The Spirits #74: Vermouth & Soda
~ Crêpes Chartreuse ~ Surprise Me! ~ TOP TEN VERMOUTHS ~ Music in the Metaverse ~
~ VERMOUTH & SODA ~
60ml vermouth
10-20ml liqueur/syrup
Squeeze of citrus
~60-120ml soda
Pour the vermouth into a wine glass. Or any glass, really, doesn’t matter. Squeeze in a wedge of citrus and drop it in. Add liqueur or syrup to taste (please note, you’ll need more liqueur than you would syrup). Top with soda, not too much.
Some Vermouth & Soda Notes:
1) This is a much looser recipe than I’ve ever given before. But that’s the idea: experiment with whatever you have in that cabinet of yours. All kinds of vermouth can be good. (As indeed are quinquinas, sherries, ports, etc, so below). All kinds of liqueur can work too. Lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, kumqwat, yuzu, mandarin, all good. And while we’re at it, all kinds of sodas and tonics will work - but if in doubt, go for plain old fizzy water. I find this formula to be fairly foolproof, as long as you use a little discernment.
2) The above? Oh that’s 60ml Martini Extra Dry, 20ml pear liqueur I’ve had knocking around for years, squeeze of lemon and some slightly fancy raspberry and sage soda. It’s delicious.
3) SURPRISE ME. Make your own and tell me about it below. Maybe give it a name.
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THE Vermouth & Soda, as outlined above, isn’t so much a recipe as a formula, a template, a family of easygoing temperament and cosmopolitan tastes. In France it wouldn’t be on the Cocktail menu, but among the Apéritifs, nuzzled alongside your Pineaux de Charentes, Suzes, Bières-Picons, and I’m pretty sure I got those compound plurals right. It’s a handy one to remember as it’s relatively low in alcohol but still rather refined and thus the kind of thing it’s nice to sip into before a midweek supper. Or maybe even at lunchtime(!) It also gives a starring role to vermouth, familiar as a character actor from such classics as the Negroni and the Manhattan - and yet rarely given its place in the limelight.
For years, my go-to V&S was 60ml French vermouth made more interesting by, ooh, 10ml green Chartreuse, a squeeze of lime and a splash of fizzy water or tonic, depending on mood and supplies. I happened upon the combination one Pancake Day when I was attempting to make the magnificent dish, crêpes Chartreuse, which involves crushing up meringues and macarons within a buttery pancake, dousing in green Chartreuse, and setting it all on fire. And then eating it. I haven’t attempted the pancakes again, but I’ve often returned to the drink as a herbier, lighter alternative to the Gin & Tonic.
If you’re fresh out of Chartreuse (it happens a lot in my household), it’s no disaster. Apricot brandy is nice with French vermouth (a sprig of thyme or rosemary makes a good foil). There’s an 1880s French drink called Vermouth-Cassis, a forerunner of the more famous Kir: a double shot of French vermouth, a tot of cassis and just a spritz of soda water. In many households, one finds a sticky bottle of cassis at the back of the booze cupboard - and there are worse things you could do with it.
Or you can go Italian. I like: 60ml Italian vermouth, 10ml Fernet-Branca, a wedge of orange, a spritz of soda, sort of an Argentine cousin to the Americano (the Argentino?). Which is really just a Vermouth & Soda with Campari, if you think about it. Bianco (i.e. sweet white vermouths) can work a treat too. I just made something improbably good with La Copa Blanco, ancho chile liqueur and grapefruit… BUT that’s enough! As I say, your task should you choose to accept it is to leave your own formulae in the comments below - or feel free to @ me on Twitter or Instagram.
TEN GREAT VERMOUTHS!
(And vermouth-like ingredients)
As you know, I don’t like being too prescriptive brands, etc - but I am often asked about vermouth in particular and I thought, well, it might be useful to list a few. Also I couldn’t quite think of a playlist subject this week and this made a nice change of pace. Please note, the below links will take you to the Whisky Exchange; should you buy anything there I will earn a small commission. I’ve set this up as a) I want to be able to keep writing this newsletter! and b) This is where I tend to buy alcohol anyway. Rest assured, I will only ever recommend things I know and like.
REMEMBER: always keep vermouth in the fridge and try to vacuumise it if you can. It does lose its pep over time.
My go-to French vermouth. It’s dry, herby, and classes up any Martini with grace and discretion (you could trust it with your secrets). It’s nice on its own too - and on the aperitif menu at Andrew Edmunds for £3, if memory serves. The Rouge and Blanc are great too but, I don’t know, some pedantic part of me prefers French French vermouths and Italian Italian vermouths.
