Brief history of vermouth

The earliest archaeological evidence of an infused fermented beverage was found in north-central China, dating from the Neolithic period (6200-5600 BC). Similar finds in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Egypt and Israel date from the following centuries, but there's no creation date for a wormwood-infused wine, although the Greek physician Hippocrates, "Father of Medicine" (460 BC – 370 BC) is often cited. He macerated wormwood and dittany flowers in strong, sweet Greek wine, creating a digestive known as 'Hippocratic wine' or vinum absinthianum, which he prescribed for rheumatism, anaemia and period pains.

Traditional healing wisdom believed that a good diet must encompass a wide spectrum of flavours. Herbalists would, therefore, macerate herbs and spices in wine for medicinal purposes to create a tonic-it's said that the ancient Greeks believed so strongly in the curative powers of absinthe wine that they believed it an antidote against hemlock and mushroom poisons.

Skipping forward to Roman times, aromatic wine recipes became increasingly elaborate as more exotic spices became available to the herbalists. They blended wine with fragrant Mediterranean herbs such as wormwood, dittany and honey to create aromatised wines that were highly prized for their health-giving properties. Absinthium vinum (wormwood wine) was an integral part of Roman social occasions, particularly feasts as the Romans ate lying down, and the wine aided digestion.

By the late middle ages, two main centres of wormwood wine production had been established: one in Piedmont - near the alpine hills, which meant that distillers could source lots of botanicals on their doorstep. The other centre was nearer the southeast French border. The Ancient Kingdom of Savoy encompassed both these areas, covering modern-day Italy and much of France with Chambéry as its capital. Consequently, vermouth did not originate in France or Italy but in Savoy. (Interestingly, London's Savoy Hotel sits on land once occupied by a palace owned by the King of Savoy.)

At the time, Savoy had an abundance of grapes, but it made very mediocre wine which needed pepping up. The other reason that the region naturally leaned toward aromatised wine production was its proximity to major trade routes like Venice, which received shipments from East Africa, India, and Indonesia. Venetian spice merchants traded newly available herbs and spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, myrrh, cloves, rhubarb, ginger and sandalwood, which inspired new flavours in vermouth production.

A merchant from Piedmont called Jeronimo Ruscelli (aka Alessio di Piemonte) is known to have been selling wormwood wine in northwest Italy and earned his place in vermouth history due to his 1555 book I Secreti del reverend donno Allesio Piemontese on popular medicine was published.)

In 1562, Emmanuel Philibert, the Duke of Savoy, moved the capital of his Kingdom from Chambéry to Turin in the Piemonte region due to the territory being less vulnerable to French invasion. Subsequent Dukes of Savoy and their courtiers adopted the Piemonte tradition of aromatic wine. The fashion for the wine spread to the Royal Court of Bavaria where "Wermut Wein" was popular, again a reference to the use of wormwood to flavour and give health-giving properties to the wine. The fashion for wormwood wine led to apothecary shops in Turin selling wormwood formulations as a concentrate for people to mix with wine at home.

1786: Antonio Benedetto Carpano created the first commercial vermouth

In 1786, the first commercial brand of vermouth was created in one such apothecary shop under the porticos in Piazza della Fiera (now Piazza Castello) by Antonio Benedetto Carpano. He used good quality wine made from Moscato grapes rather than the poor wine used by others, and enhanced this with ingredients mixed by local monks and alcohol to fortify and preserve the final recipe. He was not, as is often mistakenly claimed, the first person to invent vermouth, merely the first to commercialise it. He named his recipe 'Wermut' after the German word for wormwood, a tribute to the Dutchy of Savoy's links to Germany.

Carpano's new wormwood rapidly became popular amongst courtiers and high society, leading the Duke of Savoy, Amedeo III, to suspend the production of the court's liquor rosolio (rose and spice liquor) and order Carpano's Wermut instead. Due to French being the main language spoken in Savoy, use of the German 'wermut' was gradually dropped and the French word for wormwood, 'vermout' used instead.

1813: Joseph Noilly created the first commercial dry vermouth

Joseph Noilly, a herbalist in Lyon, was shipping wine in barrels and found the salty atmosphere beneficially contributed to its flavour. So in 1813, he moved to the port of Marseille and set out to replicate this, flavouring white wines of Languedoc with botanicals such as wormwood, camomile and bitter orange, creating the dry aromatic vermouth we know today as Noilly Prat.

1821: Joseph Chavasse created Vermouth de Chambéry

Joseph Chavasse was a French confectioner from Grenoble who had been inspired by the Chartreuse monks to start experimenting with distilling alpine herbs to make absinthe in his new home of Chambéry. He took advantage of the new coach service to Turin where he discovered "vermout". He returned home and, in 1821, created his own vermouth. Joseph Chavasse died in 1840, and his daughter Marie married a Chambéry local, Louis-Ferdinand Dolin, who bought the distillery in 1852, giving his name to its flagship product, Vermouth Dolin.

1850s-60s: Vermouth arrives in America

The first vermouths shipped to the USA were Vermouth di Torino, and American bartenders quickly recognised and embraced vermouth's cocktail potential.

