After going out of fashion in the 1980’s, Vermouth has seen a surge in popularity in recent years. Alone or in cocktails, Vermouth is a must have in your drinks cupboard.
So what is Vermouth? It’s an aromatised fortified wine generally between 16 and 18° alcohol and flavoured with various botanicals and spices.
Wine or unfermented grape must is the base, which is then fortified and has aromatic herbs roots and barks added to give flavour. After being aromatised and fortified it’s then sweetened with the addtion of cane sugar or caramelised sugar.
The name Vermouth comes from the French pronunciation of the German word Vermut (wormwood), that has been a principal ingredient in its production for centuries.
Most big companies used dried herbs, barks and spices to flavour the base wine but some use FRESH.
Yellow Vermouth is made by Jean Michel Durivault here in Vouvray. Inspired by his old friend Gilles Lapalus creator of Maidenii Vermouth in Australia and motivated by Adi Badenhorst, producer of Caperitif in South Africa, he decided to create one of his own.
His idea was to create ‘Loire Vermouths’ using plants and aromatics found here in the Loire, in the countryside, in the vineyard.
There are two – Yellow Vermouth Original using organic Chenin Blanc wine as the base with local plants and herb extracts, and Yellow Vermouth by Vincent Carême which uses Vincent’s Vouvray as the base wine and aromatics found in the vineyard including Rooibos, a nod to the fact that Vincent also makes wine in South Africa where his wife Tania comes from.
They are quite different. The Original is more bitter and herbal. Quite delicious it makes a perfect digestif.
Vincent’s Vermouth is more lemony, fresher, also with that classic bitterness but less so. The perfect aperitif!
And Jean Michel uses the natural sugar in the fermenting wine which remains after he has added neutral alcohol to stop the fermentation. No added cane sugar at the end of the process. And no dried botanicals either. Everything is fresh, local and very small batch.
Just a few hundred bottles of each have been made if you can get your hands on one. We’re lucky enough to have one of each. They cost 25 euros a bottle.
In the photo you’ll also see a bottle of Cointreau. Another iconic drink made in the Loire valley known the world over. I’ll post on that another time.
Tchin!
