Sweet Vermouths for Every Budget: A Guide to the Best Bottles
What are the best and most deserving sweet vermouths? What are the best bottles of this splendid Italian fortified wine? There are many that deserve your attention, and many of these are not even Italian, because, as you well know, Germany, Spain, and France are also excellent producers who have come out of the shadows.
By now, even Greece, the United States, and Australia have jumped into the arena and have several bottles up their sleeves. But after all, we shouldn’t be surprised; where wine is made, it is natural to take a small step and produce vermouth.
So today we’re going to give you a small list of the best vermouths out there. Both for tasting (almost as good as Mom’s, with soda and lemon peel) and mixing
Because, let’s face it, we madly love the Italian Risorgimento aperitif from a Piedmontese café, but no one can beat a good Negroni made to perfection.
It is undeniable that the rebirth of vermouth comes from the need not only to produce great liqueur wines flavored with the rarest and most precious spices and herbs, but also from the desire and need to offer cocktails of great depth.
In this sense, mixology has made great strides, clearing the way for figures, places, ingredients, and flavors that were once confined to exclusive circles but today have become the driving force behind many new and interesting products. Let’s start with this short review, divided into price ranges.
Before leaving, let’s mention and praise Mauro Vegano, the wizard of Italian Chianti wines. To say they are vermouths is an understatement.
To put them in a category would be like putting great artisan wines in a box, so we took them out of the ranking to give them the attention they deserve.
The production is very limited, but if you happen to try his bottles, a whole new world will open up for you. Lulì Chinato and Chinato white wine are two masterpieces of incomparable beauty.
30 euros and above
Vermouth rosso dell’Antica Torino
A wonderful wine with earthy aromas and flavors of cinchona, rhubarb, and spices. It has great structure, excellent freshness, a distinct aromatic depth, and an unusual thickness. It starts off sweet and syrupy, but then opens up to a thousand herbaceous flavors. Variety and imagination united in a bottle of absolute rigor.
It’s a sipping vermouth, not for mixing. Serve with soda, lemon zest, and an orange slice, and you will drink the most incredible aperitif of your life. The price is not exactly popular—30 euros—but we are talking about a small work of art. The review.
PROS: It’s delicious, it’s addictive, and you won’t drink other vermouths.
Cons: stellar price, limited edition, and a density of flavors that could be unsettling.
Tregenda, Villa Papiano
Another fantastic fortified wine to frame and drink to the last drop. The alcoholic base is made with Albana, to which sugar, alcohol, roots, flowers, and spices are added.
The result is a powerful symphony that sounds like alpine flowers, helichrysum, and the vases of an old pharmacy. The taste is amazing, velvety, but well balanced by bitter and earthy tones. Overall, it has depth, pace, and elegance that few rivals can match. The review.
PROS: unique elegance and finesse; it is one of the most impressive.
CONS: Expensive; only 4000 bottles were produced in total.
Vermouth Winestillery
Do you know what makes these three first vermouths different, besides the fact that they don’t cost very much? The fact that the alcoholic base is a high-quality wine is fundamental, given that we are talking about liqueur wines. The cheapest products are industrial; they are good for making ribbon cocktails, but they won’t give you pleasure if drunk neat. You can use all the spices in the world and the botanicals from the Galapagos, but if the wine is not credible, thick, and good, you can only aspire to make a mediocre vermouth.
standard products and limit you to two sizes. That said, the winery is a reality that has accustomed us to great products. Deep and austere, uncompromising and full of intense flavors, quality is everything. And this Tuscan Vermouth does not disappoint either: it has a base of solid Tuscan red wine from Gaiole in Chianti, an earthy, dark, penetrating flavor, and very herbaceous aromas.
It’s not an easy wine to get to know, but it’s a good one for thinking about, and it has a grumpy but wonderful attitude. balsamic, sweet, but combative. Often, the flavors sink into the sweetness that engulfs everything; in this case, however, the sweetness acts as a binder and holds everything together, trying to bind the botanicals that want to escape. Price in line with the other two above: 31 euros. It’s definitely worth it.
PROS: originality and unique personality.
CONS: The flavor is extreme for a “sweet wine,” certainly not mainstream.
