way to meet a good one, and on a dark October evening it is exactly the right size of drink.
Rosso, bianco, dry: which bottle
- Rosso: the classic Turin style. Sweet, spiced and dark, with vanilla, orange peel, clove and a bitter finish. This is the one for the Negroni, the Americano and the Manhattan.
- Bianco: pale and sweet, more floral, with vanilla and citrus. Lovely long with soda and a slice of lemon.
- Extra dry: pale, drier and sharper. The one for a dry Martini, and very good with salty snacks.
- Ambrato and other amber styles: in between, often more bitter and herbal. Taste one neat if you find it; small producers in Piedmont make some beautiful ones.
Keep it in the fridge
This is the part most people get wrong. Vermouth is wine, so once the bottle is open it starts to oxidise. It will not make you ill, but after a few weeks on a warm shelf it tastes flat, stale and a bit like old raisins. That tired bottle is the reason so many people think they do not like vermouth.
Screw the cap on tight and keep the bottle in the fridge door, where it stays lively for about a month, sometimes a little longer for the sweeter styles. If you drink it slowly, buy half bottles. In my kitchen the open vermouth lives in the fridge door next to the eggs from my hens, and nobody is allowed to move it to the cupboard.
Bella's tip: Cold vermouth needs less ice. Pour it straight from the fridge into a chilled glass over one big cube and it stays bright to the last sip instead of going watery. Leftover rosso that has lost its sparkle still has a job: a splash deglazes the pan after browning pork or chicken livers.
Four ways to pour it this autumn
- Neat: 60 ml rosso over one large ice cube, with a wide strip of orange peel twisted over the glass so the oils land on top. Salted almonds on the side.
- Vermouth and soda: 60 ml bianco or rosso in a tall glass with ice, topped with about 90 ml cold soda water and a slice of lemon or orange. Light, long and just bitter enough for a weeknight.
- Americano: 30 ml Campari and 30 ml rosso over ice in a tall glass, topped with soda and an orange slice. Built in the glass, nothing to shake.
- Negroni: 30 ml each of gin, Campari and rosso, stirred over ice for about 20 seconds, then strained over a fresh large cube with a piece of orange peel. Stir it, never shake it.
Guide: aperitivo negroni spritz
A bottle of vermouth left open on the shelf is just a wine you forgot to finish.
Something to eat with it
In Turin the vermouth hour always came with something to nibble, and it should be salty and simple. Green olives, a wedge of hard cheese, grissini wrapped in a napkin, or crostini topped with whatever the woods gave you this week. A square of focaccia from the morning's bake is never refused either.
Recipe: porcini crostini with whipped ricotta and hot honey
Recipe: focaccia 100 hydration
So this weekend, open the fresh bottle, pour two fingers over ice and put the rest straight in the fridge. Read the back label while you sip: what wine is in it, where the herbs come from, how sweet it is. Then raise your glass to Turin. Two hundred and forty years, and it still tastes like the best part of the evening.