Literally the original French-style vermouth, invented by Jacob Noilly and Claudius Prat (what a name!) in Marseilles in 1855. It has a distinctive oxidised taste and a honeyish, lemony, muscat finish. Sweeter than Dolin. Handy for cooking as well as drinking (see: Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat, passim)
A rich, sweet, expensive (£32.50!) Italian vermouth but, on balance, worth it? (Especially if you go for the half bottle). Think: vanilla, cherries, tobacco, cold leather seats, the lingering smell of aftershave on bedsheets, in short, the good life. It’s too much for Negronis in my opinion - I would save it for your Manhattans, Vieux Carrés, Bitter Giuseppes, etc, where it will make a significant difference. Or, good with ice, a splash of water and a spritz of orange.
Does this need recommending? Maybe it does! The basic bitch Italian vermouth, available almost everywhere. It tends to be looked down upon by your craft types for this reason and yet it gets the job done. The best vermouth for a Negroni. The Extra Dry stuff is also, contra-the-snobs, decent. But see my Dolin caveat.
El Bandara Red Vermut
Spain has a distinguished vermut culture and I am particularly fond of this red vermouth - and not just because it comes in a fetching retro bottle (one litre!). It’s got a lovely, fruity, easy-drinking quality and covers every conceivable base a red vermouth should.
This recently revived recipe from Gonzalez Byass is a great example of the Bianco style of vermouth (sweet white, orange, vanilla and nutmeg). Its coppery sweetness is off set by a dry fino sherry base. Bianco vermout is seldom found in classic cocktails and yet works a treat in a Dirty Martini and in a Vermouth & Soda and especially with agava spirits, I find. You can also sub it in for Lillet Blanc in Corpse Revivers, etc.
Not a vermouth, technically, but there are strong family resemblances. The luscious Lillet Blanc (formerly Kina Lillet) is more famous but the more recent pink expression is a modern classic in its own right. It’s made from a base of red and white Bordeaux - and it’s summer in a glass.
Adored by bartenders who claim its closer to the original Kina Lillet than Lillet Blanc. It’s peachy and fresh so works with summer fruits - but also has dry grassy notes that make it a great foil for, say, chocolate, coffee, or orchard fruits. A treat.
Again not a vermouth but a quinquina (as is Dubonnet). This is a style of quinine-infused aperitif wine that subs in extremely effectively for red vermouth. Byrrh has a muscat base and contains coffee and cacao among its botanicals as well as the bitter nark that gives it its name. You can pick up a more basic Byrrh in French supermarkets for about €8 which makes the UK price a little hard to bear - but still, an obliging bottle to have around.
Another quinquina, herby and honeyish, but this time from South Africa. It’s referenced in a series of cocktails named after Boer War battles in the Savoy Cocktail Book. Production ceased in the 1940s but it has recently been revived to great effect by the Danish bartender Lars Lyndegaard and the Western Cape winemaker Adi Badenhorst; there’s a fun piece about it here.
CABINET POSTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
🌿Green Chartreuse
🍒 Maraschino
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🌷Cynar
🏝️ Falernum
Coming SOON: Mezcal.
PLAYLIST
As last week’s, albeit lightly edited and updated.
THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. The idea is, you download it and return to it each week in your Spotify. If there was an old song you’d like to hear again, you’ll find it RIGHT HERE in the ongoing archive of past playlists.
WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING
What is namecore? (The Oldie)
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING
Jia Tolentino on the actual implications of the Supreme Court’s imposition of gender apartheid on America (New Yorker)
The hunt for the Earth’s hidden oceans (Quanta)
I really enjoyed this report on the recent Charlie XCX concert in the metaverse - and how the record companies are beginning to conclude that this is where their future lies (Pitchfork)
SHOPPING LIST
Been a while since we did GIN, right? Gin, lemon, French vermouth (optional), sugar syrup, raspberries, egg white/aquafaba.
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I'm drinking a Microlite, for a slight resemblance to the Aviation ... Vermouth, Maraschino and Soda Water, with a cherry garnish.
I loved this post - thanks for the challenge, Richard! I really wanted to use 9 Di Dante Inferno vermouth for this - I opened a bottle yesterday and it’s a delicious vermouth. However, it would have been too sweet to pair with my chosen liqueur, so I went for Noilly Prat instead. The liqueur was Ginja, from Alcobaça. Ginja is a Portuguese sour cherry liqueur, traditionally made in the regions of Alcobaça and Óbidos, apparently created by the Cistercian monks who grew Morello cherries in the area. It’s dark and sweet, with hints of cinnamon (and sour cherry, obviously). The M.S.R. brand, from Alcobaça, is in my opinion the best, by far.
To balance the sweetness, I added a dash of lime juice and topped it off with soda water, ending up with The Monk’s Creation (I was going to call it the Monk’s Habit, but it looks like that name is already taken):
60ml French vermouth
20ml Ginja de Alcobaça
A dash of lime juice
60ml soda water