Vermouth di Torino Pio Cesare
A battleship, still a sweet wine, but proceed with caution because the earthy and herbaceous arrogance is obvious and dominates both the aromas and the palate. From its 26-foot height, it looks complex, stylish, and stylized. Its roots, herbs, flowers, and spices pass secret ingredients to each other. After the botanicals are mashed, the wine spends 4 months in oak barrels to concentrate its smell. It’s very full, but has a subtle roundness and never loses sight of how good it tastes. It must be tasted over and over again; it is not immediately discovered. for drinkers who know how to take things slow. 36 euros.
PRO: a colossal wine, contemptuous of all fashion and style. He slaps you.
CONS: He’s charismatic, but all this personality may not be liked or understood. If you smell it, it looks more like mountain bitter. Given the cost, it is best to taste it before buying a whole bottle.
Vermouth of Sardinia Vero Pure Sardinia
An even more extreme and unique wine that is aged for ten years in chestnut barrels before being macerated for 30 days with herbs, flowers, spices, and juniper. The result is an oxidized, dreamlike, and highly concentrated product that reminds you of the sea and its waves, gin and Vernaccia di Oristano, the Mediterranean scrub, the wind, wild juniper, and pine resins. Costicchia costs 35 euros, but it should be sipped slowly and in small sips, like a precious nectar.
A concentrate of Sardinia that captures and distills in drops all the flavors of this generous but also barren land, where honey mixes with rock, water, and sun. It’s the most expensive you’ll find on this list, but it’s also the most intriguing: it has a thousand layers of flavors, including spicy hints, chocolate, mint, sage, and cooked must, all balanced by other more penetrating and juicy ones. A masterpiece.
PROS: It is an experience for all lovers of the genre.
CONS: Expensive. disorienting, multifaceted, unconventional taste. Matrix red pill effect: once tried, going back to $8.99 industrial products is impossible.
Between 20 and 30 euros
Vermouth di Torino Rosso Calissano
A great classic and one of the few products with Nebbiolo as a base wine. The Calissano is one of the most traditional and trustworthy old Piedmontese homes. He doesn’t feel much about fashion, so don’t expect flights of fancy, “aromatic innovation,” or whimsical and exotic botanicals. On the contrary, it keeps making full-bodied, austere, and very Chinato wines. In fact, this red could remind you of a Barolo Chinato (though it’s not as intense). Nebbiolo makes the wine more concentrated, gives it more body, and adds tannins, which will help you find the ethereal charm of this fine wine. very dense and velvety at the right point, but with the right bitter-tannic shoulder. Price: 25 euros. To make cocktails, it is a little too expensive, but as an aperitif wine, it is excellent.
PROS: solid, classic, and dependable.
CONS: a bit old-fashioned. If you’re used to the uproar of modernist perfumes and suggestions, this one hits you hard in the mouth.
Vermouth Carpano Antica Formula
This bottle is a direct descendant of the first bottle of vermouth, which was made by the famous Carpano. What we find in the bottle is a static and very spicy, woody wine, full of perfumes, but with an absurd vanilla flavor. It’s not bad, but the change in philosophy is clear. What matters are the fireworks, aromas, perfumes, highly-pumped spices, and herbs that emerge from every corner. It’s good for making cocktails and doesn’t disappoint; the 1-liter bottle costs 25 euros. But when it’s served as an aperitif, the vanilla and cinnamon that have been squeezed out make it taste shady and too strong. Even though the alcohol content is weak, there is a lack of drive with all these suggestions.
PROS: Good for Negroni.
CONS: unrecognizable as a pure wine; heaviness; low reactivity.
Bordiga Vermouth Rosso
A classic and rigid setting for a nostalgic wine that is based on a recipe from a hundred years ago and focuses more on herbs and flowers than on the wine’s aroma. The result is a wine that tastes like mint and herbs, isn’t very dynamic, but has a strong alpine appeal. Bitters and fernet fans will enjoy it.
Excellent with soda, if served well iced, but also to make cocktails and twists. Find balance with gin, genip, and mezcal, and be brave with these three different ways to make a Negroni. It is also suitable for a thick Americano. Price: 23 euros, calibrated. It’s not really for work, but it’s ductile.
PRO: a wild card with clear herbal flavors; excellent as an all-rounder, both alone and with distillates.
CONS: ancient and old-fashioned charm. It’s expensive to work.
Vermouth Lustau
Made with a Pedro Ximenez-based sherry and a super-nutty Amontillado, this bottle is a great classic that won’t disappoint both those looking for a light aperitif and those in need of a substantial blending vermouth. A syrupy and nutty wine that is very full and greedy, sweet but citrusy, full and substantial, very sugary, but well balanced by sharp and green herbs and flavors. In the finish, pepper and walnuts It has character and an acceptable price: 20–21 euros. A bit of a pimp, but a bomb in terms of quality, price, and flexibility.
