Today’s Musings:
Sure, I’m familiar with vermouth…it’s that mixer in the green bottle pushed to the back of the liquor cabinet that plays a supporting role in martinis and manhattans. The alcohol that, along with Galliano, has a shelf life longer than Twinkies. The perpetual cocktail bridesmaid – never the bride.
How very wrong I’ve been.
I discovered vermouth – real vermouth – a few months ago at Amar Santana’s Vaca restaurant. He’s managed to elevate this non-descript mixer into something sublime – it’s house-made, poured from the tap, served on the rocks and garnished with a thick slice of orange zest. And it tastes like…well…on my first sip, I proclaimed it tasted like, “Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled into one.” His version is redolent of warming spices – cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, slightly sweet with hints of vanilla, and tertiary notes of herb (sage? thyme?) and orange.
Thus began my quest to make my own vermouth at home. Vermouth, I’ve discovered, is aromatized, fortified wine; wine that has been infused with herbs and spices (aromatized) and has alcohol (in this case, Sherry) added to it (fortified). The sweet version of vermouth also has caramelized sugar added. My final version below is a world away from Vaca’s recipe ( I can aspire!), but still quite tasty; similar to higher-end bottled vermouth I’ve sampled in recent months – like an Amaro – a bit sweet, a bit bitter, and loaded with spices and herbs.
The first thing you’ll notice is there’s a daunting list of ingredients. But don’t be deterred, the actual hands-on time is about 30 minutes total once you have your supplies. My recommendation is to order your herbs and spices online from a reputable retailer (I bought mine from Monterey Bay Spice Company) and the remaining ingredients can be purchased from a well-stocked grocery store.
Today’s Recipe:
Homemade Vermouth Recipe
The perfect aperitivo – a bit sweet, a bit bitter and loaded with spices and herbs. Play with the proportions to highlight your favorite spice.
Ingredients
- 5 green cardamom pods
- 7 whole cloves
- 2 star anise
- 6 juniper berries
- ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
- ½ teaspoon wormwood
- ½ teaspoon chamomile flowers
- ¼ teaspoon dried sage leaves
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- Entire zest of an orange, peeled using a potato peeler
- 2 strips of zest from a lemon, peeled using a potato peeler
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- ½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
- 1 bottle light white wine such as Pinot Grigio (I use Tesoro della Regina)
- 1cup sugar
- 1 cup sweet Sherry (I use Osborn Cream Sherry)
Directions
- Crush cardamom pods, cloves, star anise, juniper berries, and coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle. Scrape them into a medium stock pot. Add wormwood, chamomile, sage, nutmeg, orange zest, lemon zest, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla bean and seeds. Pour white wine over ingredients, bring to boil, remove from heat, cover with lid and let steep for 24 hours.
- In a small pan, make a caramel by combining sugar with 2 Tablespoons of water. Cook over medium heat, without stirring, until caramel is dark golden. Carefully add sherry to caramel – the caramel will bubble and splash. If the addition of Sherry causes the caramel to harden, return to stove to re-melt the caramel.
- Strain and squeeze the wine mixture well through a coffee filter or two layers of cheese cloth. Add the Sherry mixture and stir to combine. Serve on the rocks with an orange zest.
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Recipe looks great and looking to get the list of ingredients to try it out. I have a question though, with adding the sweet sherry and caramel mixture – doesn’t it make it super sweet? Like really crazy sweet? Also, how come you don’t need brandy or vodka to cut it with – as I’ve seen in other recipes?
The wormwood is very bitter. When I began developing the recipe, I started with 1/4 cup of caramel, but it was too bitter, I continued increasing until I hit the “sweet spot” (pun intended) at a cup. You may want to start with 1/2 cup and see how you feel. The sherry replaces the brandy you’ll see in some recipes (I’ll still want to try it with brandy, but I love my version so much, I keep putting the brandy version off). I like it on the rocks with an orange twist. My sister likes it cut with apple juice because it’s a little strong for her, you could probably cut it with vodka as well, but I personally think it would make it too alcoholic – I like the subtlety of it on the rocks as an aperitivo. I hope this information helps – and I’d love to hear what you think after you’ve made your first batch.
As I was reading this I was thinking that the ingredient list is very similar to mulled wine. Since making it, I can confirm that it tastes very much like mulled wine. This is not comparable to any vermouth I have tasted from France, Italy or Spain. It is not bad, but don’t use this recipe if you want vermouth.
There are other recipes out there I have used in the past to make a very nice vermouth, I would recommend finding one that is dissimilar to this one and using it.
Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to share your thoughts!
If you followed my recipe exactly and it turned out tasting like mulled wine, I must admit I’m a bit baffled—both on the vermouth and mulled wine fronts!
I’ve explored over 40 different sweet vermouths from Spain and America, and my flavor profile definitely leans towards the warmer, spicier side (which might remind you of mulled wine) rather than the herbaceousness found in some sweet red and white vermouths. Yet, it still has the essential bitterness, sweetness, complexity, viscosity, and color of a true vermouth.
You clearly know your vermouths, and as you know, there are as many flavor profiles of vermouth as there are tabernas and vermuterías in Spain. Everyone has their own preferences, and it sounds like my version didn’t quite hit the mark for you.
However, I’ve shared this vermouth with several experts, including a sommelier with vermouth and amaro expertise, and a local vermouth maker (his tends towards anise flavors). Their consensus? My version leans more towards spice than herb, but is still a delicious vermouth. Plus, it closely resembles the house vermouth at the renowned restaurant Vaca, which was my initial goal.
I get it if your expectations were different and you felt a bit misled. As I mentioned in my recipe, feel free to tweak the spices and herbs to suit your own tastes.
Now, if only my vermouth recipe was as simple as my mulled wine one!
Mulled Wine: http://twobittart.com/2020/12/28/new-years-mulled-wine/
¡Salud!