1869: Vermouth cocktail

Fittingly, the first cocktail with vermouth to appear in a recipe book was a "Vermuth Cocktail" in J. Haney's 1869 Steward and Barkeeper's Manual. However, it is not so much a cocktail as simply vermouth served with ice and a lemon zest twist. By Harry Johnson's 1882 New & Improved Bartender's Manual, the spelling and recipe for the "Vermouth Cocktail" are in line with those of today.

Mid-late 1800s: Vermouth production ramps up

Other families followed Carpano and Noilly's example and started to commercialise vermouth. Most notably in Italy: Martini & Rossi (circa 1863), Cinzano (circa 1816), Cora (1835), Cocchi (1891), Gancia 1850, Toso (1890) and Riccadonna (1921). And in France: Dolin (1821 - see above).

Meanwhile, Turin, the capital of Savoy remained the centre of vermouth production. In 1840, Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia and then ruler of Savoy, issued a royal decree protecting the wine and forbidding the sale of the wine outside of the Piemonte region.

The Kingdom of Italy was a state founded in 1861 when Charles Albert's successor, Victor Emmanuel, was proclaimed King of the Kingdom of Italy. Consequently, from this point onwards, there are French and Italian vermouths. French vermouth production centred around Marseille, typically dry, while the Italian vermouth from Turin was sweet, following the style created by Carpano. Hence, recipes in vintage cocktail books call for 'French vermouth' and 'Italian vermouth' rather than 'dry vermouth' and 'sweet vermouth'. Although it's worth noting that in the first bartenders' recipe manual, Jerry Thomas' 1862 How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivant's Companion, none of the cocktails contain vermouth. Indeed, vermouth is not mentioned in the book.

1880s: Manhattan, Martinez, Turf Club and Martini cocktails

Considered the first "modern cocktail" and arguably the most important vermouth cocktail, the Manhattan emerged during the 1860s-70s and then exploded in popularity in the 1880s with its first print appearance in The Olean Democrat newspaper on 5th September 1882 with the full recipe appeared two years later in O.H. Byron's 1884 The Modern Bartenders' Guide and then in the same year, also in George Winter's 1884 How To Mix Drinks–Bar-Keeper's Handbook and J.W. Gibson's Scientific Bar-Keeping, and Charlie Paul's 1884 American and Other-Drinks.

The Manhattan led to other cocktails, most notably the Martinez and Turf Club and these had a major influence on the rising US demand for vermouth.

Late 19th century: For pleasure rather than curative

By the late 19th century, the medicinal image of vermouth hampered rather than helped as far as the marketing was concerned. Luckily, vermouth was quickly adopted by cocktail bartenders, and rode on a wave of popularity as a mixing ingredient.

Late 1880s-early 1990s: the Martini & dry vermouth emerge

The whiskey-based Manhattan gave birth to the genever/old tom gin-based Martinez, and, in turn, this led to the first known recipe for a "Martini" which appeared in Harry Johnson's 1888 Bartender's Manual with a Martinez-like recipe: old tom gin, (Italian) vermouth, orange curaçao, gomme, Boker's bitters and a lemon twist.

Some say the Martini is simply a renamed Marguerite, after the brand of vermouth used to make it. The earliest known Marguerite Cocktail recipe appears in Harry Johnson's 1900 Bartenders' Manual; while this calls for "2 or 3 dashes of anisette", it crucially comprises equal parts a dry gin and dry vermouth ("Plymouth gin" and "French vermouth") along with dashes of orange bitters.

Was Harry Johnson influenced by Martini & Rossi's launch of their Extra Dry Vermouth, also in 1890? Dry gin was starting its assault on sweeter genever and old tom gins, and French dry vermouths were quickly gaining popularity. The fashion for dry had started, and now there was an Italian dry vermouth to compete with its French counterparts.

The Marguerite also turns drier, and by the 1904 Stuart's Fancy Drinks, it becomes 2/3 Plymouth gin [a dry gin] to 1/3 French vermouth [dry vermouth].

The Martini turns progressively drier. Remember, the Martini, like the Martinez and or the Marguerite it morphed from, was initially sweet, hence the need to distinguish its descendant as a 'Dry' Martini.

The "Dry Martini" most likely appeared with the emergence of the London Dry gin style and was helped by Martini & Rossi running newspaper advertisements in the U.S. towards the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century for their recently launched Dry Martini vermouth with the strapline "It's not a Martini unless you use Martini".

The first known written recipe for a drink, entitled a "Dry Martini Cocktail", appears in a 1904 French book American-Bar Recettes des Boissons Anglaises et Américaine. Written by Frank P Newman, a bartender at the Ritz in Paris, the recipe broadly translates as "In a mixing glass, add a few pieces of ice and 3 drops of angostura or orange bitters. Finish with equal quantities of gin and dry vermouth, stir, strain into the glass No. 5 [illustrated as a 70cl stemmed glass]. Serve with a lemon twist, a cherry or an olive, according to the consumer's preference."