PROS: ductile, dense, with character.
CONS: none.
Vermouth Di Sardegna Silvio Carta
Sardinia churns out terrifying masterpieces of territoriality. This wine is apparently normal, austere, and alluring, but what makes it unique is that arid and wild touch of Mediterranean scrub. That balsamic primordial call of pine resin, sage, and thyme that seems burnt and mentholated Overall, it’s a great vermouth for an aperitif when served with soda, orange, ice, and a sprig of burnt rosemary. Excellent price, 23–20 euros. Try pairing it with bourbon to make Boulevardier in bursts, but also for the Manhattan, Bobby Burns, and Hanky Panky.
Under 20 euros
Vermouth di Torino Storico Cocchi
A brand with a long history that has always focused on tradition and good, but not very exciting, recipes. In this case, we have an herbaceous and sharp sweet vermouth that is never fat but always ready to snap, even if it is stylized and very spicy. Cola, alpine herbs, and pepper on an aromatic Moscato base A winning formula that hasn’t been wrong for centuries Not very multifaceted, but solid and decisive, bordering on peremptory. Price: at 15–16 euros, it’s a real bargain. The review.
PROS: It’s a classic, a solid product that ranges across the board without making a fuss.
CONS: monolithic, austere, and certainly not accommodating.
Lillet rouge vermouth
Lillet Rouge is a true French specialty. It starts with a base of red wine from the Bordeaux region. Then, alcohol and an infusion of herbs, spices, and roots are added to make it taste better.
The process involves using a lot of different plants and then refining them in wooden barrels. It is a dark ruby red color in the glass, and the light shines off of it in bright ways.
It smells of citrus peel, small red fruits, cherries in alcohol, rhubarb and cinnamon, soft spices, balsamic hints, and mountain herbs.
On the tongue, it is warm and enveloping, with a soft taste and sweet fruit, well balanced by fresh balsamic sensations and a pleasant tannic texture. The end is long and stays with you for a long time.
PROS: easy to use, elegant, clean flavor.
CONS: a bit rigid
Otto’s Athens Vermouth
Otto’s Athens Vermouth is made by putting Greek herbs into wine from Attica. This product was made by the award-winning bartenders Nikos Bakoulis and Vasilis Kyritsis of Clumsies, along with a team of experts who were inspired by the ancient recipe for Ottos Vermouth.
Otto’s Athens Vermouth is a pleasant and simple bottle. It’s an elegant, fresh, easy-to-use product with a strong bitter note that makes it different from other vermouths. It’s not deep, but it’s laced just enough to be a good vermouth for cocktails.
PROS: chaep, good flavor, almost dry.
CONS: monolitic.
Vermouth Rosso Della Regina di Chazalettes
A sweet and creamy wine, very soft and floral, with small berries and flowers on the nose. It is delicate and very sensual. It goes well with bitters, gin, and vodka, but on its own, it is pretty empty and not very solid. It was created for mixing, and the price is also excellent: 14 euros. The review.
PROS: As a mixer, vermouth is perfect, precise, fragrant, and reliable.
CONS: It doesn’t have a great personality; drunk alone, it is discreet but not memorable.
Vermouth Tomaso Agnini all’Aceto Balsamico
After so many classic bottles, here is a small pearl: a vermouth flavored with balsamic vinegar from Modena. It has a dense and tight flavor that is acute, decadent, and syrupy, with overcooked fruit and cooked must tones, but there is a sharp balsamic note in the background that keeps the taste vibrant. Very particular, multifaceted, and futuristic, but never absurd or lacking in grace. It’s a must-try if you’re looking for a unique vermouth that’s great for mixing and as an aperitif.Price: 16 euros: reasonable. The other bottle flavored with walnut is also good.
Vermouth del Professore Rosso all’uso di Torino
Menthol infused with camphor, rhubarb, and cola for an aromatic boost. The nose is elegant and variegated on the palate; it has balance, depth, and a velvety trait. The whole thing moves gracefully. The sweetness is there; it’s there within reach of the tongue, but this wine never lets itself be weighed down; on the contrary, it keeps the pace pressing. born to make great cocktails. Excellent price: 20–18 euros. The review.