Early 1900s: Wine glut

Following the Phylloxera crisis of the late 19th century, many vineyards were replanted with grafted resistant American rootstock. As these vineyards matured, they produced an abundant supply of grapes, leading to a surplus of wine and a drop in prices. While this dramatically impacted the wine industry, it greatly benefitted vermouth producers.

1907: Il Vermouth Di Torino book published

Arnaldo Strucchi publishes the first edition of his vermouth producers handbook, Il Vermouth Di Torino (second edition published in 1909). This covers every aspect of vermouth production with recipes and remains a valuable reference work.

1910: Martini Bianco launched

Perhaps inspired by Dolin's Blanc Vermouth (created in 1881), Martini & Rossi created its Bianco Vermouth in 1910, distinctive for its slightly sweet, aromatic profile with vanilla notes. Following the success of Martini Bianco, other producers created their oven versions of this new vermouth style.

1898-1932: Vermouth benefits from absinthe bans

During the late 19th century, governments became concerned by the consequences heavy absinthe consumption was having on society, leading to absinthe being banned in the Republic of Congo (1898), Belgium (1905), Switzerland (1910), the Netherlands (1910), the USA (1912), France (1914/15), and Italy (1932). Although absinthe is distilled with Artemisia absinthium (absinthe wormwood) and vermouth is infused with the same herb, infused products such as vermouth were unaffected by these bans.

The onset of World War I in July 1914 impacted vermouth production and exports, but when the war ended on 11 November 1918, vermouth benefitted from absinthe's disappearance.

1919: Negroni cocktail

Along with the Manhattan and the Martini, the Negroni is the other hugely popular classic cocktail that helps drive vermouth sales, and like its cocktail contemporaries, the history of the Negroni is much debated.

The Negroni is thought to have originated when gin was added to Milano-Torino cocktail, which takes its name from the geographical origins of its two main ingredients: equal parts Campari (from Milan) and rosso/sweet vermouth (from Turin). With soda, the Milano-Torino becomes an Americano.

The story mostly recounted is that in 1919, Italian-born Count Camillo Negroni (1868-1933), a regular at the Casoni Bar in Florence, Italy, one day asked for a bit more kick in his Americano. The bartender, Fosco Scarselli (1898-1963), responded by switching the soda water for gin, and the combination became the Count's usual order. Other patrons of the bar soon started to ask for "one of Count Negroni's drinks", and after a while, the drink simply became known as a Negroni.

1920-1933: Prohibition

The Prohibition of alcohol in America started on 16th January 1920 and lasted until 5th December 1933. While some European spirit producers saw some sales thanks to bootleggers and rum-runners, speakeasy-goers sought hard liquor, so vermouth suffered.

1930s: US vermouth boom

The fashion for Dry Martins in America started immediately after Prohibition ended and this helped vermouth to become the largest selling "wine" in the country. Perhaps, anticipating this and the end of Prohibition, brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo founded their winery in Modesto, California, on 22nd September 1933. However, they and other domestic vermouth producers, struggling to start after 13 years of non-production, were also hit by quadruple the tax applied to imported vermouths. Thanks to lobbying by American producers, the triple tax was ended in 1936 and in 1920 the tax on domestic and imported vermouths were equalised.

In 1938, the Vermouth Industries of America was founded, and its Tribuno brand of vermouth would go on to dominate the American market.

1939-1945: World War II

War in Europe once again impacted production and sales of vermouth, and Martini & Rossi started shipping from Spain and Argentina. However, anti-Italian and anti-French sentiment also pushed Americans towards domestically produced vermouths. The quality and quantity of vermouth produced in America increased dramatically, with production centring around California and New York.

1991: EU definition of vermouth

European Economic Community (regulation 1601/91 and subsequent amendments including 251/2014) define vermouth with three main requirements that differentiate it from other aromatised wines.

1999: Andrew Quady launched Vya Vermouth

Notable for being the "first new world vermouth", Andrew Quady, a Napa Valley winemaker, created Vya Vermouth (an acronym of "vermouth you asshole") based on Muscat and Colombard wines.

2010: Ian Hart makes Sacred Vermouth

In 2020, Ian Hart, a keen oenophile and low-pressure craft gin distiller, made his first batch of Sacred English Spiced Vermouth based on English wine from Three Choirs Vineyard and took a bottle to Dukes Bar where the Head Bartender, Alessandro Palazzi was so impressed that from that day on he started to use Sacred Vermouth to make Duke's Dry Martinis.

2017: EU Vermouth di Torino regulation 251/2014

In 2017, thanks to lobbying by the Vermouth di Torino Institute, an alliance of nearly 20 producers, a regulation (Ministerial Decree No. 1826) was passed defining Vermouth di Torino as an aromatised wine made in Piedmont using Italian wine only, with the addition of alcohol, flavoured mainly with Artemisia (wormwood) from Piedmont together with other herbs and spices; it must be bottled between 16% and 22% alc./vol.. A further Vermouth di Torino Superiore category requires a minimum strength of 17% alc./vol. and must be made with at least 50% of the base wines and three of the botanicals (not just wormwood) from Piedmont.